Wind Farms Could Raise Temperatures

TG Daily ^ | March 14, 2010 | Emma Woollacott

[raptor22]

Opponents of land-based wind farms have a new ally in the form of MIT. Researchers there say that, far from mitigating global warming, land-based wind turbines actually increase the temperature around them.With the US Department of Energy expecting wind power to account for a fifth of the US’s electricity supply by 2030, the team used a climate model to analyze the effects of millions of wind turbines on the climate.

Such a massive deployment could indeed make a difference, they found - though not necessarily a welcome one.

Ron Prinn, TEPCO Professor of Atmospheric Science, and principal research scientist Chien Wang of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences suggest that using wind turbines to meet 10 percent of global energy demand in 2100 could cause temperatures to rise by one degree Celsius in the regions on land where they're installed.

[lowbridge]

bump

[Redbob]

Oh, please...

[Erik Latranyi]

Liberal unintended consequences.

[raptor22]

The answer, my friends, is not blowin’ in the wind.... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2438028/posts

[Bean Counter]

[mlocher]

The study also found that the intermittency of wind power could require significant and costly backup options, such as natural gas-fired power plants.

Intermittent wind?! Who would have thunk?

[ApplegateRanch]

ALL energy eventually degrades to heat...even wind.

[mlocher]

Liberal unintended consequences

Proving once again that it's Bush's fault.

[Balding_Eagle]

We’re just running out the clock on windpower.

We can safely say that that five years no more windmills will be built.

In ten years Big Government will have subsidies to ‘save and restore our blighted skylines’.

[steelyourfaith]

Thanx !

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[rsobin]

If all energy degrades to heat then there would be no net gain in atmospheric temperatures .

[Wpin]

But, but...they are like big fans...and, they are great mole eradicators!

[BillM]

I really don’t understand this stuff. If the atmosphere transfers work to the windmills, the atmosphere will have less enery than it had before. This generally means it will be somewhat COOLER.

[Oceander]

Oh man, this is just too funny! Once again, the liberals' sheer inability to use simple common-sense and to actually think things through is on graphic display for all to see.

As someone else pointed out - all methods for converting energy from one form (wind) to another (electricity) generate waste heat, not just burning petroleum products. I can't wait to see the analyses coming out on how badly solar panels raise the temperature of the air surrounding them. Can anyone imagine how much waste heat several hundreds of acres of solar panels would be dumping into the surrounding air, on a constant basis?

Liberalism truly is a mental illness

[Reeses]

Climate comes from weather which comes from water evaporation. Extracting large amounts of wind energy from the very thin band of atmosphere where all water evaporation takes place will lead to climate change.

[Parmy]

For all of you, I have this information. I am in the orchard industry in Washington State. We have used powered wind-machines, although much smaller than the ones used to generate electrical power, to mix the warmer air in the inversion layer with the colder air at ground level to raise the ground level temperature.

In this way we are able to save the fruit buds on the trees during the frost season which is starting as we speak. So, in my opinion, it is quite possible for these wind powered generators to raise the temperature in their area. Also, they might, with large wind farms, have far-reaching affect on the temperature.

[Minn]

The study also found that the intermittency of wind power could require significant and costly backup options, such as natural gas-fired power plants.

If you talk to people that control and manage electrical distribution grids, they will tell you that wind facilities contribute almost nothing of value, since they must always be backed up with spinning reserve. The cost and resource difference between spinning reserve and full on line generation is smaller than the cost and resource consumption of wind generation.

When you consider that electricity generating wind turbines are, by nature, a maintenance nightmare, none of makes any sense at all. Every wind farm now ostensibly in production is destined to be a bone yard of rusting, abandoned hulks in the not too distant future.

[ApplegateRanch]

If all energy degrades to heat then there would be no net gain in atmospheric temperatures .

DENIER! /s>

The problem is, there is still the same amount of heat coming into the system from the sun, so no net warming.

BUT there 6 billion people, which makes Mother Gaea so crowded that they ae forced to rub against each other, and that releases anthropogens, which also degrade to heat. That's why it is called "antropogenic global warming"! /S>

[Balding_Eagle]

Think of sitting outside in a wind, suddenly the wind stops and the temperature begins to go up as the moving air no longer carries the heat energy away.

A windnill slows the wind slightly, giving the same effect.