Offshore wind farms could blunt hurricane effects

Discovery : While developing computer models of hurricanes, Mark Jacobson of Stanford University and Willett Kempton and Cristina Archer of the University of Delaware also looked at the possible effects of wind turbines. Turbines extract energy from the air as the wind pushes the turbine blades. After Hurricane Sandy struck New York, the researchers ran simulations of Hurricanes Sandy, Isaac, and Katrina, with and without the presence of offshore wind farms. They found that large wind farms could significantly reduce both hurricane wind speeds and storm surge. A model of Hurricane Katrina revealed that if 78 000 turbines—enough to produce 300 GW of electricity—were placed within 97 km of the Louisiana coast, they could reduce storm surge levels by up to 79%. Other models showed wind reductions of up to 148 km/h.