Impacts of wind farms on land surface temperature

Abstract

There is increasing interest in the possible impacts of wind farms on regional weather and climate. Focusing on three large wind farms located in Texas, USA, this study finds evidence for a significant warming trend at night-time and also a small warming effect at daytime over wind farms. The wind industry in the United States has experienced a remarkably rapid expansion of capacity in recent years and this fast growth is expected to continue in the future1,2,3. While converting wind’s kinetic energy into electricity, wind turbines modify surface–atmosphere exchanges and the transfer of energy, momentum, mass and moisture within the atmosphere4,5,6. These changes, if spatially large enough, may have noticeable impacts on local to regional weather and climate. Here we present observational evidence for such impacts based on analyses of satellite data for the period of 2003–2011 over a region in west-central Texas, where four of the world’s largest wind farms are located7. Our results show a significant warming trend of up to 0.72 °C per decade, particularly at night-time, over wind farms relative to nearby non-wind-farm regions. We attribute this warming primarily to wind farms as its spatial pattern and magnitude couples very well with the geographic distribution of wind turbines.

Cite this article

Zhou, L., Tian, Y., Baidya Roy, S. et al. Impacts of wind farms on land surface temperature. Nature Clim Change 2, 539–543 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1505

View full text

>> Full Text:   Impacts of wind farms on land surface temperature