Below is a non-technical paper from 2004 on the climactic implications of large-scale "wind farming".
Quote:
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Originally Posted by David Keith
Results from climate modeling studies by myself and others suggest that large-scale use of wind power can alter local and global climate. Wind turbines can change wind patterns which can in turn change the climate by (slightly) altering amount of heat and moisture transported by the winds. The fact that an enormous number of wind turbines can change the climate is not important; many human activities can change the climate if they occur at a sufficiently large scale.
I think the work on the climatic effects of wind power raises three interesting questions. First, will climate change due to wind turbines be noticeable in the face of other climate changes caused by humans? Second, how does the unintended climate change due to wind turbines compare to their intended effect in reducing global warming? Third, what will be the impact of climate change caused by wind-power?
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Untitled Document
He then goes on to answer those questions. It's definitely worth reading.
There's also this article that is relevant to wind energy feasibility in the face of a GW future.
Quote:
The idea that winds may be slowing is still a speculative one, and scientists disagree whether that is happening. But a first-of-its-kind study suggests that average and peak wind speeds have been noticeably slowing since 1973, especially in the Midwest and the East.
"It's a very large effect," said study co-author Eugene Takle, a professor of atmospheric science at Iowa State University. In some places in the Midwest, the trend shows a 10 percent drop or more over a decade. That adds up when the average wind speed in the region is about 10 to 12 miles per hour.
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Still, the study, which will be published in August in the peer-reviewed Journal of Geophysical Research, is preliminary. There are enough questions that even the authors say it's too early to know if this is a real trend or not. But it raises a new side effect of global warming that hasn't been looked into before.
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Not so windy: Research suggests winds dying down | Comcast.net
