Wind Farms Could Change Weather (Live Science)

[Dogmudgeon]

Well ... maybe.

This mainly concerns large wind farms such as those projected for about 20 years from now.

http://www.livescience.com/environment/081126-wind-farms-change-weather.html">Wind Farms Could Change Weather
A new study suggests that massive wind farms could steer storms and alter the weather if extensive fields of turbines were built, according to a news report.

It is not the first study to come to this conclusion.

The new research is an interesting "what if," but the installation of large wind turbines would have to be taken to the extreme to have the global effects portrayed.

The scientists, Daniel Barrie and Daniel Kirk-Davidoff of the University of Maryland, calculated "what might happen if all the land from Texas to central Canada, and from the Great Lakes to the Rocky Mountains, were covered in one massive wind farm," according to Discovery News. The result of such an unlikely installation: a real serious Butterfly Effect.

...

Also: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/11/25/wind-farms-weather.html">'Mega Wind Farms Could Steer Storms' at Discovery dot com

--p!
Edited to look nicer.

[opihimoimoi]

1. We would learn of the effects, good or bad, soon enough....10% Level...maybe 30%

"If we can control...we can Predict"....David Suzuki

[DJ13]

2. So the always rain drenched Pacific NW needs wind farms?

[AlecBGreen]

3. O M F G...

A new study suggests that massive wind farms could steer storms and alter the weather if extensive fields of turbines were built, according to a news report.

This is what passes for news these days? I have a moderate understanding of meteorology and I can tell you that wind farms will play NO ROLE whatsoever in changing weather patterns. Fronts are driven by air pressure and curve due to the Coriolis effect. The little, teeny tiny wind turbines on the surface would affect them about as much as a blade of grass would slow down a lawnmower.

Is it possible that wind turbines might have a measureable influence on weather? Sure. Will they? NO.

For clarification, Im not bashing you pigwidgeon, only commenting on the apparent sad waste of space that is discovery.com

[napoleon_in_rags]

4. And who cares anyway? What's the big picture?

Possible long term decrease in thermal energy because kinetic wind energy is being converted to electricity? I'm stretching my mind here and I'm not seeing how this is bad...

[Jackpine Radical]

5. I suppose that the evental effect would be the slowing of the earth's rotation.

[jpak]

6. Coal, oil and natural gas-fired power plants are already changing the weather.

"what might happen if all the land from Texas to central Canada, and from the Great Lakes to the Rocky Mountains, were covered in one massive wind farm,"

:rofl:

[TheWraith]

7. Theoretically, yes. In practice, do we care?

Enough turbines could alter weather patterns, slowing storms or gradually reducing the power of seasonal airflows. This might have bad side-effects. However, the more important question is, is it relevant to us right now?

It's like the people who claim that we're about to run out of uranium. Do we want to worry about something that's not going to be an issue for a hundred years or more, or do we deal with the problem that's knocking on our door and asking to come in for a bagel?

[joshcryer]

8. Read my sig. Real world implementation so insignificant as to have essentially no effect.

It's a joke really. Their "simulation" is a windfarm that would easily power the world 1000 times over.

[wtmusic]

10. No, not really

One "wedge" of wind power, or one-seventh the amount of carbon mitigation required to stabilize atmospheric carbon levels by 2055, would cover an area the size of Germany, or five Nebraska-sized states.

We need seven Germanys covered with windmills to stabilize carbon using wind alone.

[kristopher]

11. Yes, really.

That may be the area required but you are talking about a turbines distributed globally, not clustered in one large mass. Also, I seriously doubt your figure accurately reflects the rapidly increasing per unit productivity of wind turbines.

[CLE Aviation]

9. And the alternative?

Do the people that wrote this article propose we keep burning coal? I live next to a coal power plant and for the last ten years my city has been wondering why we get all these weird cancers (Avon Lake, Ohio).