Climate Change Impacts on Oklahoma Wind Resources: Potential Energy Output Changes

Stephen Stadler, James Mack Dryden and J. Scott Greene
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Stephen Stadler: Geography Department, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA
James Mack Dryden: EDP Renewables North America, 808 Travis, Suite 700 Houston, TX 77002, USA
J. Scott Greene: Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA

Resources, 2015, vol. 4, issue 2, 1-24

Abstract: An extensive literature on climate change modeling points to future changes in wind climates. Some areas are projected to gain wind resources, while others are projected to lose wind resources. Oklahoma is presently wind rich with this resource extensively exploited for power generation. Our work examined the wind power implications under the IPCC’s A2 scenario for the decades 2040–2049, 2050–2059 and 2060–2069 as compared to model reanalysis and Oklahoma Mesonetwork observations for the base decade of 1990–1999. Using two western Oklahoma wind farms as examples, we used North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) modeling outputs to calculate changes in wind power generation. The results show both wind farms to gain in output for all decades as compared to 1990–1999. Yet, the results are uneven by seasons and with some decades exhibiting decreases in the fall. These results are of interest in that it is clear that investors cannot count on wind studies of the present to adequately characterize future productivity. If our results are validated over time, Oklahoma stands to gain wind resources through the next several decades.

Keywords: wind resource and climate change; Oklahoma; wind power generation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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