Wind turbines

[Piotrsko]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Could wind turbines sufficiently extract enough energy that we could measure a sustained overall decrease in wind intensity at the ground level?

The person to ask that question to is Kevin Cousineau the former Zond/GE wind employee that was responsible for all wind data aquisition for all their sites around the world.

If anyone had the need for multilevel wind speed data, it would be him.

[redpoint5]

I mean, the turbine locations have to take into account effects from the surrounding turbines, so they clearly affect wind patterns at least locally. How much it affects wind say 5 miles away is probably small, but I wonder if it's measurable over time, or calculable given a sophisticated model.

[freebeard]

The wind farm is a vortex generator.

Letting DDG ponder the question, we find this:

www.wind-watch.org: Effect of unsteady flow on wind turbine wake development and noise generation

Results also showed that the emitted noise is refracted due to the wind shear in atmospheric boundary layer, as well as the wake and associated turbulent structures. The [computational fluid dynamics] outcomes showed that the wake breakdown occurs at a distance of 12 diameters downstream of the turbine with a strong downwash due to longitudinal vortices. Contours of sound pressure level at the breakdown location of the wake of the wind turbine showed refraction and modulation of the sound at this location.

Serendipitiously, one also finds www.solidsmack.com: The Aeolus Wind Harp is Not Your Mother's Wind Harp. I always thought it a good idea to have an aeolian harp in the top of a house, as a weather predictor, tuned to annunciate changes in the wind direction. Here's one you can walk inside.

[oil pan 4]

The railroad does not have time for your clean energy.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W75cvVMFzRo

[redpoint5]

From the other side;

https://twitter.com/i/status/1432119976387821568

[Accordowner]

All these centralized giga projects be it wind, solar, hydro is made to take control and power away from the average citizen and put it into the hands of a few. Also it is usually more efficient to produce and use the energy right where you need it. However most people are too undisciplined, lacking the finances and know how to start their own renewable energy factory!

[redpoint5]

Not me! I fabricated my own solar panels from locally sourced, free range, hormone free, ethically treated rocks using my bare hands. Now my tipi has more electricity than I know what to do with.

[freebeard]

"However most people are too undisciplined[√], lacking the finances[√] and know how[X] to start their own renewable energy factory!"

I know how, would you like to know as well?

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I mean, the turbine locations have to take into account effects from the surrounding turbines, so they clearly affect wind patterns at least locally. How much it affects wind say 5 miles away is probably small, but I wonder if it's measurable over time, or calculable given a sophisticated model.

In the mid- 1970s, Texas Tech University grad students were using the wind tunnel to quantify such data experimentally. I doubt that they were alone.
The Energy Research and Development Administration ERDA ) had already gone around the United States measuring wind and solar insolation values, and constructed pilot facilities, wind and solar.
Just like with automobiles, any turbulence produced by a turbine will dissipate and vanish at some separation distance, due to viscous attrition ( viscous shear ). Also, a turbines elevation above ground level tends to isolate its effects from surface winds.

[redpoint5]

The turbulence will dissipate, but the energy removed from the wind suggests it's less windy around the turbines.