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Xander Wang, UPEI: Projecting Future Wind Energy Potential Through a High Resolution Regional Climate Model
Wind energy is one of the most cost-effective solution towards carbon mitigation and has been favored for climate policy development around the world. However, the high sensitivity of wind energy to climate change raises some critical issues for the long-term effectiveness in providing sustainable energy supply. Here we use a high-resolution regional climate model to explore how wind speed and its energy potential in China will change in the context of global warming. Our results suggest that the mean wind speed is expected to decrease in most regions of China, except for a slightly increase in the southeast. While the wind power density is expected to increase by over 5% in winter in the major wind fields of China (i.e., Northwest, North-Central, and Northeast), significant decreases (by about 6% on average) are projected for other seasons. The results of this research are of great importance for understanding where and to what extent the wind energy can be utilized to contribute the renewable energy system development in China in support of its long-term climate change mitigation commitment.