Wind turbines may help crops

by | Dec 20, 2016 | 5 Ag Stories, News

AMES, Iowa ? A multi-year study led by an Iowa State University scientist suggests the turbines commonly used in the state to capture wind energy may have a positive effect on crops.

Gene Takle, a Distinguished Professor of agronomy and geological and atmospheric sciences, said tall wind turbines disbursed throughout a field create air turbulence that may help plants by affecting variables such as temperature and carbon dioxide concentrations.

Takle and his team installed research towers on a 200-turbine wind farm between Radcliffe and Colo. The research towers collected data from 2010 to 2013 on wind speeds and directions, temperature, humidity, turbulence, gas content and precipitation. The project aimed to discover how the turbulence created when wind moves through the turbines affects conditions at ground level where crops grow.

Takle said the team?s data show that the wind turbines have a measurable impact on several key variables that affect growing conditions. It?s more difficult to pin down whether those changes affect crop performance, but Takle said wind turbines may make growing conditions more favorable for corn and soybeans.

?On balance, it seems turbines have a small, positive impact on crops,? he said.

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