We asked a tough question today: Is the fear and anxiety being spread about the sound of wind power justified?
In an age when people fit subwoofers into their Honda civics, buy pickup trucks with 'tuned exhaust' noise and watch movies with ear crushing seven-speaker surround sound, one has to admit that our society isn't exactly aiming for quiet.
Wind energy is now the fastest growing source of electricity worldwide. However, in some places where new windmills are being proposed, people are worried that they might be bothered by the sounds they make. In Ontario especially, folks are increasingly uneasy about how loud new windmills might be.
For better or for worse, we have adapted to a life of auditory extremes. Whether you live in the country or in the city, chances are you have adapted to some kind of noise every day. Tires on a road, two-stroke whines from snowmobiles, motorcycles and jet-skis, diesel trucks, barking dogs, neighbours, airplanes, trains, music, construction, air conditioners, refrigerators, dishwashers, power tools -- the list of human created sounds is endless.
It's a bit confusing then that one of quieter things we build -- windmills -- are said to be the subject of great handwringing and upset.
When you step back and think about it, renewable energy is actually one of the more benign things in our society. It doesn't pollute our air, it doesn't poison our water, and compared to pretty much everything else, let's be honest -- it's not very loud either.
New designs of windmill blades are getting quieter all the time, and will continue to improve. Plus, there are minimum setbacks in place which set the distance that windmills must be built from the nearest home or workplace to ensure that noise isn't an issue.
In the difficult task of protecting the environment and our health for current and future generations, windmills are an important tool. Sited appropriately while ensuring real involvement for local communities, they will help protect both.
Put in perspective, windmills aren't one of our problems, but are in fact an important solution. And, as you'll see in this video we made, life is loud... windmills, not so much.
YouTube - Do Wind Turbines Make Noise?
Wind Power Noise Dispute On Tranquil Maine Island Intensifies
A Problem With Wind Power [AWEO.org]
Wind Turbine Noise: A Real Headache, But Not Why You Think ...
RenewableUK - Are wind turbines noisy?
Measuring Wind Turbine Noise | Renewable Energy News Article
Noisy Wind Turbines Attract Complaints - NYTimes.com
Neighbors at odds over noise from wind turbines - USATODAY.com
Take a global approach to Cape wind projects
Home Depot's latest small wind deal
Fight against egg farm's wind turbine scheme
Ontario inspectors don't have technology to measure wind turbine sound, leaked ...
Whitley Co. wind turbine controversy
Turbine proposal goes to arbitration
Australian court blocks $185m wind project over visual impact
Please voters of Ontario, do not believe Tim Hudak is going to cut taxes, reduce your hydro bills, stop paying stranded debt and not cut cut cut, and the eyes on the prize might be the privitzation of Ontario Hydro, finishing the job Harris had to bail on leaving a colossus mess that has been a nightmare to clean up.
http://thinkingaboot.blogspot.com/2011/05/idiot-wind.html
Continued....Why is the turbine so close to my home? First of all, according to the wind industry, 500 feet would be an acceptable distance given their claim that the turbines make "no more noise than a refrigerator.' This would be an extremely old and noisy refrigerator indeed. In my case, and in the case of communities across the US, when residents have become concerned about the proximity of turbines to their homes, the wind companies resort to emotional blackmail. They tell the town board, who are very eager for the money the wind company is offering, that it would be a great hardship if the turbines were to be moved further away from homes and that the company could not possibly make money as there would have to be fewer turbines. Then the wind company tells the town board that if they do not keep the proposed turbine locations, they will pull out of the deal. Immediately!.....Continued
Industrial wind turbines are noisy. Very noisy. Yes, it is often possible to stand right under a turbine and hear not much more than a hum. The wind industry capitalizes on this fact by ferrying busloads of eager town officials, prospective leaseholders and supposedly un-biased reporters to turbines so they can proclaim "No noise!' The noise, as the wind industry well knows, occurs the further away one is from the turbine and is also influenced by atmospheric conditions.
The turbine near me is to the northeast. As prevailing winds are from the northwest, in theory I should not hear much turbine noise. In fact I hear non-stop, ear-splitting, unrelenting, sleep-disrupting noise. Unlike the noise of an airport or expressway, which is intermittent, this racket only stops when the wind does. Continued…..
The noise I am talking about often sounds like a large jet airplane taking off. The problem is that it sounds like the plane is ALWAYS taking off - continuously. There is no ebb and flow. It does not stop. There are no quiet evenings on the deck, no early mornings in the garden. There are no quiet night's sleep. The noise is unrelenting.
The wind industry is quite aware of this (I guarantee you there are no industrial turbines in the backyards of wind industry executives), and they do their best to obfuscate the facts. And I will say here that there is not much difference from the tactics of Big Wind from those of the tobacco industry of two or three decades ago. Nor is there much difference between Big Wind, Big Oil and King Coal.... Continued
Continued....Careful research by Mr. Scott would find ample evidence of the "carrot-dangling" practice of Big Wind. It happened where I live (Cohocton, NY), and I have read repeatedly of the same thing happening in community after community. Big Wind has a play book.
In fact, one of their tactics from the playbook is to refer to giant industrial turbines as windmills therefor rendering turbines as quaint, pastoral and harmless machines. A tactic Mr. Scott has also adopted.
I won't get into the politics here. Won't go into detail about this all being a grab for our tax dollars, nor about how turbines, as they exist today, are a grossly inefficient form of energy production. Nor about the colossal subsidies Big Wind receives (inappropriately larger than all other energy subsides, save solar, combined).
I won't get into the perplexing question of why our government is not asking citizens, and requiring businesses, to turn off the lights and to stop wasting energy.
I will just address the question at hand. Yes, turbines make noise. A lot of noise. And it isn't right.
Every kilowatt produced by wind or solar is one less kilowatt produced by coal/oil/or other "dirty" means.
Furthermore, where there's hydro, that's what's mostly likely to be used in response to wind. That is, windpower displaces hydropower.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1350811/In-China-true-cost-Britains-clean-green-wind-power-experiment-Pollution-disastrous-scale.html
Keep in mind that there are currently talks of starting up some of this type of neodymium mining and production in Wyoming, US, as China increases the prices. Is that what you want? If not, then you should stop advocating wind turbines and talk to your politicians about putting a halt to this destructive manufacturing.
If *all* the power was generated by wind, storage might be a problem, but we can easily add a lot of wind power generating capacity before we get to that point. When you combine it with hydropower, fossil fuels, solar, and the new safe Thorium nuclear options, it becomes a valuable addition to the power portfolio.
WOW!!!
You really believe that BIG OIL will allow your "dream" to happen?
Obama, Bush, Clinton and everyone on the House and Senate are "in" with BIG OIL.
Keep dreaming though.
HOWEVER, the band-wagon has been jumped upon by affluent NIMBYs who realized long ago that their complaints of "it interferes with my beautiful view" wasn't going over too well with those who are more concerned with the cleanliness of the air they breathe.
The money being spent to manipulate the uninformed and fearful ("farmland can't be used for farming", "wind was supposed to be cheaper than what we already have", etc, etc) is disgraceful. Cattle can graze and crops can be grown within meters of a turbine. NO one has EVER suggested that wind power could be cheaper than the overly-subsidized power we've all been getting in North America! And don't get me started on those who live by the water and don't want a thumbnail-sized turbine on THEIR horizon! Funny, how they all insist upon having electricity, though.
Turbines CAN'T be put in the far north for the luxury of us "southerners" because the new grid required would be prohibitively expensive! ...and... electricity should be produced where it is required, if possible... it's called "Distributed Generation". It can't be shipped like a box of cookies, it's used at the first power station.
We adolescent, entitled, North Americans have a lot of growing up to do.
Never going to happen until the oil runs dry.
100 percent correct.
We need to throw out every politician in the US government. Start over. Can you imagine a country with no lobbyists and no special interests running the show. Can you imagine what us the people can do if we are free of all the corruption?
What happens when the windmills don't spin?
30% of the time they don't move?
Why you do then?
What say you Mr Scott?