Wind farms can cause climate change, according to new research, that shows for the first time the new technology is already pushing up temperatures.
Large windfarms can increase local night time temperatures by fanning warmer air onto the ground, new research has revealed. The study used satellite data to show that the building of huge wind farms in west Texas over the last decade has warmed the nights by up to 0.72C.
The basic effect is that given that the ground at night is generally cooler than the atmosphere, thus the air near the ground is cooler than the air higher up. Turning blades of the turbines mix up this air, cool with warmer, and thus lower the temperature of the higher up air.
The effect is quite large too, that 0.72 of a degree is not far off the 0.8 of a degree which is said to be the total amount of anthropogenic global warming so far.