Climate model shows large-scale wind and solar farms in the Sahara increase rain and vegetation

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorLi, Yan
dc.contributor.authorKalnay, Eugenia
dc.contributor.authorMotesharrei, Safa
dc.contributor.authorRivas, Jorge
dc.contributor.authorKucharski, Fred
dc.contributor.authorKirk-Davidoff, Daniel
dc.contributor.authorBach, Eviatar
dc.contributor.authorZeng, Ning
dc.date.accessioned2018-09-26T17:03:42Z
dc.date.available2018-09-26T17:03:42Z
dc.date.issued2018-09-07
dc.descriptionMore energy, more rain Energy generation by wind and solar farms could reduce carbon emissions and thus mitigate anthropogenic climate change. But is this its only benefit? Li et al. conducted experiments using a climate model to show that the installation of large-scale wind and solar power generation facilities in the Sahara could cause more local rainfall, particularly in the neighboring Sahel region. This effect, caused by a combination of increased surface drag and reduced albedo, could increase coverage by vegetation, creating a positive feedback that would further increase rainfall.en_US
dc.description.abstractWind and solar farms offer a major pathway to clean, renewable energies. However, these farms would significantly change land surface properties, and, if sufficiently large, the farms may lead to unintended climate consequences. In this study, we used a climate model with dynamic vegetation to show that large-scale installations of wind and solar farms covering the Sahara lead to a local temperature increase and more than a twofold precipitation increase, especially in the Sahel, through increased surface friction and reduced albedo. The resulting increase in vegetation further enhances precipitation, creating a positive albedo–precipitation–vegetation feedback that contributes ~80% of the precipitation increase for wind farms. This local enhancement is scale dependent and is particular to the Sahara, with small impacts in other deserts.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipY.L. acknowledges support from the National Key R&D Program of China (no. 2017YFA0604701). E.K. and S.M. acknowledge Lev Gandin funding (grant 2956713) provided by G. Brin. The authors thank the University of Maryland and the Univ. of Illinois for supercomputing resources—in particular, the Deepthought2 (http://hpcc.umd.edu) and Bluewaters (www.ncsa.illinois.edu/enabling/bluewaters) supercomputers—made available for conducting the research reported in this paper.en_US
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.13016/M2BK16T07
dc.identifier.citationLi, Yan, Eugenia Kalnay, Safa Motesharrei, Jorge Rivas, Fred Kucharski, Daniel Kirk-Davidoff, Eviatar Bach, and Ning Zeng. 2018. “Climate Model Shows Large-Scale Wind and Solar Farms in the Sahara Increase Rain and Vegetation.” Science 361 (6406): 1019--1022. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aar5629.en_US
dc.identifier.other10.1126/science.aar5629
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/21434
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherScienceen_US
dc.relation.isAvailableAtCollege of Computer, Mathematical & Natural Sciencesen_us
dc.relation.isAvailableAtAtmospheric & Oceanic Scienceen_us
dc.relation.isAvailableAtDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_us
dc.relation.isAvailableAtUniversity of Maryland (College Park, MD)en_us
dc.subjectSolar Energyen_US
dc.subjectWind Farmsen_US
dc.subjectSaharaen_US
dc.subjectSahelen_US
dc.subjectSustainabilityen_US
dc.subjectAlbedoen_US
dc.subjectLand Surface Frictionen_US
dc.subjectPrecipitationen_US
dc.subjectVegetationen_US
dc.subjectFeedbacken_US
dc.subjectEnergy–Water–Food Nexusen_US
dc.subjectAgricultureen_US
dc.subjectLand Cover Changeen_US
dc.subjectClimateen_US
dc.subjectRainfallen_US
dc.subjectCharney Feedback Mechanismen_US
dc.subjectSud Feedback Mechanismen_US
dc.titleClimate model shows large-scale wind and solar farms in the Sahara increase rain and vegetationen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
2018-sep-07-li-kalnay-motesharrei-et-al-wind-and-solar-farms-in-the-sahara-science-vol-361-issue-6406-pp-1019-1022.pdf
Size:
110.68 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Article Summary and Free Access Links
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.57 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

Atmospheric & Oceanic Science Research Works