Wind power may in some conditions manage to produce less energy than its supporters believe it can, two US researchers suggest.
In the latest contribution to the debate over wind’s potential, they say they have found evidence that some of the largest wind farms may cause effects which substantially reduce their generating capacity.
The research, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, suggests that the generating capacity of large-scale wind farms has been overestimated.
Each wind turbine creates behind it a “wind shadow” in which the air has been slowed down by drag on the turbine’s blades. The ideal wind farm strikes a balance, packing as many turbines onto the land as possible, while also spacing them far enough apart to reduce the impact of these shadows.
But as wind farms grow larger, the researchers say, they start to interact, and the regional-scale wind patterns matter more. This means we may not manage to obtain as much wind power as scientists had thought.
The authors are David Keith, professor of applied physics at the Harvard school of engineering and applied sciences and Amanda S. Adams, assistant professor of geography and earth sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
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