Wind turbines are often installed in areas, like the high plains, where wind tends to be particularly strong. But a new study has found that climate change may affect wind patterns.
As the Washington Post reports, the study, published in Nature Geoscience, found through computer simulations that, in the central United States, the amount of wind energy that can be harvested may decline by 8 to 10 percent by 2050.
This finding lines up with another recent study out of Harvard which found that regions of China have already seen a decline in winds due to climate change.
According to these studies, climate change won’t completely eliminate the wind, but the average energy that windmills produce in certain areas may decrease. In other areas, like Brazil, winds may increase.
The researchers don’t think these studies are a strike against wind power but rather another warning about how the climate is changing around the world.