Microclimates: Impacts of Spatio-Climatic Variability
on Environment-hosted Land-Based Renewables
What is the research about?
Understanding the effects of local changes in climate on land-based renewables and host landscapes.
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A micro-climate is a change in climate at a localised scale. We want to find out how these affect land-based renewable energy schemes.
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We also want to find out how environments hosting land-based renewables respond to micro-climatic change.
How will we do it?
Researchers will study micro-climate conditions and the resilience of host environments to land-based renewables.
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High-resolution modelling of the near surface atmosphere, observations at wind farms and bio-energy crop sites, and laboratory-based studies.
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More information about our research team can be found here.
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Find out more about specific research questions and work packagaes here.
Why is it important?
Micro-climates could affect wind farm energy production, bio-energy crop yields and the resilience of the environment to renewable energy schemes.
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Rapid growth of renewable energy schemes in the UK has exceeded the rate at which understanding of their interactions with the environment has developed.
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Land-based renewables, such as wind farms and bio-energy crops, are highly dependent on local climatic conditions.
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Average wind speed determines the viability of wind farms, but can vary considerably over areas no greater than the size of a typical wind farm. The productivity of bio-energy crops can also vary over similar spatial scales.
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Localised changes in climate (micro-climates) could lead to significant differences in the response of environments hosting land-based renewables.
