Regional climate model simulations indicate limited climatic impacts by operational and planned European wind farms - Ineris - Institut national de l'environnement industriel et des risques Access content directly
Journal Articles Nature Communications Year : 2014

Regional climate model simulations indicate limited climatic impacts by operational and planned European wind farms

Abstract

The rapid development of wind energy has raised concerns about environmental impacts. Temperature changes are found in the vicinity of wind farms and previous simulations have suggested that large-scale wind farms could alter regional climate. However, assessments of the effects of realistic wind power development scenarios at the scale of a continent are missing. Here we simulate the impacts of current and near-future wind energy production according to European Union energy and climate policies. We use a regional climate model describing the interactions between turbines and the atmosphere, and find limited impacts. A statistically significant signal is only found in winter, with changes within ±0.3 °C and within 0–5% for precipitation. It results from the combination of local wind farm effects and changes due to a weak, but robust, anticyclonic-induced circulation over Europe. However, the impacts remain much weaker than the natural climate interannual variability and changes expected from greenhouse gas emissions.
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ineris-01710142 , version 1 (15-02-2018)

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Robert Vautard, Françoise Thais, Isabelle Tobin, Francois-Marie Breon, Jean-Guy Devezeaux de Lavergne, et al.. Regional climate model simulations indicate limited climatic impacts by operational and planned European wind farms. Nature Communications, 2014, 5, pp.3196. ⟨10.1038/ncomms4196⟩. ⟨ineris-01710142⟩
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