Climate Change is Fighting Back Against Wind Energy

Climate Change is predicted to have a massive impact on the world, from more fierce hurricanes to decreased snowfall. Additionally, the effects of climate change are predicted to complicate our ability to use windpower.  According to a recent study in the journal Nature Geoscience, could significantly weaken winds that blow across much of the world. Kristopher Karnauskas, a climate scientist at Colorado University Boulder and primary investigator, "Our results don’t show the wind power goes to zero. It’s a reduction of 10 percent over [most] regions."

Image Credit: SIA Group

To calculate their statistics, Karnauskas and his team used several different climate scenarios from the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). They then combined them with a used formula in the industry to determine how much energy a turbine can produce. The study used 10 different IPCC models, each of which predicts with an large amount of CO₂ going into the atmosphere. This data predicted that weather patterns would cause an eight to 10 percent decrease in the wind by 2050 and a 14 to 18 percent drop by 2100.

These changes may seem small to most people, but a minor drop in available wind can lead to massive amounts of energy lost. Geoff Spending, a professor of aerospace and mechanical energy at the University of Southern California believes that the overall energy generated from wind facilities would "drop significantly." That's because the energy generated from a wind farm is wind speed multiplied by three. So, Spending calculates that a 10 percent decrease would lead to a 30 percent decrease in wind energy generated. This new study is crucial because the United States Department of Energy is providing $20 million for research and development of offshore massive wind farms.

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Works Cited:

https://www.wired.com/story/climate-change-could-take-the-air-out-of-wind-farms/
http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-and-science/science/wind-farms-in-northern-hemisphere-at-risk-from-climate-change/article/509818

New Climate Study Increases Certainty of Warming Due to Greenhouse Emissions

In 2015, 197 countries from around the world gathered to ratify the Paris Climate agreement. By signing on to the agreement, 173 countries pledged to lower their greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to control global warming. At the time of the agreement, models had shown that Climate Change will lead to global temperature increases of 1.5 to 4.5 degrees Celsius (or 2.7 to 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit). (http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9485.php)

However, earlier this month, scientists at the University of Exeter in Great Britain published a paper that predicts the range of increase to be from 2.2 to 3.4 degrees Celsius (or 3.96 to 6.12 degrees Fahrenheit). Additionally, the paper reduces the uncertainty in previous models by 60%. In other words, the predictions are more accurate than previous predictions. (https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25450)

Those who say that 3 degrees Celsius is not a large increase are mistaken. if our warming reaches 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit), more than 100,000 square miles of wetlands and dry land will be lost. Furthermore, for each degree Celsius (1.8 F) of warming, there is a 400% increase in the area burned by forest fires in the United States alone.  (https://www.wired.com/story/the-dizzying-science-of-climate-change-gets-a-bit-clearer/)

Overall, the new climate models are important for climate optimism. Scientists are now less uncertain about how bad climate changes effects will be and can therefore make appropriate environmental preparations. (https://www.wired.com/story/the-dizzying-science-of-climate-change-gets-a-bit-clearer/)

Sources:
https://www.wired.com/story/the-dizzying-science-of-climate-change-gets-a-bit-clearer/
http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9485.php
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25450