Walker Engineering

Engineering, Management, Technology Consulting

  • Wind farms can cause climate change, according to new research, that shows for the first time the new technology is already pushing up temperatures.

    Wind farms can cause a rise in temperature, found a study in Nature.

    Wind farms can cause a rise in temperature, found a study in Nature. Photo: Alamy

    Read the entire article, related articles, and updates directly off the original site http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/9234715/Wind-farms-can-cause-climate-change-finds-new-study.html

    I included some of the article here so that you can get the gist of the study.

    Usually at night the air closer to the ground becomes colder when the sun goes down and the earth cools.

    But on huge wind farms the motion of the turbines mixes the air higher in the atmosphere that is warmer, pushing up the overall temperature.

    Satellite data over a large area in Texas, that is now covered by four of the world’s largest wind farms, found that over a decade the local temperature went up by almost 1C as more turbines are built.

    This could have long term effects on wildlife living in the immediate areas of larger wind farms.

    It could also affect regional weather patterns as warmer areas affect the formation of cloud and even wind speeds.

     

    It is reported China is now erecting 36 wind turbines every day and Texas is the largest producer of wind power in the US.

    Liming Zhou, Research Associate Professor at the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at the University of New York, who led the study, said further research is needed into the affect of the new technology on the wider environment.

    "Wind energy is among the world’s fastest growing sources of energy. The US wind industry has experienced a remarkably rapid expansion of capacity in recent years,” he said. “While converting wind’s kinetic energy into electricity, wind turbines modify surface-atmosphere exchanges and transfer of energy, momentum, mass and moisture within the atmosphere. These changes, if spatially large enough, might have noticeable impacts on local to regional weather and climate.”

    The study, published in Nature, found a “significant warming trend” of up to 0.72C (1.37F) per decade, particularly at night-time, over wind farms relative to near-by non-wind-farm regions.

    The team studied satellite data showing land surface temperature in west-central Texas.

    “The spatial pattern of the warming resembles the geographic distribution of wind turbines and the year-to-year land surface temperature over wind farms shows a persistent upward trend from 2003 to 2011, consistent with the increasing number of operational wind turbines with time,” said Prof Zhou.

    However Prof Zhou pointed out the most extreme changes were just at night and the overall changes may be smaller.

    Also, it is much smaller than the estimated change caused by other factors such as man made global warming.

    “Overall, the warming effect reported in this study is local and is small compared to the strong background year-to-year land surface temperature changes,” he added.

    The study read: "Despite debates regarding the possible impacts of wind farms on regional to global scale weather and climate, modelling studies agree that they can significantly affect local scale meteorology."

    Professor Steven Sherwood, co-Director of the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, said the research was ‘pretty solid’.

    “This makes sense, since at night the ground becomes much cooler than the air just a few hundred meters above the surface, and the wind farms generate gentle turbulence near the ground that causes these to mix together, thus the ground doesn’t get quite as cool. This same strategy is commonly used by fruit growers (who fly helicopters over the orchards rather than windmills) to combat early morning frosts.”

  • If you live in or travel through a desert region, having access to clean water is always going to be an issue. If you can’t carry enough for your journey, you have to ensure your route allows for a few water bottle refills. But the lack of water in deserts and other arid locations may soon be a thing of the past if a new wind turbine system is implemented on a large scale.

    Marc Parent, founder of Eole Water, realized that he could extract water from the air after noticing how much water an air conditioner unit collected. He decided to combine a green energy source with the necessary components for condensing water directly from the air. The end result after 10 years of R&D is the WMS1000 wind turbine, capable of condensing and storing up to 1,000 liters of water every day.

    The 34 meter tall turbine requires 15mph winds for its 13 meter diameter rotor to turn and generate sufficient energy. It then produces 30kW of power for the system to function. Air is drawn in through vents in the nose of the turbine and a generator heats it producing steam. That steam is then fed through a cooling compressor to form moisture that gets condensed into water. The resulting liquid is piped into a storage tank at the base of the turbine after being purified.

    As long as an area meets the wind speed requirements this is a completely self contained system. It effectively allows mass water storage in some of the most arid places on earth.

    The Eole Water wind turbine isn’t just an idea. A prototype unit was constructed and erected in Abu Dhabi 6 months ago and has consistently produced up to 800 liters of water a day. With that test proving the system works, Eole is now working with a number of manufacturers to produce the turbines

    Although the desert example shows off the potential of the system, the turbines can be deployed anywhere. Eole believes they can be erected anywhere that is isolated, does not have a reliable water source, in disaster areas, and as a source of wtare for organic farming where a low impact on the environment is highly desirable.

    Read more at Treehugger and Eole Water

  • From The Independent.  Read the article directly and check out the links provided to related articles.  I have copied some of the article here just for reference.

     

    Onshore wind farms, recently under attack from leading conservationists for damaging the countryside, can bring significant economic benefits locally and nationally, as well as contributing to the fight against climate change, a new study claims.

    Onshore wind supported 8,600 jobs and was worth £548m to the UK economy in 2011, says the report, by consultancy BiGGAR Economics. Of this figure 1,100 jobs were created at local authority level, with £84m of investment.

    Looking at 18 case studies of wind farms of different sizes drawn from across the UK, the study analyses the contribution of wind farm development, construction, operation and maintenance to the economy at a local, regional and national level. It suggests if onshore wind is deployed at a scale suggested in the Government’s Renewable Energy Roadmap, the economy could benefit by £780m by 2020, with around 11,600 jobs being supported.

    From its beginnings 20 years ago, Britain’s wind industry now has 3,176 large onshore turbines, with 568 turbines in the sea, according to RenewableUK, the wind industry trade body.

    The onshore wind farms together can produce about 4.5 gigawatts of electricity, roughly the equivalent of four large conventional power stations, with another 1.5GW coming from offshore turbines. But the growing presence of turbines in the landscape – there are nearly 3,000 more in the planning process – has led to criticism from conservationists, and last week the Campaign to Protect Rural England broke ranks with other environmental groups who have hitherto been united in support for wind energy for the contribution it can make, with other CO2-free energies like solar and tidal power, to cut carbon emissions that cause climate change.

    The CPRE said the countryside was being caught in "a hurricane of new wind turbines" and local communities were "struggling to safeguard valued landscapes" which were being industrialised by the presence of wind farms. Shaun Spiers, its chief executive, said his group accepted onshore wind in the right places as part of the mix required to meet the UK ‘s carbon reduction targets, "but we are seeing more and more giant turbines sited in inappropriate locations".

    The Government and wind industry stress the benefits wind farms can bring. "Rather than feeling wind has been imposed on them, people across the UK recognise the benefits of having wind in their backyard," said RenewableUK’s chief executive Maria McCaffery. Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey said: "Wind power provides secure, low carbon power to homes and businesses, and supports jobs and brings significant investment."

  • Earth Policy News reports that a new picture is emerging in the U.S. energy sector and wind-power is remarkably on the rise.

    According to Paul Ray, renowned sociologist and coauthor of The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World, “these growth rates for wind are the kinds of numbers that alternative energy experts, including me, have been waiting to see for decades. This all means that wind and solar can take their place as solutions to the climate crisis. Wind power is now becoming part of the grid. On the other hand, the most dangerous energy source, coal, is in steady decline. (The 36% annual growth rate for wind reflects the very small base of the percent to start with.) Most important is wind’s growing share of net electrical generation in the second graph. The other key benchmark is mentioned at the end: Germany’s leading wind power provinces have wind at 40% of electrical supply–the top US states should be able to equal or exceed that because they are far better wind territory. That shows the size of the potential.”

  • Due to the nature of our projects I am interested in my favorite 3D modeling tool, SketchUp moving to Trimble.

    Trimble to Enhance its Office-to-Field Platform with the Acquisition of Google’s SketchUp 3D Modeling Platform

    On April 26, 2012, Trimble announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SketchUp® from Google. SketchUp is one of the most popular 3D modeling tools in the world. As part of the SketchUp platform, Trimble will also partner with Google on running and developing SketchUp’s 3D Warehouse, an online repository where users can find, share, store and collaborate on 3D models.

    SketchUp is currently used by millions of users annually—ranging from architects to engineering and construction firms to building and design professionals – for designing, modeling and visualizing projects. The SketchUp product and its vision of "3D modeling for everyone" has allowed modelers worldwide, across a wide range of industries, to express design concepts easily, accurately and efficiently.

    Trimble has created the de-facto standard for field data models and project management tools for its key markets. SketchUp and the 3D Warehouse, together with other Trimble Tools from Accubid, HHK, Meridian, Plancal, QuickPen, Tekla, Trimble Business Center and the Trimble Connected Community will provide a stand-alone and enterprise solution that will enable an integrated and seamless workflow to reduce rework and improve productivity for the customer. Users will be able to collect data, design, model, and collaborate on one platform. The combined capability will enhance our ability to extend our existing market applications including the cadastral, heavy civil, and building and construction industries. In addition, the SketchUp platform will enable Trimble, third-party developers and our distribution partners to efficiently develop new applications.

    trimble