Science Source
Effects of global warming on wind energy availability
- Proposes a generic power-law relationship between global warming and the usable wind energy (Betz’s law)
- Determines the power law index (∼4∼4, region dependent) using simulated atmospheric parameters from eight global coupled ocean-atmosphere climate models (CGCMs)
- Finds that the power-law relationship holds across all eight climate models and also is time scale independent
- Results show that the reduction of wind power scales with the degree of warming according to a generic power-law relationship
- States this relationship is an area-averaged consequence of the reduced poleward temperature gradient as the climate warms during the 21st Century; it does not imply spatial uniformity over a region of interest
- Suggests the earlier we switch to clean energy, and thereby decrease the global climate warming trend, the more cost-effective will be the harnessing of wind energy
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