Energy generation by wind and solar farms could reduce carbon emissions and thus mitigate anthropogenic climate change. This effect, caused by a combination of increased surface drag and
reduced albedo, could increase coverage by vegetation, creating a
positive feedback that would further increase rainfall.
Wind and solar farms offer a major pathway to clean, renewable energies.
However, these farms would significantly change land surface
properties, and, if sufficiently large, the farms may lead to unintended
climate consequences. In this study, we used a climate model with
dynamic vegetation to show that large-scale installations of wind and
solar farms covering the Sahara lead to a local temperature increase and
more than a twofold precipitation increase, especially in the Sahel,
through increased surface friction and reduced albedo. The resulting
increase in vegetation further enhances precipitation, creating a
positive albedo–precipitation–vegetation feedback that contributes ~80%
of the precipitation increase for wind farms. This local enhancement is
scale dependent and is particular to the Sahara, with small impacts in
other deserts.
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