LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]



Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Consider possible noise of turbines 

Credit:  GateHouse News Service | www.wickedlocal.com 27 June 2012 ~~

Wind turbines in the parking lot of Wayland’s new town center? Sounds very “green.” But is it?

Until two years ago I championed the use of wind energy, believing the only objection was aesthetics. Then in October 2010, Tom Zeller Jr. wrote an article in The New York Times titled “For Those Near, the Miserable Hum of Clean Energy.”

When three turbines were installed in Vinalhaven, Maine, residents couldn’t believe they hadn’t been told about the noise. Mr. Zeller reported there were “Lawsuits and complaints about turbine noise, vibrations and subsequent lost property value in Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Massachusetts, among other states.”

Noise doesn’t come from the central gear box but from the mammoth 100-foot long blades whooshing and whooping as they cut through the air. (I understand 11-foot turbines would have shorter blades, but that doesn’t mean quiet.)

An appeals court in Rennes, France, ordered an eight-turbine farm be shut down at night so residents could get some sleep. And a recent news report told of a Kansas farmer bemoaning the fact he’d allowed wind turbines on his farm because no one had told him about the noise pollution.

An acoustic expert hired by residents of Vinalhaven concluded turbines shouldn’t be put where people live. He suggested developers not duplicate these errors but find areas where there is a large buffer zone of about a mile to a mile-and-a-quarter between turbines and people’s homes.

Obviously, most residents of a town, like those on Vinalhaven, live outside this radius and neither see nor hear the turbines. This majority is why the energy companies are saying only a minority of people oppose them.

I do understand the proposed turbines would be smaller, but does that mean noise free? Has anyone reviewed a similar installation to check them out?

If we don’t question the noise pollution now, we might regret it as much as others have who didn’t ask. Might 11 small ones equal three larger ones? Our entire town center would be inside the buffer zone proposed for Vinalhaven.

While I’m all for wind energy, I’m also a big fan of quiet. – Evelyn Wolfson, Pelham Island Road

Source:  GateHouse News Service | www.wickedlocal.com 27 June 2012

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon