Impact of climate change on wind energy across North America under climate change scenario RCP8.5.

Wind energy is one of the renewable energies considered by many nations as a strategy to mitigate the impact of climate change. There are also impacts of climate change on wind energy. Previous studies investigated the effect of climate change on wind energy in North America by using future projections with spatial resolutions of about 100 km (i.e., around 1° × 1° simulation grid) and monthly to yearly average wind speeds or a high spatial resolution (< 50 km) but a few simulations (< 5). A coarse resolution can create biases and is insufficient to appreciate extremes. A smaller number of simulations (e.g., < 5) are inadequate for understanding the modeling uncertainties. To better appreciate the impact of climate change on wind energies in a future changing climate, 15 simulations from high-resolution Reginal Climate Models (RCMs) considering the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 emission scenario were used in the present study. These datasets have a spatial resolution of about 0.4° and a temporal resolution of one hour from 1950 to 2100. The impact of climate change on wind energy was studied on a seasonal and yearly basis. The impact of climate change on design-level wind speeds and structural reliability across North America was also investigated. • The impact of climate change on the annual and seasonal wind energies exhibits large geographical variations across North America. • Seasonal wind energy changes contribute to the annual wind energy changes differently across North America. • Climate change has geographically different impacts on extreme wind climates across North America. • Climate change has a compound impact on wind energy by affecting both wind energy availability and structural safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]