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.
%0 Journal Article
%1 Vautard2014Regional
%A Vautard, Robert
%A Thais, Francoise
%A Tobin, Isabelle
%A Bréon, Francois-Marie
%A de Lavergne, Jean-Guy D.
%A Colette, Augustin
%A Yiou, Pascal
%A Ruti, Paolo M.
%D 2014
%J Nature Communications
%K windpowerchangingclimate climatechange energy renewables wind feedback
%R 10.1038/ncomms4196
%T Regional climate model simulations indicate limited climatic impacts by operational and planned European wind farms
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms4196
%V 5
%X 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.
@article{Vautard2014Regional,
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.},
added-at = {2018-06-18T21:23:34.000+0200},
author = {Vautard, Robert and Thais, Fran\c{c}oise and Tobin, Isabelle and Br\'{e}on, Fran\c{c}ois-Marie and de Lavergne, Jean-Guy D. and Colette, Augustin and Yiou, Pascal and Ruti, Paolo M.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/247ceac76a29ac4fc7ecdf0a57fb6126c/pbett},
citeulike-article-id = {13037036},
citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms4196},
comment = {(private-note)Impacts of large wind energy deployment over Europe are within natural interannual variability.
Open access.},
day = 11,
doi = {10.1038/ncomms4196},
interhash = {b13e769876d83125e9b07fbc5bd239d2},
intrahash = {47ceac76a29ac4fc7ecdf0a57fb6126c},
issn = {2041-1723},
journal = {Nature Communications},
keywords = {windpowerchangingclimate climatechange energy renewables wind feedback},
month = feb,
posted-at = {2015-03-02 22:18:55},
priority = {2},
timestamp = {2018-06-22T18:34:41.000+0200},
title = {Regional climate model simulations indicate limited climatic impacts by operational and planned European wind farms},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms4196},
volume = 5,
year = 2014
}