Renewables are the future, there is no debate about it. The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service has confirmed 2023 as the hottest year ever. Moreover, participants at the COP28 Summit in Dubai last year acknowledged the need to transition away from fossil fuels.
The landmark 2015 Paris Agreement continues to stress the importance of limiting global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Therefore, wind energy facilities have grown in popularity as one method to reduce fossil fuel use.
But does extracting the renewable energy cause the planet to heat up? Does extracting something, that has always kept Earth cool, actually increase the planet’s temperature and reduce soil moisture by reducing the mixing of air at and above the Earth’s surface?
Impact of turbines is immediate and highly localised
Harvard’s Lee Miller and David Keith published their 2018 study in Joule that created a high-resolution climate model of the continental US, filled with sufficient wind turbines in the middle of the country to provide 100% of current US demand, noted expert Ron Miller on LinkedIn.
Their findings showed that the continental US got about 0.2 degrees Celsius warmer, on average, with the wind turbines in place, while within the wind-turbine-hosting region, the temperature increase was more like 0.5 degrees Celsius.
But the elaborate study also demonstrated that the impact of turbines is immediate and highly localised. The benefits of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, on the other hand, are global – but the temperature impact remains local.
Results came different on calm and windy nights
The researchers calculated the global heating avoided if every country eliminated its power-plant emissions by 2080 and found the avoided warming in the US in 2100 would actually be roughly equivalent to the additional local warmth brought by the wind turbines.
The study highlights that the turbines measuring between 100 and 150 metres operating at night can pull down warmer air from as far as 500 metres in the air down to the surface, warming the surface of the Earth and impacting people living nearby.
The maximum surface cooling can take place on a calm night. But on a windy night, some warmer air is mixed downward to the surface, preventing temperatures from dropping as quickly as they would on a calmer night.
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