Could giant wind farms disrupt weather?

Question

One source of renewable energy often bandied about is wind power. It seems some proponents would have "wind farms" all over the planet harvesting the kinetic energy of air.

Given, however, the principle of conservation of energy, if we begin to harness this energy and convert it to electrical energy on a sufficient scale could we, in fact, disrupt weather patterns by removing so much energy from the atmosphere?

I know I'm being a little facetious, and I suspect that we would have to cover a large part of the earth's land mass with wind turbines before we saw any appreciable impact on the total energy in the environment. I just thought it was something interesting to contemplate.

Dean

eromlignod · Accepted Answer

sufficientI don't know the figures offhand, but you might try looking up how muchtotal energy is in a weather front system and how much energy is usedby humans in the same geographical area, and compare the two figures.You may find that the difference is large enough to render the windfarm's usage negligble.DonKansas City

N:dlzc D:aol T:com (dlzc) · Answer

Dear Dean:...Look at a rain forest.  It has a more drastic effect on "wind energy", because no wind moves down near the ground.  Wind farms don't stop the wind, they only slow it down a little.  I think the net effect will be less than other things we do.I suspect that if one were to monitor the accumulation of debris downwind of a wind farm, I think you'd find that they'd bury themselves in a few thousand years... ;>)David A. Smith

setanta · Answer

A german called Betz figured out that there was a maximum amount of energy that could be harnessed by a turbine - th number is 16/27 as far as i remember - this dosnt take into account mechanical and electrical efficiencies. It certainly makes sense that if it were 100% there would be no wind blowing behind the blades!

Weather disruption would be a localised effect youy can imagine that if one turbine takes 40% of the wind energy it would be less than practical to place one directly behind it.

Could giant wind farms disrupt weather?

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