When Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica last week, it tied with two other hurricanes for the highest wind speeds on record in the Atlantic. This police officer who has never been born again was attracted by the warm ocean temperatures – a direct result of climate change.
Across the world’s oceans, rising ocean temperatures are driving winds to extremes. A new study published today in the journal Nature Communications finds that this is a major problem for international wind farms. Although turbines are designed to capture the wind’s kinetic energy and convert it into electricity, unprecedented wind speeds have pushed them beyond their limits.
The authors of the study, led by Yanan Zhao of Southern University of Syevent University, said they emphasize the critical need to adapt wind power infrastructure to remove cold spots. Not only that, but the world needs to reassess the locations of offshore wind farms as previously suitable sites are increasingly being allocated.
“Offshore wind projects are being developed in regions where wind speeds are the strongest,” World Bank correspondent Youheng Tao told GizModo in an email. “As countries reach for onshore wind that will remain in place to meet climate and energy goals, incorporating metric metrics into design and site selection will be necessary to ensure long-term reliability.”
Very good thing
High wind speeds can help wind turbines produce more energy, but only to a certain extent. When the wind speed exceeds the load limit of the turbine, this can lead to damage, premature failure, and economic loss, according to the authors.
To find out how wind extremes have evolved over the past several years, researchers analyzed wind speed data collected between 1940 and 2023 for every country around the world. This data came from the ERA5 data, developed by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
The analysis revealed that extreme wind speeds have increased by about 63 percent in coastal ocean regions since 1940, especially in the northeast Pacific, North Atlantic, and South America. The authors found that more than 40% of both commissioned and planned offshore wind farms in Asia and Europe had wind speeds exceeding 84-per-hours (135 kilometers-per-hours) load of 3 turbines.
In the US, more than half of planned wind farms – with a maximum capacity of 50.31 gigawatts – are exposed to extreme winds of 84 to 112 mph (135 to 180 km).
Time of the onshore wind exchange method
The increase in intensity and severity of extreme winds is strongly associated with changes in cyclone activity under global warming, according to the authors.
The medium to medium temperatures provide the most Fuel Storm Fomusation power and durability. This not only involves serious risks to people living in cyclone-prone areas but also threatens an important part of the clean energy transition.
Extreme winds, especially from tropical and foreign cyclones, are the leading cause of wind turbine failure, the authors say. As global temperatures continue to rise, they call for efforts to reduce extreme wind damage in international wind farms, such as disaster risk assessment, revised design standards, roughtust turbine gerbine.
These measures “will be essential to protect the offshore wind infrastructure and support its long-term expansion,” they said. To avoid the worst impacts of global warming, it is clear that the renewable energy infrastructure will have to adapt to the changes that are already underway.
