Clearly, wind energy is favored to its fossil fuel counterparts in terms of its environmental footprint. Zero greenhouse gas emissions. Zero global warming potential. Zero heat islands. Simply, wind energy seems to be a perfect part of the solution to a climate change problem. At least, this is what we thought. Until recently, when scientists discovered a surprising link between wind farms and rising land surface temperatures. As it turns out, wind farms may stir air in an atmospheric boundary layer a bit too much – enough to produce a noticeable warming effect after the sundown. The study, which was published in Nature Climate Change in April, is one of the first ones to consider interactions between wind turbines and the atmospheric boundary layer near the land surface.

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Wind Energy Creates a Warming Effect, Study Finds

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