Community Reacts to Living Near Wind Turbines

I'll take a wind turbine next door over a coal-fired power plant anyday. Or a nuclear reactor. And how about the health impacts of a refinery? Or a freeway?

 

but those types of plants wouldn't be placed so close to your house, would they? wind turbine locations have to be specifically placed for wind. 2 times the wind velocity gives you 2^3 (8 times) the amount of power. but they do produce noise so it is bothersome to people who live close by.

 

We have extended family living near wind turbines in Iowa. They report no I'll affects or annoyances. While visiting we have suffered no I'll affects either (or annoyance).
In this case, I would suggest that some research is done to determine why these effects are happening to these people. And, the company should run full tests on the turbine to insure it is working properly.

 

I remember watching a show where they got a room of people and fed them food with MSG. A number of them reported headaches or other problems.

Then they revealed the truth that in fact there was no MSG in the food.

There was widespread opposition there, including from Dead Kennedy, so it wouldn't be surprising to see a nocebo effect.

However, turbines can be loud and there's potential for strobing so it's not something entirely to be dismissed.

 

They might be. Sometimes people don't realize just how close they are to this kind of infrastructure. For example, there's a coal power plant right in Alexandria, VA:

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There's another coal plant on Capitol Hill:

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And another in NE DC (due to be shutdown next year):

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Southwest Philadelphia has a refinery that goes right up to the neighborhoods, and it's the same for many of the refineries in NJ.

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These setups tend to be in the northeast, for obvious reasons.

(Anyone know how to non-embed Google Map links?)

 

USATODAY.com - Wind turbines taking toll on birds of prey

 

Oh, not that one again. If people were genuinely concerned about birds being killed, they'd rally against tall buildings with lots of windows.

 

Darn birds need to watch where they are going.

 

I'll take tall buildings over suburban sprawl.

 

Me too (tall buildings over sprawl), assuming the tall buildings are a sustainable mix of housing and offices. But I cry foul at claiming windmills are the main culprit in bird deaths when they're not. It's just more FUD against renewable energy.

 

Most tall buildings are clustered within city blocks as compared to the suburban sprawl of acres and acres of windmills.

 

Back story: The folks on the Cape have been protesting for years against the building of a a wind farm off the coast because... well, because they're super-rich and screw you.

Of course they're going to complain about rivers and seas boiling, dogs and cats living together. Because wah wah wah even though we're super-rich we didn't get our way so feel sorry for us or else.

 

Do you have any idea what the density of the turbines (they're not mills, they don't mill anything) is in a typical wind farm? The turbines are spread pretty far apart to minimize turbulence, which ruins the efficiency of the turbines. The only reason these people feel "ill" is that they're a bunch of posh prats.

 

what kind of wind tubines are used? bad design..? i have bean standing beside big ones and did not hear anything beside normal wind....

 

Yeah, the latest windmills from Vestas, Siemens and so on are pretty silent. And how do you get tinnitus from a windmill anyway?

FUD, FUD, FUD.

 

My alma mater has a Vestas V.82 turbine (1.65MW). I went out to take a tour of it a year after it was commissioned (back in '04). I was stood directly beneath it and was surprised at how quiet it was. There is no way in hell that you could hear the Cape Wind turbines out in Nantucket bay (or wherever they're meant to be installed) from the shore.

 

The wind turbine in question here appears to have the blades come too close to the supporting column. This would cause a noise pulse each time a blade passes by the support - a bad design.

JeffD

 

who's the maker, anyways? It's a test turbine, right?

 

kn my fathers town of hull, ma, on the coast south of boston, they have 2 monstrous turbines. i have stood on a quiet summers day beneath each of them many times and have never heard so much as a whisper. and i've never seen a dead bird on the ground near either of them. people who live in the area fought them tooth and nail however. can't say i would feel any different. nimby.