Li, Y.; et al. (2018): Climate model shows large-scale wind and solar farms in the Sahara increase rain and vegetation

Li, Y.; Kalnay, E.; Motesharrei, S.; Rivas, J.; Kucharski, F.; Kirk-Davidoff, D. et al. (2018): Climate model shows large-scale wind and solar farms in the Sahara increase rain and vegetation. In: Science 361 (6406), S. 1019–1022. DOI: 10.1126/science.aar5629.

“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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