Chris Berry On The Net

I’m not a scientist by any stretch of the imagination, but with all of the concerns about fossil fuels and climate change, I’ve been wondering about the possible unintended consequences of different forms of alternative energy. Is it not possible that by substituting wind or hydrogen for fossil fuels, we might create an entirely new set of climate change problems?

Imagine that we’re looking down the road 30 or 40 years into the future. We’ve replaced the entire global vehicle fleet with new cars and trucks powered by hydrogen fuel cells. CO2 emissions are a thing of the past, but now we’ve got a billion or more vehicles running around the planet spewing warm water vapor into the atmosphere. Call me crazy, but I can’t help thinking that’s bound to have an impact on the climate.

Let’s look at the case of wind power. The largest modern wind turbines stand over 400 feet tall, and have a blade span of approximately 150 feet. Now let’s assume that Mr. Newton knew what he was talking about when he said that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That means that the wind velocity on the other side of the turbine will be reduced by an amount equal to the force required to turn the blades. In the case of a single turbine, the effect would be negligible, but what happens when we scale it up? Mesa Energy has recently proposed building the world’s largest wind farm in the Texas panhandle. It would consist of 4000 wind turbines spread over 200,000 acres. Altering wind velocity over that large an area might not bring about any global climate changes, but it must have some measurable impact on local weather patterns.

Texas oil billionaire T Boone Pickens is the man behind this plan, and he is actually lobbying for the construction of an array of these massive wind farms stretching across the mid-section of our country from Texas to North Dakota. This plan would involve hundreds of thousands of massive turbines dissipating wind velocity across the Great Plains. Certainly this is a potential side effect that ought to be taken into consideration before proceeding.

I would love to hear from some folks who knows a whole more about this subject than I do. If you can offer a plausible and readily understandable explanation as to why my concerns are unfounded, please leave your comments. If you think I might be right, give me some science to back up my beliefs. Either way, I appreciate the input.