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Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy / Volume 2 / Issue 5 / PERSPECTIVES

J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 2, 052301 (2010); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3486072 (5 pages)

Effects of global warming on wind energy availability

Diandong Ren

Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA

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(Received 19 January 2010; accepted 11 August 2010; published online 1 September 2010)

The use of wind energy reduces our greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. In this study, we proposed a generic power-law relationship between global warming and the usable wind energy (Betz’s law). The power law index ( ∼ 4, region dependent) is then determined using simulated atmospheric parameters from eight global coupled ocean-atmosphere climate models (CGCMs). It is found that the power-law relationship holds across all eight climate models and also is time scale independent. Reduction of wind power scales with the degree of warming according to a generic power-law relationship. Thus, the earlier we switch to clean energy, and thereby decrease the global climate warming trend, the more cost-effective will be the harnessing of wind energy. This relationship is an area-averaged consequence of the reduced poleward temperature gradient as the climate warms during the 21st Century; it does not imply spatial uniformity over a region of interest.

© 2010 American Institute of Physics

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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

atmospheric movements, climatology, global warming, wind power

PACS

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3486072

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

1941-7012 (online)

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$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Institute of Physics

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