Oh, great! This just in — large wind farms are now being blamed for temperature increases in their local areas. Because of the air turbulence and mixing they cause, they apparently prevent the ground area from cooling down as it would normally do. Not much of a problem right this minute, but expectations are that wind power generation will double over the next four years.
In Texas, apparently home to some pretty large wind farms (including four of the world’s largest), the fear is that it is a contributor (however small), to the severe multi-year drought conditions, with the potential of having a direct negative effect on agriculture. With the addition of more wind farms, this problem would only get worse, of course.
The solution? “Locating new wind farms in areas with considerable air turbulence so the windmills wouldn’t do anything to thermal layers that Mother Nature isn’t already doing herself.”
Add this to the killing of birds (why aren’t the environmentalists up in arms over this?), and one wonders if our efforts on alternative energies might be better spent elsewhere.
Your thoughts?
politicsandreason 