The Imaginary Case Against the Wind Turbine
With the rush to install as many renewable energy generators by the end of the year in the US, there are more and more stories popping up about great steps being made. However, sadly, with an increase in the good, there is also an increase in the bad, and it looks as though some people have a major bone to pick regarding the installation of wind turbines.
More often than not, in our efforts to bring environmental news to attention, we find ourselves as writers having to step back a bit, divorcing ourselves from the story to just portray the facts of the matter at hand. This often leaves us with a lot of pent up aggression and anger, often focused towards those seemingly doing all that they can to hurt the environment.
Well no longer, I say, or at least, not for the next 10 minutes. I have had enough of the petty machinations of men and women who are literally attempting to deceive people into an environmentally unfriendly way of life.
This latest tirade was sparked by an article written by the Associated Press. It is a lengthy tale, focusing primarily on the Maple Ridge Wind Farm, the largest wind project in New York State. In particular, one Mr. John Yancey, a man for whom I am immediately categorizing as a man who would oppose better education for America if it happened to interfere with his life in the slightest.
Apparently, and I’ll try and be short, Mr. Yancey hates the turbines that his father allowed to be installed on the family land. “I was sold out by my own father,” he apparently sputtered after indicating it was the noise, the “rhythmic whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of wind turbines” as author Helen O’Neill put it, that so enrages him.
“I just want to be able to get a good night’s sleep and to live in my home without these monstrosities hovering over me,” he says.
It gets better, because apparently his father’s decision to allow the installation of these wind turbines across the Yancey land, forced him to not speak to his father for a long time, in addition to – for whatever reason – taking a toll on his marriage.
Now if you haven’t already caught my disgust for this man, let’s just focus on the fact that John Yancey must actually be the world’s pettiest man, to apparently be so disturbed by the noise of these wind turbines. While it may not be first hand, I spent just a few minutes on YouTube listening to the videos taken of wind turbines, and it seems to me that the noise is not even louder than occasional traffic.
Furthermore, and what outrages me the most, is the fact that I have lived on main roads for a vast majority of my life. In fact, my bedroom currently resides with an open window less than 5 meters from a main road. Not only do I not care, but I am no longer affected by the noise. This also comes after living my entire early life in quiet suburbs, with no noise at all. It’s simple; you adapt!
The noise isn’t the only problem that some people will attempt to raise. Michelle Bennett yesterday wrote about the possible health risks thrown up by wind turbines, a topic that anyone in an unbiased position will acknowledge to be up in the air at best. There are the accusations that they are destroying bird populations as well, and are an ecological menace.
After spending the past hour looking at examples of people who have issues with wind turbines, I begin to get a feel for what it must have been like a century or so ago, when the automobile and skyscrapers begun to appear. Some petty English Lord probably exercised some close relationship with a city official to ensure that cars were not allowed to drive within a mile of his front gates.
Basically, it all comes down to this; wind turbines = cleaner energy, which in and of itself should also reduce land owners electricity bills (in addition to the handsome rent deals they are signing). These complaints (with the exception of the possible health risks which I will get 100% behind if proven to be true) are nothing but modern day versions of complaints that have been pestering the majority for centuries, from petty minded individuals with more interest in their own little lives than anyone else.
Photo Credit AP Photo/Mike Groll
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August 18th, 2008 at 11:57 am
My wife grew up in a busy metro area near the firehouse and the local hospital. Her house was two blocks from a major road. She is used to noise when sleeping and in fact had a tough time adjusting to living where we do ( a quiet suburb ).
I grew up on a hilltop on a small island in the Caribbean. Pin drop silence at night.
To this day, I do not get a restful night of sleep when she “needs” to have a fan on in the room.
You admit that YOU do not live near a wind turbine and do NOT know what the sound is like. Perhaps you should experience it for a length of time before making JUDGEMENT on this fellow.
August 18th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Yes, cleaner energy. That doesn’t mean they don’t make noise. Noise bothers some people. They’re also tall and imposing objects on any landscape. That also bothers some people.
There are other ways to make clean energy, and perhaps landowners who don’t mind noise. Why attack the character of this fellow over it?
August 18th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
i agree with khurt. you’re arguments are just as childish as the subject about whom you’re writing. people like living in the country for a reason–whether it be the space or the lack of noise. and while i agree with the idea and use of wind power, we cannot expect anyone and everyone blindly accept their presence while you sit back and criticize those unwilling to make the rather significant sacrifices necessary for accommodating these windmills. it’s always easy to judge, joshua.
August 18th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I like to visit this site for interesting news related to technology and the environment…not to read angry, biased ranting. If you wish to call yourself a “writer”, then a certain amount of objectivity and decorum is appropriate. I’m sure that you can find another outlet for your “pent up aggression”.
As for the topic at hand, I personally have not been close enough to a large wind turbine to know what they sound like, so I’ll have to reserve judgement on the fellow described in this article. I do know, however, that rhythmic, pulsating noise patterns are more disruptive than random noise that one might experience living near a roadway.
Mr. Yancey may have a perfectly valid complaint. It’s hardly fair to judge his motives when you don’t even have first-hand knowledge of his situation. Somehow I doubt that his goal is to destroy the earth by convincing the world that wind turbines are evil. Please just stick to reporting the news.
August 18th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Actually, I don’t find myself having any pent-up aggression or anger at all after reporting on environmentally-related stories. On the contrary, I often have a renewed sense of hope. Like it or not, we have to deal with NIMBY complaints when considering the installation of renewable energy sources. These are valid concerns – we need to find ways to satisfy as many parties as possible or these technologies will not work in our society. Lambasting people who don’t want turbines in their backyard is not going to help anything.
August 18th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Why would so many professions be involved in the International Symposium of Wind Turbine Noise http://www.windturbinenoise2007.org/ if noise was not an issue??
August 18th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
I grew up near a large wind power installation. We were about a mile from the nearest windmill, you couldn’t hear it, but you could clearly hear the freeway 3-4 miles away. I used to ride my bike up through the hills within a dozen yards or so of the turbines and they emit a bit of a hum and woosh sound, but it’s rather quiet and not bad at all. Nobody we knew who lived amongst the turbines cared. We all thought it was pretty cool, and were proud to have them around.
People are just being hysterical.
August 18th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Have you seen the results of the meteorological studies that prove the benefits of the wind turbines?
August 18th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
I recently went to see the largest wind farm in Indiana and one of the largest in the midwest and I have to say I was absolutely amazed how some machine that big can be so quiet. If you are not in the immediate vicinity of the turbine chances are that you would hear the wind in the trees and fields rather than the quiet whoosh they produce. The only valid argument against wind farms is that few people see them as an eyesore. For me they are the most graceful and majestic machines I have seen in my life.
August 18th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
The photo above says it all. Commercial wind power doesn’t belong in communities where we live. Given it’s track record, it doesn’t belong anywhere. It’s a scourge upon the land, and perpetuated by corporations – not for its ‘greenness’- but for the resulting tax shelters that they themselves successfully lobbied for. NO ONE would welcome towering 42-story machines into their surroundings if they realized how ineffective they were in almost every respect. If people understood that T. Boone Pickens was including wind in his natural gas scheme only for the tax advantages, they would tell him to take a hike. (Understand please, that all the taxes he avoids will ultimately be bourn by us!) Does anyone ever notice that awe-inspiring images of wind turbines never reveal their miles and miles of industrial access roads, substations, overhead power lines, or massive scale in relation to the environment around them? Mr. Hill, as an ‘environmental news writer’ you really need to take a crash course in the complex issues associated with industrial wind power. Your ignorance contributes to the confusion. Turbine noise, for instance, has been the focus of several annual international symposiums hosted by the industry itself. It’s real, and it can turn people’s lives upside down if they have to live with it 24/7. But it’s just one of MANY negative impacts. The most disturbing part of this boondoggle is that while caring citizens believe their support is helping address critical problems, those problems will continue to spiral out of control. If a potential crisis from climate change truly looms, then we don’t have 20-30 years or more to be sidelined by the folly of commercial wind power. Its massive machines and intrusive development won’t stabilize soaring energy costs or cool a warming planet. It will only delay finding legitimate solutions that could make a real and meaningful difference.
August 19th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Wind turbines are not graceful, majestic, inspiring. While they may have a place where people/livestock/LIVELIHOODS are not impacted, it is most certainly not in populated areas. I dare anyone who thinks they would be a great thing to live around to call a real estate agent and buy one of the many properties that are for sale in the areas where these INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS have been forced upon those whose neighbors see only dollar signs. I am a farmer myself, and warn that one should not believe the happy little pics of cows grazing under turbines. Do your homework, and find out exactly what STRAY VOLTAGE does to livestock. Decreased milk production, health issues including mastitis and aborted calves just to mention a few things. No one ever considers HOW the electricity must get from A to B, and the infrastructure needed to get these damn things to earn their keep is invasive to say the least. Green energy, my a**. Green as in MONEY.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:44 am
“petty minded individuals with more interest in their own little lives”
Wow. Just, wow.
August 21st, 2008 at 4:36 am
Perhaps Mr.Yancey could afford a pair of ear-plugs?
There are lots of noise in everyones every day-life and of course we all would like to get rid of it. I’m sure that we will but not necessarily in our life time.
So many innocent lives have been taken in fossil fuel-related conflicts (Iran vs Iraq, Iraq vs Kuweit, Russia vs Georgia to name a few) and yet Mr.Yancey complains over a “rhythmic whoosh, whoosh, whoosh”?
Mr.Yancey should realize how fortunate he is. It is narrow-minded crybabies like him that give Americans a bad name. Wake up. Prove the world they’re wrong.
August 21st, 2008 at 6:04 am
Sue Sliwinski wrote that
“we don’t have 20-30 years or more to be sidelined by the folly of commercial wind power. Its massive machines and intrusive development won’t stabilize soaring energy costs or cool a warming planet.”
Yes, wind turbines will not solve this problem alone.
Don’t blame the good deeds for not (yet) being able to outweigh the bad.
As regarding Debbie’s post about “doing homework” on stray voltage;
“Even when a low level electric current was directly applied to cows, theoretically producing small internal electric fields, no ill effects were discerned.” –wikipedia.org
Here are lots of other studies, with pretty much the same results;
http://www.uwex.edu/uwmril/stray_voltage/animal_response.htm
http://www.mrec.org/sv-info.html
Times change.
Change with them or hook up with the Amish.
August 23rd, 2008 at 6:02 am
Hey Midwest – if stray voltage is not an issue, why would the Chapman family in MO get a $2 MILLION judgement?
http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/local_story_296153209.html
There are plenty of other cases pending for stray voltage. If the existing infrastructure cannot handle what the turbines will produce, or new underground systems are not properly installed, there will be more instances of farmers having to depend on those checks from the wind companies to replace $$ lost through stray voltage issues.
We had a young Mennonite neighbor get crushed to death by a heifer that panicked when she got zapped in the barn – stray voltage from the nearby electric co. power station at the corner of their farm was determined to be the cause. There will be many more incidents should the turbines be allowed in populated areas.
Oops – is that your phone ringing, Midwest? It’s the real estate agent saying thank GOD we are finally selling a property that gets shadow flicker, hears the hum of the turbines 24/7. Nice of you to take up my challenge to live amongst these monstrosities…
Yes, times change. But must we give up our quality of life in rural areas for the urban drain on electricity? I like Mayor Bloomberg’s idea of putting turbines on top of the buildings in NYC. However, we can’t offend the city dwellers whose penthouse views will be altered, so that idea will come to fruition when pigs fly.
We fought hard to have a tough yet fair law in our town for wind energy. Yes, they can be sited in our town, but at distances that would not intrude on our daily lives. We have a setback of 2000 ft from property lines, not 500 ft from HOUSES like some towns. Clear thinking and consideration of any negative impacts are the key to proper placement of wind energy conversion systems.
August 28th, 2008 at 11:43 am
While I have never lived near a wind turbine, I used to drive by a small test site used by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. They had several small turbines and three large ones(over 250′ tall). When the three large ones were operating, I could hear them from my car while driving on a road about 1/4 of a mile away. If I had to listen to that rhythmic whoosh all the time I would have an issue with it. The other aspect is that you chose to live near a main thoroughfare. Mr. Yancey and many like him did not choose to live by the turbines, they were put there by an outside company.
September 13th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Talking about a natural fit.
Magic trees,
We at Solar Botanic are mimicking nature, creating natural looking artificial trees and plants, fitted with Nanoleaves, the leaves are a combination of nano technologies that enable the leaf to convert solar radiation (light & heat) into electricity, furthermore the leaf petiole or the stem, and twigs comprise nano-piezovoltaic material – these tiny generators react to movement caused by wind or from falling rain drops and start to produce electricity, this synergy of technology with natures design will soon become a reality.
Renewable energy that combines solar radiation and wind energy in one system and offers added value to the end users and above all, is in harmony with nature.
The reason is simple. Nature, through billions of years of trial and error, has produced effective solutions to innumerable complex real-world problems.
There is no need to fill our landscapes with wind turbines and other systems that impact our environment. The field of biomimetics is the application of methods and systems, found in nature. To capitalize on the wealth of designs and processes found in nature, engineering and technology has given solar Botanics the tools to harvest the energy resources in a responsible way.
* Triple conversion of green energies (Light, Heat and Wind)
* Aesthetic in harmony with Nature
* Partly made from recycled waste materials
* Can be placed in and around cities or residential areas
* Durable, easy to install, provides shade, cools the air, gives wind protection
* Recharges your car, takes the CO2 out the air, and much more.
Solar Botanic trees and plants will bring a variety of species to the market, so that every environment can choose something that fit its natural habitat. Trees can be implemented in cities and rural areas, places of natural beauty and island resorts that depend on tourism.
The project is currently underway with help from Investment funds from the Middle East were the first solar botanic palm tree will be planted. This palm tree with its 36 leaves will generate more than 5000 kWh per year. The location and amount of sun hours per year makes this palm tree a very cheap energy provider at less than $ 0, 3 per kWh.
The added value of solar botanic trees are; providing shade, cooling the air, wind break, crop protection, prevention of heat islands in cities, road glare, noise barrier, protection of dune vegetation. Solar botanic trees can be fitted with additional equipment to filter the air, (taking out CO2) and water. Water management can be controlled by trees.
Trees and shrubs can be planted most of the time without permission because they fit in with our local scenery. Trees, plants and shrubs have aesthetical function the enhance our city and meeting places, or are just there to give us a nice view when we look out of our window. Trees decrease our visual awareness if it comes to visual or noise pollution. The psychology effect of trees takes care of a better micro climate, extreme temperatures are reduced and absorb, trees and shrubs give protection against wind, and sun. Trees are a source of inspiration for artistic creativity. Trees carry a culture of history they can show the history of a place and are often proof of past history. Trees are a symbol growth and energy, trees have a economic value. The presence of trees often increases the value of property, especially mature trees that at the same time deliver more energy.
for more info, just drop us a line
regards
Alex van der Beek
Riga Latvia
September 17th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Mr.Hill,Calling Mr.Yancey, “petty” is just plain unfair.I know first hand exactly what he’s talking about. Myself, my wife and our daughter are currently living under 27 Giant Wind Turbines.They have ruined our lives, the equity on our farm that we worked very hard to pay for over the last 15 years, and they are working on destroying our health.
You CAN NOT call yourself an unbiased reporter, as you DO NOT live under the devastation caused by these Giant Wind Monsters. You should be ashamed of yourself to judge all the people that have been effected by the greed and thougtlessness of Wind Monster companies.
In addition, the wind is not free, nor reliable.Add up the fabrication costs, shipping costs,land rental costs,erection costs, maintenance costs, etc., and compare that to the projected 25 year life span of Wind Monsters, and you’ll find that they NEVER get into the Black.If it wasn’t for mine and your tax dollars being carelessly thrown at Wind Monsters, they wouldn’t even start to be viable.They do more harm to the environment than they create.Much like eating celery has negative calories.It takes more carbons being released and more fuel/money spent to build a Wind Monster farm, ( Tax farm), than they produce.
It’s people like you that put blinders on and listen to whats popular.
Listening to a recording on You Tube, and doing a news story on it is VERY irresponsible.Can you smell a flower on You Tube ? NO ! Can you experience night after night of not sleeping by listening to You Tube ? NO ! Can you feel the burn of a matchstick on You Tube ? No ! Can you feel the pressure build in your head listening to You Tube ? NO ! Can you experince the devastation that comes with being forced to live under Wind Monsters by sitting at your computer listening to You Tube ? No ! NO,NO,NO !!!
Do you actually think that the hundreds of people, ( and growing), all over the world, with the same nightmare story, the same health issues, the same loss in equity, the same shadows over their homes, are all either lying or simply just wrong, and you, sitting at your comfortable desk listening to You Tube is the one that knows the REAl story ?
It’s just my humble opinion, but I THINK that if can’t do more research, and do your stories more responsibly, that you shoulkd limit your reporting to the local high school football scores and whats on sale this week at the local grocery store !
If you want to call a man like Mr.Yancey,concerned about his family, his land,his health, his sanity,and his peace and quiet, “petty”, I think you need to go look in the mirror and reevaluate !
Again,just my humble, but WELL INFORMED, WELL RESEARCHED, opinion !