Local climatic and environmental effects of an onshore wind farm in North China
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Wind energy has been recognized as being emission-free, green and sustainable, so it has received national financial support in China (Nazir et al., 2020). Large-scale wind farms are growing rapidly in size and number worldwide. In the past ten years, China has continuously been at the forefront of the global wind energy market, developing approximately 35% of the global installed wind power capacity (Joselin Herbert et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2019; Xu et al., 2019). However, the impacts of the rapid installation of wind turbines on regional climates and ecosystems are not clear. In-depth studies are needed to determine what measures should be considered to mitigate its negative impacts. Wind farms may affect local and global climatic conditions and local ecosystems by changing the vertical distributions of energy and moisture in the atmosphere and the exchanges between the land surface and the atmosphere (Armstrong et al., 2016; Baidya Roy, 2004). If the scale of wind farms continues to expand, will they increasingly impact the local and regional climate and environment? Concern over the impacts of windfarm construction and operation on local climate and ecology is increasing (Baidya Roy and Traiteur, 2010). Paying close attention to the climatic and environmental impacts of wind farms has become important. Many recent studies have investigated the possible impacts of wind farms on local weather and climate, including their potential impacts on air temperature (Ta) (Baidya Roy and Traiteur, 2010), ground temperature (Chang et al., 2016; Wu et al., 2019), wind speed (Zhou et al., 2020), and heat fluxes (Rajewski et al., 2014; Rajewski et al., 2020). The changes in local weather and climate due to wind farms may affect local crop yields (Kaffine, 2019), vegetation growth (Tang et al., 2017; Wu et al., 2019; Xia and Zhou, 2017), soil (Armstrong et al., 2014; Pekkan et al., 2021), and flying animals, including birds, bats and raptors (Cabrera-Cruz et al., 2016; de Lucas et al., 2004). Compared with the changes in regional ecosystems caused by land use/cover (LUC) changes and the local weather disturbances caused by coal use and equivalent power generation, the corresponding impacts of wind farms on climate and ecology are minor (Gibson et al., 2017; Pryor et al., 2020). Although the natural science literature has found evidence of local climatic and environmental changes caused by wind farms, their full impacts remain unclear. Therefore, exploration of the impacts of numerous wind farms on local climates and ecosystems is necessary to allow the sustainable development of wind energy.
In the present study, to evaluate the impacts of large onshore wind farms on local climates and ecosystems, an onshore wind farm in North China was selected as a case study. Before the construction of the wind farm, a meteorological tower was installed at the wind farm location. Two national general weather station datasets were obtained, providing data on wind speed, wind direction, evaporation, Ta and ground surface temperature (Ts). In addition, satellite remote sensing datasets were collected, providing data on land surface temperature (LST), evapotranspiration (ET), and vegetation greenness. Furthermore, the soil chemical composition within and outside of the wind farm was monitored. Then, a comparative analysis was carried out on the changes in the climate and ecosystem before and after the construction of the wind farm. Finally, the climatic and ecosystem differences before and after construction were analyzed, and the impact of the wind farm on the climate and ecosystem was evaluated.
Section snippets
Study area
The wind farm was constructed in Shangyi County, Hebei Province, at the boundary between Inner Mongolia and Hebei Province. This area has a temperate continental monsoon climate. According to local weather data, the annual average Ta is 0.6–6.2 °C, and the annual precipitation is 350–420 mm, which occurs mostly in June-August. This area is affected by the East Asian monsoon, and strong winds occur throughout the year, especially in winter and spring. The annual average number of windy days,
Local climatic change
Shangyi Station is located within the wind farm. From 1981 to 2019, both Ta and Ts showed increasing trends, and the warming trends after construction of the wind farm were stronger than those before construction. Wind speed has been declining for nearly four decades. The annual mean wind speed at the wind farm decreased from 3.52 m/s before construction to 3.02 m/s after, and wind speed showed a significant declining trend after wind-farm construction (P < 0.001) (Fig. 3).
Shangdu Station
Local climate effects of onshore wind farms
Wind farm performance is highly dependent on local climatic conditions, and wind speed changes are one of the main factors used to assess the future economic viability of wind farms. The operation of wind farms reduces greenhouse gas emissions but impacts climate by changing phenomena such as wind speed, wind direction, Ta, LST, and ET (Miller and Keith, 2018). Since the wind farm in the present study is dominated by northwest wind and since Shangdu Station is located 58 km northwest of the
Conclusions
Based on data from an onshore wind farm in North China, the impact of wind farms on the local climate and ecology was analyzed, and the differences in local and regional climate and environmental characteristics caused by seasonal and diurnal climate changes were qualitatively and quantitatively explained. This study provides some evidence that the operation of wind farms can have measurable impacts on wind, Ta, Ts, LST, and ET. We found that after the construction of the studied wind farm, the
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Wenzhi Zhao for valuable feedback on the manuscript. This research was jointly supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFB1502801, 2018YFB1502802), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41877545, 41871065), and CAS “Light of West China” Program.
References (33)
- et al.
Modelling bulk surface resistance by MODIS data and assessment of MOD16A2 evapotranspiration product in an irrigation district of Southern Italy
Agr. Water Manage.
(2016) - et al.
How green is ‘green’ energy?
Trends Ecol. Evol.
(2017) Google earth engine: planetary-scale geospatial analysis for everyone
Remote Sens. Environ.
(2017)- et al.
A review of technical issues on the development of wind farms
Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev.
(2014) Microclimate effects of wind farms on local crop yields
J. Environ. Econ. Manage.
(2019)- et al.
Climatic impacts of wind power
Joule
(2018) - et al.
Potential environmental impacts of wind energy development: a global perspective
Curr. Opin. Environ. Sci. Health
(2020) Changes in fluxes of heat, H2O, and CO2 caused by a large wind farm
Agric. For. Meteorol.
(2014)- et al.
Environmental impact of wind energy
Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev.
(2011) Observed decrease of summer sea-land breeze in Shanghai from 1994 to 2014 and its association with urbanization
Atmos. Res.
(2019)
New refinements and validation of the MODIS Land-Surface Temperature/Emissivity products
Remote Sens. Environ.
Impact of substantial wind farms on the local and regional atmospheric boundary layer: case study of Zhangbei wind power base in China
Energy
Operational-dependent wind turbine wake impact on surface momentum flux
Renewa. Sustain. Energy Rev.
Ground-level climate at a peatland wind farm in Scotland is affected by wind turbine operation
Environ. Res. Lett.
Wind farm and solar park effects on plant-soil carbon cycling: uncertain impacts of changes in ground-level microclimate
Global Change Biol.
Can large wind farms affect local meteorology?
J. Geophys. Res.
Cited by (0)
- 1
Yanli Zhuang and Lihui Luo contributed equally to this article.