—Allen Haas, Sworn testimony to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (8/24/10), regarding the Blue Sky Greenfield Wind Energy Center

I have three wind turbines on my property and get $4,000 for each one.

It’s been 2 years now with the turbines and everyone in the community is irritable and short, they snap back. The best of friends for 35 years, but everyone just snaps.

People are not really mad directly at the wind turbines or even know what they are mad about, they’re just mad, aggressive.

The closest one to my house is 3,000 feet away—way too close.

You don’t get sleep at night because they roar like at an airport. I get shadow flicker in my house, but down in the village of Johnsburg where those are about another 1,500 feet away from the turbines—oh probably 4,500 feet total those blades are throwing shadows right over all the house roof tops in entire village . . . that’s really bad.

All of our TV’s got knocked out too. I can only get local channels when the turbine is turned in a certain direction. 97% of the time, we got no reception. There is no mitigation either.

I go to the doctor and now I’m on a lot of different medications. I’ve been to the hospital a couple of times in the past two years with chest pains. And they just can’t figure out what it is, but now we’re all being diagnosed with wind turbine syndrome.

And I sure got it. It definitely causes depression. Memory loss is the worse issue. I see it so bad in myself and especially my parents who are older. But they are at the point where they just don’t care anymore because there’s nothing they can do anyhow.

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“Wind power won’t cool down the planet”

—Robert Bryce, Wall St. Journal (8/23/10)

Often enough it leads to higher carbon emissions

The wind industry has achieved remarkable growth largely due to the claim that it will provide major reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. There’s just one problem: It’s not true. A slew of recent studies show that wind-generated electricity likely won’t result in any reduction in carbon emissions—or that they’ll be so small as to be almost meaningless.

This issue is especially important now that states are mandating that utilities produce arbitrary amounts of their electricity from renewable sources. By 2020, for example, California will require utilities to obtain 33% of their electricity from renewables. About 30 states, including Connecticut, Minnesota and Hawaii, are requiring major increases in the production of renewable electricity over the coming years.

Wind—not solar or geothermal sources—must provide most of this electricity. It’s the only renewable source that can rapidly scale up to meet the requirements of the mandates. This means billions more in taxpayer subsidies for the wind industry and higher electricity costs for consumers.

None of it will lead to major cuts in carbon emissions, for two reasons. First, wind blows only intermittently and variably. Second, wind-generated electricity largely displaces power produced by natural gas-fired generators, rather than that from plants burning more carbon-intensive coal.

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—Alan Farago, Vinalhaven, ME (8/25/10)

I am one of the neighbors of the Vinalhaven wind turbines, misled by turbine supporters in 2008 and 2009 that “ambient sounds would mask the noise of the turbines.” As I write these words, the noise from the wind turbines churns in the background.

My home is 3000 feet from the turbines, and my experience is contrary to all the assertions that were made during the permitting process a few years ago.

At this hour of the morning, it should be peaceful outside, the quiet interrupted only by the calling crows or osprey circling. Some locals dismiss the noise complaints, saying that Vinalhaven had a diesel power plant for years. But to live near excessive noise is not the reason I chose to own property here. Also, as I have become familiar with wind turbine noise, it is more and more clear that there is a fundamental difference between turbine noise and other forms of industrial disturbances. Here, it is not just the constant noise, but the pulsing drone that makes the noise particularly hostile that is so disturbing. It is inescapable.

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—Eric Bibler, WTS.com guest editor

Passage of the Wind Energy Siting Reform Act (WESRA) still remains a real possibility in Massachusetts, but awareness of the adverse consequences—and fundamental futility—of wind energy is growing. As more people learn the naked facts about industrial wind energy—either first hand (the hard way), as in Falmouth (MA), from news reports or from their own research—they are discovering that, in addition to being wildly expensive, it simply doesn’t accomplish anything. Opposition is growing—but we need to keep working actively resist such projects in order to prevent the wholesale industrialization of Cape Cod—where blueprints have been drawn for many additional projects—and throughout many pristine areas of Massachusetts.

The wind industry has gotten a free ride for over a decade, pushing the idea that these massive industrial power plants are effective, environmentally beneficial and benign—without having to prove their model. None of these claims are true. Their soft sell public relations efforts belie the hardball tactics they employ to ram their projects through to the universal detriment of habitat, wildlife, residents and taxpayers everywhere. Make no mistake: proponents are wielding an iron fist inside that velvet glove. Just ask anyone who has ever signed a lease waiving all of his rights to protest the consequences—or any of the thousands of people who share the misfortune of living in close proximity to such monsters.

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—Editorial Board, “Wind Turbines Can Affect Inner Ear Function,” On the Level: Quarterly Newsletter of the Vestibular Disorders Association (Summer 2010, p. 9)

Scientists have determined how infrasound from wind turbines may influence inner ear function.

An increasing number of people living near wind turbines report a group of symptoms termed “wind turbine syndrome” that include sleeplessness, dizziness, fatigue, ear pain and pressure, difficulty concentrating, and headache.

Up until now, many scientists who study hearing claimed that noise from wind turbines couldn’t be harmful because it occurred at a frequency too low for most people to hear.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri successfully challenged this conventional wisdom that “what you can’t hear won’t hurt you.” They noted that one type of inner-ear sensory cell behaves differently when encountering infrasound.

Usually these cells respond to sound by contracting and expanding proteins within their walls, amplifying vibrations, which in turn stimulate other sensory cells to send electrical signals about sound to the brain. However, the proteins do not respond in the same way to infrasound and instead actively prevent stimulation of the cells that transmit sound signals.

So, while the brain may not receive information about sound, a physiological response to infrasound has occurred in both the cochlea and the other sensory structures in the inner ear such as the saccule, possibly explaining the unfamiliar sensations experienced by some people.

Reference:

Salt AN, Huller TE. “Responses of the ear to low frequency sounds, infrasound and wind turbines.” Hearing Research 2010 Sep 1;268(1-2):12-21. Epub 2010 Jun 16.

“Grievances aired over wind turbines on Vinalhaven”

—Heather Steeves, Bangor Daily News (8/21/10)

Residents expressed grievances about turbine noise at a Thursday meeting that allowed islanders to ask questions of two wind professionals who will be collecting noise data in an attempt to identify specific mechanical perpetrators.

The experts then will come back to the community with options and prices for noise mitigation.

It has been about two years since Vinalhaven voters, with a 383-5 vote, approved the construction of three wind turbines. It has been about a year since wind started producing power on Vinalhaven and North Haven.

At Thursday’s meeting, held in Vinalhaven School’s auditorium and hosted by Island Institute in Rockland, some residents among the more than 100 in attendance complained of unusual sounds generated by the turbines. Some said they felt vibrations and others were worried about health risks.

Cathy Frierson said she was sitting in her home working on her computer last week when noise from the turbines disrupted her.

“All of a sudden I felt a sternum vibration and felt ill,” she said. “I had to leave my home and go to the other side of the island.”

Resident Ethan Hall said the sounds the turbines make never fade into background noise.

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—William Tucker

Editor:  The following text and images are taken from a weblog by William Tucker, author of Terrestrial Energy: How Nuclear Energy Will Lead the Green Revolution and End America’s Energy Odyssey.  Tucker is a seasoned journalist.  He has done us all a great service by demythologizing nuclear power. 

Tucker thinks it’s time to retire the name “nuclear power,” loaded as it is with frightful connotations, and start using the more realistic and palatable name, “terrestrial energy.” 

Here is a crash course on the subject, courtesy of Bill Tucker.

The theme of my book is that nuclear power is the only technology that’s ever going to make an impact in cutting carbon emissions and heading off global warming. Anyone who understands physics knows this is true. The quantities of energy we need to run our society just aren’t available from what we’re calling the “clean alternatives.”

… only if the wind is blowing–the Editor

The secret of understanding nuclear is in Einstein’s formula, E=mc². 

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—Eric Bibler, WTS.com guest editor

Critics of wind energy are absolutely right—the entire idea of wind energy is nonsense. It’s utterly impractical and unsuitable for the production of electricity. It’s a government subsidized fraud. It’s a huge waste of resources, breathtaking in its transparent and inevitable futility, and it destroys our quality of life (and valuable habitat for wildlife) by industrializing vast tracts of land, even as it promises to save us from the sins and excesses of prior, arguably much more defensible, forms of industrialization.

I don’t see how anyone can conclude otherwise.

Critics are also correct that ALL means of producing electricity—which are nothing more than the conversion of one form of potential energy into another form, i.e. usable electric energy—create unwanted adverse effects and/or waste. No means of generating electricity is without consequences. Only a very few forms of potential energy are “dense”—meaning that the energy source which can be converted into electricity is very portable and dense. In fact, the only forms of energy that possess high density are fossil fuels and nukes. Period.

In effect, we’re wasting our breath—not to mention our time, effort, money, land, health, habitat, quality of life, and endless good intentions—pursuing wind and solar energy. They are not reliable and they will never supply a meaningful amount of electrical energy. And the required dedication of resources—including land, infrastructure, rare strategic minerals, and so forth—is clearly unacceptable to anyone who has access to a calculator or a number two pencil and some scrap paper (assuming rudimentary math skills).

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“The USA should stop wasting billions to subsidize unreliable wind energy projects”

—Robert Bryce, Slate 8/16/10

They like everything big in Texas, and wind energy is no exception. Texas has more wind generation capacity than any other state, about 9,700 megawatts. (That’s nearly as much installed wind capacity as India.) Texas residential ratepayers are now paying about $4 more per month on their electric bills in order to fund some 2,300 miles of new transmission lines to carry wind-generated electricity from rural areas to the state’s urban centers.

It’s time for those customers to ask for a refund. The reason: When it gets hot in Texas—and it’s darn hot in the Lone Star State in the summer—the state’s ratepayers can’t count on that wind energy. On Aug. 4, at about 5 p.m., electricity demand in Texas hit a record: 63,594 megawatts. But according to the state’s grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s wind turbines provided only about 500 megawatts of power when demand was peaking and the value of electricity was at its highest.

Put another way, only about 5 percent of the state’s installed wind capacity was available when Texans needed it most. Texans may brag about the size of their wind sector, but for all of that hot air, the wind business could only provide about 0.8 percent of the state’s electricity needs when demand was peaking.

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—Sarah Lake, The Daily Times 8/18/10

Since its blades first started spinning June 11, the University of Delaware’s wind turbine has become a city landmark and is already providing some clean power to campus facilities.

However, for some residents, the structure’s majesty is overshadowed by its noise.

Janice Pinto, who lives on Rodney Avenue, compares the sound to “a jet engine that won’t land.”

“Neighbors are awakened … I’m concerned,” she said. “I think environmental government controls need to protect citizenry from noise pollution.”

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“Do you hear what I hear?”  Noise controversy over Vinalhaven wind turbines amps up

—The Free Press, 8/12/10

Vinalhaven sits 15 miles off the coast and just over an hour’s ferry ride from Rockland, but it has an old-fashioned sense of community rare on the mainland these days. Every driver waves as they pass and it’s common for an islander to leave the keys in the truck in case anyone needs to borrow it.

It was with that sense of community that the islanders welcomed the three wind turbines to Vinalhaven last year. Not only did the turbines promise reliable electrical service, which was something long-term residents did not take for granted, but wind power would lower electric rates for everyone. Islanders turned out in strength last November to see the turbines started up, watch the 123-foot-long blades sweep the air and watch grade-school children do a windmill dance to the tune of “I’m a Little Tea-Pot.”

Even with some initial start-up glitches, rates have gone down when averaged across the year (the estimated average rate is now five to six cents per kilowatt hour, with variations from month to month, according to Fox Island Electric Cooperative; the national average rate was 11.36 cents per kilowatt hour in 2008).

Most of the 1,200 or so residents on Vinalhaven approve of the turbines. But within days of start-up a handful of Vinalhaven residents who lived within a mile of the wind turbines on the North Haven Road reported noise problems.

Nine months later, people have taken sides. Fingers are being pointed. Frustration levels are rising. There are rumblings about complainers and how they should move off the island if they don’t like it. There are accusations of misinformation and biased noise data collection.

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Wind power is sold as the answer to Nova Scotia’s quest for renewable energy, but we’re overlooking the health effects on people who live near windmills, and some serious questions about whether wind can really solve our electrical problems.

—Bruce Wark, The Coast, 8/5/10

There are ironies everywhere if you notice them. Like the Dutch windmills on June MacDonald’s yellow tablecloth. MacDonald, a 64-year-old retired school teacher with twinkling eyes and good-humoured determination, has been fighting for more than a year against the installation of windmills near her home in Baileys Brook, Pictou County. But they’re nothing like the squat, old-fashioned ones on her kitchen table.

The modern industrial windmills that worry MacDonald and her husband, Rod, tower 121 metres to the topmost blade. That’s almost one-and-a-half times the height of Purdy’s Wharf Tower 2 on the Halifax waterfront. The tips of their 41-metre-long blades can sweep through the air at over 300 kilometres an hour, cleaving a swath of sky that covers 5,281 square metres, almost the same area as an American football field.

“The wind turbines won’t be tiny, they’ll be huge. They’ll dominate that ridge line from end all the way down to end,” says neighbour Kristen Overmyer as he stands in June MacDonald’s living room, pointing across the cow pasture to Brown’s Mountain, the imposing, weathered ridge that shelters the tiny community of Baileys Brook at its foot, but which is buffeted by strong westerly winds at its peak. “When you look at this beautiful setting here, your attention is going to be immediately drawn to these machines, so the character of this entire valley is going to be changed forever.”

Another irony: Overmyer and his artist-wife, Susan, moved here seven years ago from the US after seeing pictures of Pictou County on American TV. They fell in love with the area’s quiet beauty, but now find themselves trying to defend it against a big industrial project.

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—David G. Tuerck & Jonathan Haughton, Boston.com, 7/28/10

How much are you willing to pay for green energy? Almost any ratepayer would say that if the electric utilities could obtain a significant amount of their power from a renewable source, and do so without raising rates, then that would be a good deal. It would certainly appear to be a good deal if they could obtain the power and at the same time reduce their rates.

For years Cape Wind Associates, which plans to build 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound, told us that it could supply renewable energy to the New England market and save ratepayers $25 million a year. Considering the cost of installing and operating the system (about $2 billion in present-value terms), it was always unlikely that Cape Wind could deliver on this promise. Yet, it seemed possible that by adding significantly to power supplies, Cape Wind could bring about at least a temporary decrease in the price of power.

Now we learn, however, that ratepayers will pay more for their electricity if Cape Wind builds and goes online. Recently, National Grid entered into an agreement to buy power from Cape Wind for almost 21 cents per kilowatt hour. It costs National Grid about 9 cents per kWh to get the same power from conventional sources. Under the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard program, the electric companies charge ratepayers an additional 6 cents per kWh for that portion of their service (currently 5 percent) that the power companies are supposed to obtain from renewable sources. Hence, power that previously cost 15 cents will now cost 21 cents. National Grid’s biggest customers are protesting this price increase.

Under the agreement, National Grid, which supplies 40 percent of Massachusetts’ residential electric power, will buy half of Cape Wind’s output. The proposal to buy the power at the contracted rate (which allows for an annual increase of 3.5 percent) is now before the state’s Department of Public Utilities for its approval. If the National Grid deal goes through, it won’t be long before another electric utility finds itself under pressure to buy the other half of Cape Wind’s power.

If that happens, ratepayers are going to end up paying $82 million annually more than what they currently pay for the power to be supplied by Cape Wind. That is far cry from paying the $25 million less that Cape Wind originally promised. It’s a case of bait-and-switch: Promise something at a cost saving. Then reveal at the last minute that the cost will be greater, not less. It’s a practice that would have the authorities swooping down on any retailer that tried it.

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Editor’s note:  National Wind Watch has compiled a lengthy list of articles on what is basically Wind Turbine Syndrome, going back to 2004.  From around the world.  This is not an exhaustive list, but it’s pretty darn impressive.  Click here to go to the original article, where the articles are hot-linked for ease of accessing.

August 12, 2010

Milner, Catherine (January 25, 2004). Telegraph. “Wind farms ‘make people sick who live up to a mile away’” [1].

Keller, James (May 13, 2006). Hamilton Spectator. “Family says turbine vibrations made them ill enough to move” [2].

Kriz, Kathy (October 12, 2006). WHAM-TV. “Could Wind Turbines Be A Health Hazard?” [3].

Chronicle Herald (August 27, 2007). “Quietly sounding alarm; Forced from home after noise from wind farm turbines made family sick, d’Entremont telling others his story” [4].

St. James, Janet (July 29, 2008). WFAA-TV. “Neighbors claim wind turbine makes them ill” [5].

CTV (September 28, 2008). “Wind turbines cause health problems, residents say” [6].

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Editor’s note:  The following note accompanied this video/email.  The on-screen English translation is by Google—imperfect, but adequate. 

Editor’s note:  The following letter is from the Honorable Dennis Hastert, Speaker, US House of Representatives (retired). 

From:  J. Dennis Hastert, 759 John St., Ste. A, Yorkville, Illinois 60560.  Tel. 630.553.3628
To:  Larry Gerdes, Transcend Services, One Glenlake Parkway, Ste. 1325, Atlanta, GA 30328

August 6, 2010

Dear Larry:

It has been brought to my attention that large wind-energy developments are being planned in Bureau, Lee, and Warren counties. I am aware of developments already in place in eastern Lee County and DeKalb County in northern Illinois.

During my tenure as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the House passed through energy bills each designed to use the extensive oil, natural gas, and coal resources that are located here in the United States and to do this with very little government subsidy and/or tax credits. My feeling was that if we unbridled the free-enterprise system, American capital would be used to develop American energy. These resources could and would be developed and used in an environmental friendly way while creating American jobs, and meeting America’s energy needs.

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Editor’s note:  The following email arrived the other day from a group in Slovakia that is fighting turbines in close proximity to people’s homes.  The email is from a psychologist, Peter Lat’ák, who courageously composed his letter in English for my benefit.  His English is laudable; my Slovak is nonexistent.  (I took the liberty of cleaning up his English a bit.)

He is asking for emails of support for their cause.  If you can write him a note of support, and speak to the health issues in particular (since that is the purpose of our website), Nina & I would appreciate it. 

Dear Mr. Martin,

Let me ask you for help.

I need letters of support for our organization, Civic Initiative Orava´s NO to Windmills. The reason is, people living here in these villages don’t believe this problem is European-wide, or worldwide. That’s why we need to show them this [international] dimension of our fight.

Please send us an expression of support mentioning basic disadvantages of wind turbines, such as depreciation of real estate value, health risks, and so on.

Address your email to Peter Latak at peterlatak@gmail.com

Kind regards,

Mgr. Peter Lat’ák

www.peterlatak.webnode.sk
www.oravabezvrtul.sk

“I have headaches and my head is spinning. My wife wakes up crying her head off. We don’t know what to do.”

Click here for original article, titled “Turbine noise ruffling feathers in Falmouth”

—Aaron Gouveia (8/1/10)

Falmouth — Neil and Elizabeth Andersen prefer open windows to air conditioning, but their home is now hermetically sealed despite the warm and breezy weather.

Although Neil, 57, and Elizabeth, 53, have spent more than 20 years enjoying Falmouth’s fresh air and working in their meticulous gardens on Blacksmith Shop Road, they now remain indoors and devote effort to blocking out the constant noise emanating from Wind I, the 400-foot-tall, 1.65-megawatt wind turbine whirling less than 1,500 feet from their front door.

What started out as a welcomed clean energy source has now become a public health issue, Neil Andersen said, and will only get worse when a second identical turbine on the same parcel becomes operational in the next six months.

“We’re seriously thinking about selling our home and getting out of here,” Andersen said. “I have headaches and my head is spinning. My wife wakes up crying her head off. We don’t know what to do.”

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“Noise threat to wind turbines”

Click here for original article in This Is Cornwall (7/31/10)

Westcountry households could see noisy wind farm developments blocked after the Government unveiled details of a review into controversial planning decisions.

Developers at sites across the Devon and Cornwall countryside have been locked in bitter disputes over the noise pollution caused by giant wind turbines that campaigners claim damage people’s health.

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—William Yardley (7/31/10)

Click here for original

IONE, Oregon — Residents of the remote high-desert hills near here have had an unusual visitor recently, a fixer working out the kinks in clean energy.

Patricia Pilz of Caithness Energy, a big company from New York that is helping make this part of Eastern Oregon one of the fastest-growing wind power regions in the country, is making a tempting offer: sign a waiver saying you will not complain about excessive noise from the turning turbines — the whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of the future, advocates say — and she will cut you a check for $5,000.

“Shall we call it hush money?” said one longtime farmer, George Griffith, 84. “It was about as easy as easy money can get.”

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“Acoustic energy from wind turbines is capable of resonating houses, effectively turning them into three-dimensional loud speakers”

Report for Mr. & Mrs. Noel Dean, Waubra Wind Farm, Australia

Editor’s note:  See “The Waubra (Australia) Disease,” under “Videos”

—Robert Thorne, PhD, Noise Measurement Services (Brisbane, Australia)

Excerpt, p. 153: Further research has shown that the acoustic energy from wind turbines is capable of resonating houses, effectively turning them into three-dimensional loud speakers in which the affected residents are now expected to live.

The phenomenon of natural resonance combines to produce a cocktail of annoying sounds which not only disturb the peace and tranquility once-enjoyed by the residents, but also stimulate a number of disturbing physiological effects which manifest in the physical symptoms described above.

In the opinion of the author, backed up by residents’ surveys and scientific measurements and analysis of the noise of turbine farms, these new generating technologies are proving to be a significant detractor for those living within 10 kilometres of them.

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