Posted on 08/19/2008 7:46:10 AM PDT by Magnatron
Wind farms may have an impact on local weather patterns. As environmental engineers have discovered, wind farm propellers create a lot of turbulence in their wake, mixing air up and down with effects that can be detected for miles...
...a large windmill array could influence the local climate, raising temperatures by about 2 degrees Celsius (about 4 Fahrenheit) for several hours. The rotating blades could also redirect high-speed winds down to the Earth's surface, boosting evaporation of soil moisture...
...At best, wind farms produce electricity at an efficiency rate of 30 percent, compared to a 70 percent efficiency rate from natural gas and coal. Wind energy is also unreliable. Electricity can't be stored: it must be produced on demand, yet wind is inherently unpredictable. Back-up generators are needed to make sure enough electricity is available to meet demand...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2005/1012-wind_farms_impacting_weather.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071215212425.htm
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
A anti windmill advocate warned that wind mills could capture air flow but would slow down the Earth's rotation and affect the day nite cycle which would do serious damage to hoot owls. Hows that for a Hooter Alert!
Probably because it'd grossly dumb.
Yes I did pull out relevant quotes, but I also provided links to both articles for someone to read further.
My point is, if scientists are finding that massive wind farms can alter local climate, what’s to say what will happen further down the line beyond that farm? Have we studied this enough? It’s common scientific sense that you can’t capture energy from a source without removing energy in the process. Even fuel as it’s burned holds less energy capacity following that release. As a dam slows down water, so would wind farms (and I’m speaking on the massive Boone-Pickens scenario) remove wind energy from the atmosphere. It seems almost common sense that the land beyond that farm could be at risk - and how far down stream would that effect take place?
Go invest in Boone-Pickens’ plan if you don’t think this is a big enough issue to look into. Personally, I’d rather stick one oil well in the ground than construct acres and acres of ugly, flapping, inefficient wind derricks and later suffer the ill-effects of our idiocy.
Wind is inefficient, wind is unreliable, wind is..., wind is ...
They always forget: WIND IS FREE
If you need more carbon monoxide in your diet, may be you should take up smoking.
It’s very possible to change local climate. Cities are warmer than rural areas, tall buildings change wind patterns.
It’s just very unlikely that we can affect global temps.
I've been asking the question for at least ten years.
When energy is involved, and it's being added to or deleted from the natural state of things over a large enough area, something has to be affected.
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