Telegraph : Low Solar Activity Is Making The Weather Cold And Wind Farms Useless

Is this the beginning of some actual science from the “climate science” community?

Wind farms: Britain is ‘running out of wind

According to government figures, 13 of the past 16 months have been calmer than normal – while 2010 was the “stillest” year of the past decade.

Meteorologists believe that changes to the Atlantic jet stream could alter the pattern of winds over the next 40 years and leave much of the nation’s growing army of power-generating turbines becalmed.

The Coalition has drawn up plans to open more wind farms in an effort to meet Britain’s European Union target of providing 15 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.More than 3,600 turbines are expected to be installed in offshore wind farms over the next nine years.

But statistics suggest that the winds that sweep across the British Isles may be weakening. Last year, wind speeds over the UK averaged 7.8 knots (8.9mph), a fall of 20 per cent on 2008, and well below the mean for this century, which stands at 9.1 knots (10.5mph).

Usually Britain has warm, wet and windy winters, thanks to Caribbean air carried here by the Atlantic jet stream, a fast-flowing current of air.

But the last two winters have featured exceptionally low temperatures and were remarkably still when they should have been the windiest seasons of all, as high pressure diverted the jet stream from its normal position.

Meteorologists have found that the position of the jet stream has been influenced by the lower levels of activity on the Sun. This decline in sun-spot activity is expected to continue for the next 40 years, with potentially serious consequences for the viability of wind farms.

Professor Mike Lockwood, from Reading University, said: “Changes in the jet stream will change the pattern of winds that we get in the UK. That, of course, is a problem for wind power.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

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8 Responses to Telegraph : Low Solar Activity Is Making The Weather Cold And Wind Farms Useless

  1. Bruce says:

    Glad to see Prof Lockwood is still in business and getting even closer to the real climate data (ie not the strange stuff that lives in computer models).

    “We are now halfway back to the levels seen during the Maunder Minimum. The probability is that that decline will continue for the next 40 years.”

    Code for ‘its the Sun but its still too dangerous for me to come fully out from the climate closet just yet’. I commend him for being able to say what he says in a country with a completely bonkers green-conservative government.

  2. TinyCO2 says:

    The jet stream has locked in unusual positions for long periods of time over the last few years. I have begun to wonder if this is what global cooling looks like.

  3. Andy Weiss says:

    At least he is blaming the Sun rather than us evil humans.

  4. Sean Ogilvie says:

    EXACTLY as predicted by climate models! They’re never wrong. *

    * It’s against the rules for them to be wrong.

  5. klem says:

    “Meteorologists have found that the position of the jet stream has been influenced by the lower levels of activity on the Sun. ”

    Ooops they are suggesting that the sun has an influence on climate, rather than co2 only. This places them in the climate denier camp. Climatologists have repeatedly found no connection between sun activity and climate, CO2 is their only explanation. How can these two separate sciences arrive at such opposing conclusions?

    Interesting, no?

  6. Jimash says:

    “Meteorologists have found that the position of the jet stream has been influenced by the lower levels of activity on the Sun. This decline in sun-spot activity is expected to continue for the next 40 years, ”

    Maybe the first time I have seen this suggested in the news media.

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