The claim
Wind death due to wind power: The westerly wind weather system, which has supplied northwestern Europe and central Europe with sufficient rainfall since time immemorial, has been artificially switched off.
Our conclusion
There is no connection between wind turbines and the measured reduction in wind speeds. The energy extracted only has local effects in large wind farms and no longer plays a role there after just a few kilometers. Climate change is considered to be the main cause of wind mortality in the mid-latitudes.
The wildest stories are always floating around the internet: wind turbines don't generate electricity, they're fans . Or they are even responsible for storms . Wind turbines redirect global high-altitude winds called jet streams . Wind turbines are the cause of heavy rain . Of course, this is all nonsense, as we at Mimikama have already shown in detail.
We recently received several inquiries about wind turbine hoaxes , which are currently being shared on social media. At first glance, the authors quoted sound like serious scientists. However, if you look for scientific publications, it quickly becomes clear: these people have never worked in the field or published peer-reviewed Very often, the statements of people who are actually doing research in the subject are twisted until they fit their own lies. The claims: Wind turbines cause “wind death”. Too little wind leads to little rain . And that also contributes to droughts and climate change.
According to “Gegenwind Deutschland”, which is against an imagined “wind madness”, the situation is clear: “5,000 wind turbines in the North Sea represent a 'block' and, together with the 30,000 German wind turbines alone, weaken the jet stream. This no longer moves from west to east as it used to, yes, as it has since time immemorial!” The result is less precipitation from the North Sea and the Atlantic and thus increasingly drier summers. But science says clearly: That's not true!
No, wind farms are not to blame
Of course, the purpose of wind turbines is to extract energy from the wind in order to convert it into electrical energy. The key question, however, is whether this will only lead to a short-term, local reduction in wind speeds or will it lead to a longer, regional reduction? The research team around Dr. Martin Dörenkämper at the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems is investigating this research question, among other things, in her X-Wakes project .
The decrease in wind speed can definitely be measured, especially in offshore wind farms, where many systems are located in a small area. However, this direct influence of the wind turbines disappears after just a few kilometers. The missing energy is quickly compensated for from above and from the sides. A 2019 study clearly shows that the wake effects - reduction in wind speed and increased turbulence - actually only affect the immediate surroundings of the wind farms.
However, one detail is correct: wind speeds have decreased in the mid-latitude . This phenomenon is known in English as “stilling” or “terrestrial stilling”.
Stilling is a consequence of climate change
Initially, little attention was paid to the reduction in wind speeds and its causes. This should only change in the context of research into global warming. The European Union therefore launched the STILLING , which was intended to specifically collect data and find out connections with other climatological processes. Impacts on wind turbines, agriculture and forestry, environmental impacts, air quality and human health also played a role in the 2-year project.
, a scientific article in the journal Nature Climate Change gives reason for the all-clear: Since 2010, the trend has reversed and global wind speeds are increasing again. Between 2010 and 2017, potentially usable wind energy in the USA increased by 17 percent. The authors even assume that in the future changes in wind speeds can be predicted so precisely that wind turbines can be optimized to the expected speeds over their entire service life.
Another research article from July 2022 confirms the recovery in wind speeds over the last decade. However, the authors assume that this trend will reverse if the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continues to increase.
Conclusion
There is no connection between wind turbines and the measured reduction in wind speeds. The energy extracted only has local effects in large wind farms and no longer plays a role there after just a few kilometers. Climate change is considered to be the main cause of wind mortality in the mid-latitudes.
If we do not significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions, we will face extremely hot and windless summers in Central Europe. Less electricity from wind power will be the least of our worries. By the way, wind turbines are already an important part in the fight against climate change: just like the other methods of generating electricity from renewable energies, they do not release any CO2 during operation!
Sources:
https://www.iwes.fraunhofer.de/de/forschungsprojekte/aktuelle-projekte/x-wakes-.html
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10546-019-00473-0
https ://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/703733/de
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0622-6
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full /10.1029/2021EF002448
https://www.topagrar.com/energie/news/winddenken-durch-windkraft-
Fehlinterpretation-von-aktueller-studie-12502607.html This might also be of interest: Buried rotor blades of wind turbines: problem in the USA, not in Europe!
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Notes:
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