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The University of Southampton
Geography and Environmental Science

Calum Goodes: The implications of climate change for renewable UK wind and solar energy

It is widely accepted that the UK needs to move towards greater reliance on renewable sources as a means to generate power, but changes in climate stand to influence how we might best use wind or solar resources to meet future energy needs.

Calum's work examined how predicted changes in wind and sunlight patterns in the UK might affect the potential for power generation using wind turbines in comparison to solar energy using photovoltaic technologies. Overall, his work showed that the viability of solar energy could increase as our climate changes. For wind energy, higher temperatures reduce the risk of ice formation and enable turbines to be operated for longer, but higher rainfall could reduce their efficiency.

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