Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Offshore Wind Farms Could Tame Hurricanes Before They Reach Land

New research shows that an offshore wind farm could have weakened Hurricane Sandy, shown here on Oct. 28, 2012. [Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data provided by Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS)] Click to enlarge.
Computer simulations have shown that offshore wind farms with thousands of wind turbines could have sapped the power of three real-life hurricanes, significantly decreasing their winds and accompanying storm surge, and possibly preventing billions of dollars in damages.  In the case of Hurricane Katrina, the computer model revealed that an array of 78,000 wind turbines off the coast of New Orleans would have significantly weakened the hurricane well before it made landfall.

Offshore Wind Farms Could Tame Hurricanes Before They Reach Land

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