Are trees the enemy of green energy?

Posted at 11:12 AM on October 20, 2010 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Energy

So you planted a tree or two in a fit of "green"? Now you went and did it. You might be messing up the potential of wind energy, some scientists say.

Robert Vautard at the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences in Gif-sur-Yvette, France, analyzed surface wind speed data from around the world over the last 30 years and they've found surface wind speeds have declined by 5 to 15 per cent. They're blaming vegetation.

A manufacturer of wind turbines says, however, that he sees no correlation between wind speeds near the ground and those at the height of the turbines.

Here's the story in New Scientist.

By the way, here's the wind speed data for Minnesota in 2006 at 250 feet off the ground:

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