To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Nan Cook, and I live in Newburyport, Mass. First of all, I am not against wind power, but for properly siting these huge pieces of equipment.

We had a 292-foot Elecon T600-48 installed roughly 1,000 feet from our house in January 2009 (600kWatt). Noise and flicker modeling was done by experts who assured us the studies were correct. Noise would not be an issue and flicker would be not be perceived. However, reality is different than models. Wind and weather data can be modeled over time, but not predicted.

We did not know the turbine would create a light show at night as the red Federal Aviation Administration [required] flashing light strobes up each 78 foot blade 13 or 23 times per minute as the blades rotate.

We did not know that shadow flicker can occur at night with a full moon; that we hear it at night when the noise levels are quieter; and that it is not as quiet as a refrigerator. Some neighbors have taken to sleeping with window fans and TVs running to drown out the low frequency hum.

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Cape Cod expert says it most certainly is

—Eric Bibler 7/28/10

Readers might be interested in a recent column by Brent Harold in the Cape Cod Times entitled “Not in Anybody’s Back Yard.” Mr. Harold, a resident of Wellfleet, MA, was until recently an ardent supporter of the wind turbine project there. Here is a link to his excellent piece.

Another useful resource for readers who wish to achieve a basic understanding of wind energy technology is a slide show presentation by John Droz, a retired physicist.

There are many websites which contain a wealth of information, including technical articles and first person testimonials, about wind energy. Dr. Nina Pierpont’s website does an excellent job of summarizing her research and also provides links to important articles by reputable acoustic experts which provide information about the specialized quality — and intensely disruptive nature — of noise from wind turbines.

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Bulletin from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

July 28, 2010

A wind turbine is a rotary device with a gigantic propeller as big as a football field that turns in the wind to generate electricity. Although wind turbines are more often found in Europe than in the United States, they’re rapidly becoming more popular here as a “green” energy source. Most people consider that a good thing, except the rotors of wind turbines also generate noise, particularly in the infrasound range, that some people claim makes them feel sick.

Since frequencies that low can’t be heard, many scientists who study hearing have assumed they can’t have any effect on the function of the ear. But a little known phenomenon related to the infrasound generated by wind turbines is making some scientists challenge the common wisdom that what we can’t hear won’t hurt us.

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Wind Turbines (Minimum Distances from Residential Premises) Bill

Editor’s note.  Be aware that the following bill, bearing the above title, has not yet been passed by the House of Lords.  At this point it is merely a proposal.  It will be debated and then voted on.

A bill to make provision for a minimum distance between wind turbines and residential premises according to the size of the wind turbine; and for connected purposes.

Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

1.  Planning permission

(1) No relevant authority may grant planning permission for the construction of a wind turbine generator unless it meets the minimum distance requirement under section 2, subject to the exception in section 3.

(2) “Relevant authority” means the local authority or government department with the power to grant planning permission for a wind turbine generator.

2.  Requirements for minimum distance

(1) The “minimum distance requirement” means the necessary minimum distance between the wind turbine generator and residential premises as set out in subsection (4).

(2) “Residential premises” means any premises the main purpose of which is to provide residential accommodation, including farmhouses.

(3) If a number of wind turbine generators are being built as part of the same project the minimum distance requirement applies to each wind turbine generator individually.

(4) If the height of the wind turbine generator is—

(a) greater than 25m [82 feet], but does not exceed 50m [164 feet], the minimum distance requirement is 1000m [3280 feet = 0.62 mile];

(b) greater than 50m [164 feet], but does not exceed 100m [328 feet], the minimum distance requirement is 1500m [4921 feet = 0.93 mile];

(c) greater than 100m [328 feet], but does not exceed 150m [492 feet], the minimum distance requirement is 2000m [2km = 6562 feet = 1.24 miles];

(d) greater than 150m [492 feet], the minimum distance requirement is 3000m [3km = 9843 feet = 1.86 miles].

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To whom it may concern:

With the desire to help in some way, but with the inability to travel to wind hearings, I am writing to give you my personal perspective since the construction of 292′ privately-owned wind turbine about 1200′ away in ’09.

As much as I would not want to publicly identify myself with such images, unfortunately, anger, sadness, and hopelessness are predominant emotions in relation to my situation.

I feel them when I experience the impacts of noise, shadow flicker, and red flashing lights at my home, as well as the rotating blade movement that distracts my concentration as I sit in my favorite family room chair. There are times when it seems the colors of the blades in a particular light penetrate even the curtains. It is truly a feeling of invasion of property that I recognize no short-term visitor will ever understand.

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The light flicker is analogous to having a strobe light penetrating into almost every room in your house at the same time. If you walk outside you can see the continuous movement of the shadow from the large blades covering the entire street. To say the least, it is very overwhelming, distracting and disconcerting.

To Whom It May Concern:

I want to begin by saying that I am a great proponent of alternative energy and conscientious use of our natural resources. We need to continue to pursue options using our research and development skills to help alleviate the energy crisis. In that light, it is fair to say from data analysis, that wind turbine energy is not the “save all” of the energy crisis. It may only add a very small fraction of alternative energy that will help alleviate our dependency on fossil fuels.

After witnessing the construction of a large turbine within close proximity of my home, I have experienced the harm associated with light flicker and visual impact. Similarly, I have done extensive research from reputable sources on the Internet to learn about the health and safety hazards of wind turbines. The bottom line is that they are not suitable to be built close to residential housing districts.

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I had beef cattle for about two years prior to the turbines operating and never lost any animals.  Shortly after the turbines began to operate, I had beef cattle become ill and die. 

I lost ten animals valued at $5,000 [each] over a two-year period and couldn’t afford to continue.

My name is Joe Yunk; I currently reside at the address of N2630 Townhall Rd in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin.

My prior address was North 7905 County Trunk P, Algoma, Wisconsin which was in the Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) wind farm by Rio Creek, Wisconsin. I moved from the Algoma address to my current address on or about October 2009 to get away from the effects of the WPS wind farm.

I have been following the current proposed Element Power LLC (EEP) wind farm development that I now find myself living in.

I want you to know what I went through while living in the WPS wind farm. I am hopeful that this information will help you make the right decisions with regard to any PSCW approvals for any other wind farms in Wisconsin.

I would hate to see other peoples’ lives to be as negatively affected as mine has been as a result of living in a wind farm. There is no doubt in my mind that I will relive the awful experience once again if the EEP wind farm for Kewaunee County is approved.

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Several sites have witnessed protests against politicians, to rein in wind projects

—Axel Pihl-Andersen

July 22, 2010

More and more neighbors are protesting against new, large wind turbines on land, and in Thy Østerild is thus far from the only example of bitter confrontation between the authorities and wind neighbors.

The six month-old association, National Association Neighbors to Fight Wind Turbines, has already signed up 40 citizen groups who have gone to battle against planned or existing mills, and a dozen more are on their way into the association.

“People are fed up with having their property deteriorate and sleep ruined by noise from large wind turbines at 130 meters and up to 200 meters. We receive constant calls from civic groups that will be reported in,” says association President Boye Jensen Odsherred.

Several places have prevented protests mill setups or municipality had to hold back.

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A few days ago, the second biggest energy company in the world, the multinational, mainly German-owned Eon, submitted an application for a wind farm with 10 wind turbines, each 180 meters (590 feet) high, not far from my home, in one of the last quiet areas of Scania, South Sweden.

The local resistance is massive. Eon knew it, but obviously wants to flex its muscles and show who is the “boss.”

I have attached a photo of 17-year-old Moa Olsson protesting the windfarm in the threatened forests, holding a poster showing Edvard Munch’s famous painting, “The Sream,” with the text, “Eon destroys our life.”

Peter Skeel Hjorth
Sweden
July 20, 2010

Editor’s note:  I have taken the liberty of editing Mr. Hjorth’s text slightly, to make his English more grammatically correct and intelligible.  This has not changed the meaning of his letter in any manner.

First international symposium on adverse health effects and industrial wind turbines

Posted by the Society for Wind Vigilance

Picton, Ontario, July 17, 2010 — The First International Symposium on the adverse health effects of industrial wind turbines will be held October 29-31, 2010 in Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada.

Hosted by The Society for Wind Vigilance and supported by the County Coalition for Safe and Appropriate Green Energy, this groundbreaking two day event will feature prominent expert speakers from the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada who will provide important information relating to health issues reported by people living too close to industrial wind developments.

At the invitation of the Chair of The Society for Wind Vigilance, Dr Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD, New York, will be the key note speaker. Dr Pierpont is recognized as one of the first health specialists in the world to identify the pattern of symptoms that manifest themselves when people live too close to industrial wind developments.

Experts including Christopher Hanning, MD (U.K.), Michael Nissenbaum, MD (U.S.A), John Harrison, PhD (Canada) and Arline Bronzaft, PhD (U.S.A) are also among the outstanding roster of speakers. Topics include sleep disturbance, impacts on children, incorrect diagnosis leading to increased medication use and the urgent need for human health research.

The Society for Wind Vigilance is an international federation of physicians, engineers and other professionals formed in response to the growing number of serious human health issues that appear when industrial wind developments are located in close proximity to homes.

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Calls for Alltwalis Wind Farm to be shut down

… from the website of Jonathan Edwards, Member of Parliament for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr

July 7, 2010

A local Assembly Member has called for Alltwalis wind farm to be shut after the company behind it, Statkraft, refused to take responsibility for the distress caused to families in the surrounding area as a result of noise and flicker problems. Rhodri Glyn Thomas, Assembly Member (AM), has contacted the Director of Statkraft Wind making clear his anger at the inaction of the organisation at dealing with complaints. Mr. Thomas AM has also written to the chief executive of Carmarthenshire County Council requesting that they implement enforcement powers to shut down the site until these matters are resolved.

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Mary Hamilton
Concerned Residents of Hammond

July 22, 2010

A big thank you to all who sat through last night’s 4-hour Hammond Wind committee meeting with the Iberdrola representatives at the school. It was nice to see all the regulars as well as the many new faces that were in attendance.

For those who missed it, permit me to enlighten you with a summary of the “nine-act” performance that was choreographed to put the best possible spin on industrial wind development in Hammond.

The Iberdrola entourage arrived with a project manager and consultant, an engineer, a meteorologist, an environmental scientist, a public relations person, a transmission specialist, and three attorneys in tow.

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Disturbing the silence: Wind turbine not sustaining to neighbors’ sleep

—Heather Hacking, ChicoER.com (7/15/10)

CHICO—A year and a half ago when Don Steinsiek installed a wind turbine at the top of Stilson Canyon Road, he was excited to harness the wind.

He had been interested in the technology for a while, and when tax credits and rebates became available, he went for it.

The wind will vary, but he figured with the incentives, he could pay off his $82,000 investment in six or seven years.

When energy generation is greater than his use, he can sell electricity to the grid for 5 cents a kilowatt. But overall, he said the turbine provides energy for about two-thirds of his energy use.

It sounded like a good plan, and fit with the trend toward renewable energy sources.

But neighbors say the wind turbine ruins the quiet nature of the neighborhood, lowers their property values and deprives them of sleep.

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Audiology Today, the Magazine of the American Academy of Audiology features the article “Wind Turbine Noise: what audiologists should know.”

Download the article in PDF.

WIND TURBINES: ANGELS OR DEMONS?

New, feature-length documentary directed by Nigel Spence

“Con with the Wind is a passionate and inspirational look at the myths, facts and lies surrounding big business interests in the Wind Farm Goldrush.

“Filmmaker and director Nigel Spence’s gripping documentary, shot in 15 countries over 3 years, exposes the truth and the real human, environmental and subsidy costs of wind turbines—a cost that the youth of today will be paying for the next 25 years.”

Click here to watch.

What’s wrong with wind turbines?

Download for free Your Guide to Wind Turbine Syndrome: A Roadmap to This Complicated Subject, by Calvin Luther Martin, Ph.D.

Dr. Carl V. Phillips is a Harvard-trained epidemiologist specializing in public health policy.  Until recently, Dr. Phillips was a tenured professor in the School of Public Health, University of Alberta, and is currently director of an independent research institute.  Click here for Dr. Phillips’s (slightly out of date) curriculum vitae.

In his testimony before the Wisconsin Public Service Commission on June 30, 2010, Dr. Phillips affirmed that Wind Turbine Syndrome (WTS) is epidemiologically valid and must be taken seriously by policy makers.  He dismissed the wind industry’s so-called expert studies opposing WTS as pseudo-science and prima facie ludicrous.  Along the way, he punctures the sappy “nocebo effect” invoked by wind inidustry-sponsored scientists, as being epidemiologically naive and irrelevant.

He informed the PSC that full-blown epidemiological studies of WTS could be readily performed, although he seems unaware that the wind industry prevents these with its confidentiality agreements (gag clauses).

Phillips hints at a moratorium on further wind farm development until large-scale, properly funded epidemiological studies are performed, while reiterating and underscoring that scientifically credible evidence exists, right now, demonstrating genuine health problems from wind turbines.

Dr. Phillips’s testimony, shown on the YouTube above, is supplemented by a written report which he is submitting to the Wisconsin PSC.  His report will be posted on this site when it is made publicly available.

The following is a transcript of Dr. Phillips’s testimony, courtesy of Better Plan Wisconsin (with corrections added). (more…)

Professor Elizabeth Wheatley
Department of Sociology
Grand Valley State University
1 Campus Drive
Allendale, MI 49401-9401

June 14, 2010

Dear Professor Wheatley,

You wrote to me, inquiring about infrasound and low frequency noise (ILFN) impacts from a large array of wind turbines proposed for Lake Michigan. Impacts, that is, on people living on shore four miles away, and impacts on fish.

Your concerns are well-founded. First, a crash course on “noise.” Noise propagation models are based on the spherical movement of sound waves and the dispersion of their power. In these models, sound loses its power rapidly.

Sound waves over water, however, present a special case. The issue over water is that instead of having an absorptive surface, the way trees and vegetation and houses might absorb sound—you now have a reflective surface. Basically, you’re dealing with half of a sphere; the power of the sound is concentrated because the whole bottom of the sphere is reflected back into the top of the sphere.

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