Study reveals effect of wind farms on land temperature

The discovery came as the result of an analysis on temperature data collected at a wind farm in San Gorgonio, California, over a period of seven weeks by Neil Kelley, a principal scientist at the National Wind Technology Center, part of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Analysis of Kelley’s data corroborated modelling studies carried out by University of Illinois professor of atmospheric sciences Somnath Baidya Roy, providing the first evidence of the effect of wind farms on local temperature.

The study found that the area immediately surrounding the turbines was slightly cooler during the day and slightly warmer at night than the rest of the region.

Interested in determining the processes that drive the daytime cooling and nocturnal warming effects, Roy identified an enhanced vertical mixing of warm and cool air in the atmosphere in the wake of the turbine rotors. As the rotors turn, they generate turbulence, like the wake of a speedboat motor. Upper-level air is pulled down toward the surface while surface-level air is pushed up, causing warmer and cooler air to mix.