If ever more energy is drawn from atmospheric movements, doesn\'t this influence the weather?
foghorn
Suvilo, we already influence the weather by dumping huge masses of heat in concentrated areas (cities). Windmills are one of the few electricity sources that produce energy without dumping waste heat. Nuclear, coal, and natural gas all use steam turbines which are about 30-35 percent peak efficiency, which means they dump approximately 70 percent of the heat produced as completely unused waste.
voluntaryist
How many birds will be killed each year? What is the maintenance cost? Life span? How does this compare with deep sea vent energy generation?
Slowburn
Suvilo - Just curious, but what kind of electrical generation do you like.
Michael Gene
Good article on just that issue Suvilo, I tend to think taking energy from any finite source would have unintended consequences.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028063.300-wind-and-wave-farms-could-affect-earths-energy-balance.html?full=true
Matt Rings
@Suvilo... uh, no. On a grand scale, it\'s like asking if tiny fly can influence a hurricane. Think of a weather satellite phont showing a storm front covering thousands of miles... and then think of the little tiny man-made objects (buildings, towers, windmills)...and how they aren\'t even visible. Nil effect. In fact, look at a wind generator... the blades only cover less than 5% of the swept area...95% of the wind passes through unaltered...and then think how far apart they are place in comparison to each other horizontally, and then vertically how the wind goes up tens of thousands of feet... the towers only captures a miniscule fraction of the total energy in the wind. Probably on a scale of 1/10,000,000,000,000th (est). A medium-sized building in the path of the wind would actually cause more disturbance to the wind than a generator.
Bill Bennett
a few dead skyrats ie sea gulls who cares voluntaryist? the bird that lives to sheet on your chest
Suvilo
Sorry folks, this question was too imprecise. My fault.
What indeed is true, is that windmills influence the weather on the micro-scale.