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Wind Turbines Cool Off Agriculture as Planet Heats Up
Susan Kraemer
Do wind turbines cool crops below?
In a new study with applications for the Middle East, a pair of US researchers finds wind turbines could help to reduce the adverse effects of climate change on agriculture, during the hotter summers that we expect in our future.
We already know that wind power is a way to prevent climate change, because it reduces our dependence on fossil fuels. But what if wind turbines can also reduce the effects of our fossil energy dependence: the rise in temperatures, and the catastrophic effects that that is predicted to have on agriculture?
What if wind turbines can provide a little cooling effect – almost like giant fans in the sky – helping to also mitigate the effects of climate change? It turns out, that is exactly what happens.
Researchers have completed a months-long research program aimed at studying how wind turbines on US farmlands interact with their surrounding crops.
The preliminary findings were announced at the annual meeting in San Francisco of the American Geophysical Union by Ames Laboratory associate and agricultural meteorology expert Gene Takle, a researcher at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and Julie Lundquist, assistant professor, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, at the University of Colorado at Boulder, joint appointee at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Fellow of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute.
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