Final published version, 1.34 MB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY
Final published version
Licence: CC BY
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Letter › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Letter › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Ground-level climate at a peatland wind farm in Scotland is affected by wind turbine operation
AU - Armstrong, Alona Barbara
AU - Burton, Ralph
AU - Lee, Susan
AU - Mobbs, Stephen
AU - Ostle, Nicholas John
AU - Smith, Victoria
AU - Waldron, Susan
AU - Whitaker, Jeanette
PY - 2016/4/22
Y1 - 2016/4/22
N2 - The global drive to produce low-carbon energy has resulted in an unprecedented deployment of onshore wind turbines, representing a significant land use change for wind energy generation with uncertain consequences for local climatic conditions and the regulation of ecosystem processes. Here, we present high-resolution data from a wind farm collected during operational and idle periods that shows the wind farm affected several measures of ground-level climate. Specifically, we discovered that operational wind turbines raised air temperature by 0.18 °C and absolute humidity (AH) by 0.03 g m−3 during the night, and increased the variability in air, surface and soil temperature throughout the diurnal cycle. Further, the microclimatic influence of turbines on air temperature and AH decreased logarithmically with distance from the nearest turbine. These effects on ground-level microclimate, including soil temperature, have uncertain implications for biogeochemical processes and ecosystem carbon cycling, including soil carbon stocks. Consequently, understanding needs to be improved to determine the overall carbon balance of wind energy.
AB - The global drive to produce low-carbon energy has resulted in an unprecedented deployment of onshore wind turbines, representing a significant land use change for wind energy generation with uncertain consequences for local climatic conditions and the regulation of ecosystem processes. Here, we present high-resolution data from a wind farm collected during operational and idle periods that shows the wind farm affected several measures of ground-level climate. Specifically, we discovered that operational wind turbines raised air temperature by 0.18 °C and absolute humidity (AH) by 0.03 g m−3 during the night, and increased the variability in air, surface and soil temperature throughout the diurnal cycle. Further, the microclimatic influence of turbines on air temperature and AH decreased logarithmically with distance from the nearest turbine. These effects on ground-level microclimate, including soil temperature, have uncertain implications for biogeochemical processes and ecosystem carbon cycling, including soil carbon stocks. Consequently, understanding needs to be improved to determine the overall carbon balance of wind energy.
KW - wind energy
KW - carbon cycling
KW - microclimate
KW - atmospheric boundary layer
U2 - 10.1088/1748-9326/11/4/044024
DO - 10.1088/1748-9326/11/4/044024
M3 - Letter
VL - 11
JO - Environmental Research Letters
JF - Environmental Research Letters
SN - 1748-9326
IS - 4
M1 - 044024
ER -