Could Offshore Wind Farms Actually Sap the Rain From Hurricanes?

[Judi Lynn]

With enough turbines, the rainfall from Hurricane Harvey could have been reduced by 20 percent, according to a new study



Researchers show there’s potential for wind turbines to divert hurricane rains. (Sjo/iStock)

By Richard Kemeny, Hakai Magazine
smithsonian.com
October 2, 2018

Nature’s strength was laid bare again last month as two tropical storms marauded through Southeast Asia and the southeastern United States. Super Typhoon Mangkhut, thought to be one of the most powerful cyclones to hit the Philippines in decades, uprooted homes and turned roads into violent rivers. It killed at least 81 people before twisting its way over the South China Sea and careering into the Chinese mainland where the death toll rose further. On the U.S. east coast, Hurricane Florence caused widespread flooding, killed at least 37 people, and left millions without power. And as with Hurricane Harvey in 2017, Florence stalled over the continent, dropping ever more rain long after making landfall.

In the face of such a raw display of nature’s fury, it may seem like little can be done to lessen the blow of a hurricane. But according to new research, help in tempering the power of hurricanes could one day come from an unexpected source: offshore wind farms.

The idea of deliberately modifying the weather with wind turbines has been around for decades, but little work has been done to calculate whether or not it could really work. In 2014, a group of researchers including Cristina Archer, a civil and environmental engineer from the University of Delaware, showed how using an army of wind turbines to extract kinetic energy from the air could potentially pacify hurricanes. The team calculated that a massive array of 78,000 turbines could reduce coastal storm surges—such as the one Hurricane Katrina shoved onto New Orleans in 2005—by up to 79 percent.

In new follow-up work, Archer and her colleagues have shown the potential for wind turbines to sap the rain from hurricanes, too.

Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/could-offshore-wind-farms-actually-sap-rain-from-hurricanes-180970448/#XEs4lvQAm1ygodYy.99

[Lithos]

1. As they stated, it's not feasible

Think about the required density and think about the build out to have this density at a random spot on the coastline. The money and energy would probably be better spent on carbon emission reduction and sequestration.

For scale, a Hurricane has enough wind energy alone to fuel half of the world's energy needs during the equivalent time period.

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/D7.html

[AuntPatsy]

2. Interesting article.

[liberal N proud]

3. Sounds like some far fetched story from a 1960 edition of Popular Science