Global Warming Reduces Available Wind Energy

In the Sciencedaily article "Global Warming Reduces Available Wind Energy" the author, Diandong Ren, makes several different claims. The biggest one would have to be that global warming reduces available wind energy. A second smaller one is that switching to wind energy will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, making a kind of Catch 22 situation. The wind energy reduces emissions, therefore decreasing global warming, but the global warming causes reduction in wind.

"A switch to wind energy will help reduce greenhouse gas
emissions -- and reduce the global warming they cause. But there's a catch...
rising temperatures decrease wind speeds, making for less power bang for the
wind turbine buck." (Ren 2010)

I will however, only be talking about each claim individually not together.


This small claim about switching to wind energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is not really explained further is this article. It is really just announced at the start then never really talked about again, making the claim rather weak and without evidence. The way the article bluntly says that wind energy will help reduce emissions makes it seem like it will make a big influence in reduction when really wind energy only produces enough energy for small amounts of people (that's why there is so many wind turbines around). Therefore meaning energy will still need to come from other sources that probably create emissions. The author needed to touch on this argument is order for it to be realized as a good, strong statement. It just seems like something thrown in to support his major claim well all the while not even supporting itself.


Ren's biggest claim is that wind energy is being reduced by global warming, meaning that wind energy sources are being affected and in fact making them ineffective. This statement is proven weak when the article talks about the fact that the winds that are being affected are the ones that are 1000 meters above the ground. The wind energy sources (mostly turbines) are located only about 100 meters above the ground, where the wind acts differently and is different than the wind 900 meters above it. Ren just assumes that the two different wind locations would be affected the same. The wind closer to the ground is sped up or slows down by things like landscape, infrastructure and many other factors, so presuming that they would be affected the same doesn't quite make sense in this example.


The information given about the winds at 1000 meters says that the winds become weaker as the temperature contrast decreases. This is due to the warming of the atmosphere closer to the poles. When the poles heat up the temperature contrast between the poles and the lower latitude decrease slightly, meaning slower and less powerful winds. This information doesn't not seem to impact as much the areas at higher latitudes, so it cannot be presumed that all wind energy sources are reached by global warmings' swaying of wind energy. This article does not distinguish this concept. It makes the reader think that all areas are equally impacted, when only it is areas closer to the poles, where there probably aren't that many people anyways and probably not a lot of wind energy sources available.


Ren then goes on to explain his research findings that just a 2-4 degree Celsius increase in temperature would create a 4-12% decrease in wind velocity in mid to high latitudes. Earlier in the article the information given was mostly pertaining to locations in the lower latitudes, so for Ren to now talk about mid to high latitudes further weakens his argument. Also, for the atmosphere to heat up by 2 degrees and stay constant long enough to really affect wind it would take at least a couple years. This article makes it seem like everything is going to happen quickly and in the close future.


At the end of the article the author then goes on a rant about how more time and money needs to be invested into wind turbines and the use of wind energy. These last few sentences kind of sound like a campaign by wind source supporters for the use of wind energy instead of the ending of an article about global warmings' effects on wind.


References

American Institute of Physics (2010, November 9). Global warming reduces available wind energy, new research finds. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 8, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101109095314.htm


Jaime Ashton

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