Can Wind Power Get Up to Speed? - TIME
Just read this article. Very nice mention of a scientific report that says that there is enough wind energy swirling around our planet to meet our current energy needs 40 times over. The article also does a very nice job of laying out the challenges to a wind powered future. It sparked a new question for me though. Wind turbines siphon off the energy that carries air as wind. This is all driven by a very complex system of thermal fronts and such well beyond my comprehension because I have not yet read up on them. But, here is the part I do get, we are siphoning off energy, which means there is less energy in the wind.
Could this have an adverse environmental effect that is not yet anticipated? We use such a minor amount of wind power now that we would not notice anything, but surely if we were to move to a completely wind driven energy future we would end up siphoning off enough wind energy to actually see noticeable effects wouldn't we? Given my limited understand of the complicated atmospheric process that creates wind, I may be wrong, but converting energy from that system, to be used as electricity must have some measurable effect.
Will some one enlighten me?
