Wind energy makes a substantial contribution to the low-CO2, sustainable development of the energy sector. But the effectiveness of wind turbines depends on the amount of wind resources that are available and the technical specifications of the turbines.
The worldwide wind resource may be declining in the twenty-first century due to climate change. The technical aspects of wind turbines are also always getting better.
Researchers Dr. Christopher Jung and Prof. Dr. Dirk Schindler were able to assess these two opposing influencing elements and evaluate their impact on the global and regional efficiency of wind turbines by 2060 using global climate models and newly created technological projections.
One finding is that if the usage of wind energy were maximized, the efficiency of the worldwide wind turbine fleet might rise by as much as 23.5 percent by 2035, assuming positive climate trends.
The two researchers from the University of Freiburg’s Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences published their findings in the journal Nature Energy.
What was surprising was the low impact of climate change on the wind resource compared to the projected technical development of wind turbines.
Dr. Christopher Jung
High spatial resolution
The two academics’ findings serve as a crucial foundation for the possible global growth of wind energy in the future. They pinpoint accessible areas in their study where wind resources can be utilized most effectively given projected climatic changes.
The method makes it possible to identify the ideal places worldwide for both individual wind turbines and wind farms, with a focus on high spatial resolution.
“What was surprising was the low impact of climate change on the wind resource compared to the projected technical development of wind turbines,” says Jung.
Modernizing the fleet of wind turbines can so more than offset the loss in the wind resource caused by climate change. Variations in resource availability between different years have an impact on usable wind that is also more important than the overall impact of climate change.
