Search Results
Porpoises stay 20km away from wind farm construction
June 7, 2010An article in Der Spiegel reveals that the environmental impact study at a 12-turbine wind farm 30km off the coast of Germany has reported that during construction of the turbines, porpoises avoided an area in a 20-mile radius of the two-square mile construction site. Harbor porpoises are well known to be more sensitive to sound […]
WV wind farm agrees to operational constraints to protect bats
June 5, 2010This one passed under my radar in January, but has some potentially interesting implications for people working to minimize the negative effects of wind farms on wildlife and humans, in that the developer agreed to shut turbines down at night, at least temporarily. In December, a Federal court halted construction of the Beech Ridge wind […]
Community health/disruptions section omitted from Ontario wind farm health report
June 5, 2010As noted in a previous post, a recent report by the Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) in Ontario focused on the narrow question of whether there is a “direct causal link between wind turbine noise and adverse health effects” experienced by some wind farm neighbors. Based on a review of published research, the answer […]
Lawsuits begin to crop up, challenging nearby wind farms
May 31, 2010In recent months, several lawsuits and formal complaints have been filed, claiming unlawful nuisance and/or impacts on property values and quality of life near wind farms. Most recently, sixteen residents sued the Michigan Wind I wind farm and its developers, laying out a series of complaints, including (as detailed in the Huron Daily Tribune): Private […]
Simple recording of wind turbine sounds
May 28, 2010This recording, by one of the wind farm neighbors in Wisconsin who I met when visiting there last fall, is a good, simple taste of the sounds heard from 1500 or so feet away—this one has a predominant jet plane flavor, though often neighbors report a wide variety of sounds that change depending on wind […]
Ontario health, environment officials agree: on-the-ground sound measurement is needed near wind farms
May 28, 2010Over the past week or so, two reports from Ontario have spurred a fair amount of notice and comment among those following wind development issues. First, the provincial health office responded to the public’s concerns about health problems reported by some wind farm neighbors, framing its answer carefully and narrowly: “According to the scientific evidence, […]
Oregon wind farm ruled too loud: six months to find fix
May 28, 2010The Morrow County Planning Board ruled this week that the Willow Creek Energy Center, an 80-turbine wind farm, is producing noise levels that violate Oregon’s noise limits, and gave Invenergy, the wind farm’s owner, six months to get the turbines into compliance. The wind farm began operating in January 2009, and by March, several neighbors within […]
Clifton Maine considers 4000 foot setbacks for wind turbines
May 26, 2010A private landowner in Clifton, Maine, is hoping to erect four commercial wind turbines on a small ridge known as Pisgah Mountain, and sell the energy to the local utility, Bangor Hydro. Hearing of negative experiences in other Maine towns, including Mars Hill and Vinalhaven, some local residents are concerned about noise impacts and effects […]
South Dakota residents fail to get half-mile wind farm setbacks
May 3, 2010An excellent 3-part series on wind farm development ran this week in the Bismark Tribune. It has a good balance of the excitement and economic benefits that attract farmers to the industry, and well-stated concerns from those who want larger setbacks in order to protect neighbors from noise. The grey area around health impacts is navigated […]
Wyoming Game and Fish sets moderate wildlife protections around wind farms
April 24, 2010Wyoming has been at the center of the storm over how much wind farm developers should be subject to limits on development in the name of protecting wildlife habitat, thanks to the hot-button issue of the sage grouse, which has been dancing on the edge of federal endangered species listing for several years. In general, […]
Maine towns keep wind farms at arm’s length as state looks to far offshore sites
March 25, 2010“As goes Maine, so goes the Nation?” While this old political truism has faded in recent decades, the State of Maine is currently blazing trails in carefully considered wind power development. At the local level, small towns continue to pass moratoriums and strict setback standards. Most recently, Thorndike became the third town to set a […]
NPS research shows human noise limits animal listening area, alerting distance
March 15, 2010A key research paper from National Park Service and Colorado State scientists has been published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution. The paper, which got a lot of press when it was first made available online in the fall, introduces two key new metrics for measuring the effects of noise on animals. The first, “alerting […]
Ontario wind tech and health research chair named–background is solid in tech, weak on health
February 23, 2010Electrical engineer Siva Sivoththaman has been named to the newly-created Ontario provincial Research Chair in Renewable Energy Technologies and Health. Local activist groups that have raised concerns about the effects of wind farm noise on neighbors had hoped that this position, created as part of Ontario’s new Green Energy Act, would take the lead in formally […]
Vinalhaven begins month-long “experiment” in reducing noise issues
February 11, 2010The Fox Islands Electrical Cooperative on Vinalhaven, an island off the coast of Maine, has begun a month-long experiment as a first step in trying to come up with a local solution to noise issues from three wind turbines that began operating in November. About two dozen people within a half-mile of the turbines have […]
Minnesota PUC grapples with wind farm setbacks
February 3, 2010A hearing by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission heard testimony from residents and agency staff this week, and indicated that it was going to take its time in setting statewide wind farm siting guidelines. “I think there are a lot of remaining unanswered questions. I think there are a lot of … substantive questions as […]
Japanese Environment Ministry to begin nationwide survey of health effects near wind farms
January 19, 2010The Japanese Environment Ministry is gearing up for the April launch of a nationwide field survey around all 1500 wind turbines in operation in the country. Prompted by health complaints by some neighbors, the survey will the first such comprehensive study of the question; low frequency and audible noise will be recorded, to see whether there […]
French court orders wind turbines shut off at night
December 21, 2009In early December, the Association for the Protection of Ménez, Quelec’h and Saint-Gildas won a groundbreaking court case in France, in which the Court of Appeals of Renne ordered that eight wind turbines in Cast and Châteaulin be shut down from 10pm to 7am. The Association had sought court relief from night time noise disturbance in […]
Wind industry study says no health effects – but omits any mention of sleep disruption
December 16, 2009Download a Word doc version of this commentary A report issued by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) purports to assess all currently available research on the health effects associated with exposure to wind farm noise, and concludes that there are no such problems. The report, funded by […]
NPS study: moderate noise can have major impacts on animals
December 13, 2009An ongoing research project from the National Park Service Natural Sounds Program is about to publish a groundbreaking paper that outlines the many ways that even moderate increases in human background noise can create major impacts on animals. The study proposes a new metric for use in bioacoustics research, the “effective listening area.” This is the […]
Offshore Wind Turbines: More Evidence That Impact Area on Dolphins is Small
December 5, 2009(this item first appeared in AEI’s lay summaries of new research) Tougaard, Henriksen, Miller. Underwater noise from three types of offshore wind turbines: Estimation of impact zones for harbor porpoises and harbor seals. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 125 (6), June 2009. 3766-3773. Underwater noise was recorded from three different types of wind turbines in Denmark […]
DOE study says wind farms don’t affect property values—but…
December 4, 2009A detailed statistical analysis of 5000 homes sold within ten miles of wind farms has failed to find any clear relationship between sales price and proximity to, or views of, industrial wind farms. However, close reading of the results raises some questions about trends within a mile of turbines, and the authors recommend more detailed […]
Maine towns move toward 1-mile wind farm setbacks
December 2, 2009Two Maine towns grappling with crafting wind farm ordinances are pushing the envelope on setback requirements. In November,, voters in Dixmont, where plans were afoot to place turbines atop the 1165-foot Mount Harris, approved a 1-mile setback requirement by a large margin. A story in the Portland Press Herald provides a good overview of the […]
Deep Offshore Wind Planning Surges in Gulf of Maine
November 9, 2009The promise of deep offshore wind energy is moving forward rapidly in the wake of the world’s first floating wind turbine, deployed off Norway in September by StatoilHydro. The Gulf of Maine is in line to see similar turbines in coming years, thanks to a focused effort by the National Renewable Energy Lab and regional […]
Interesting survey of residents within half-mile of wind turbines
November 2, 2009This one just popped up, though it’s from last spring: a seemingly quite comprehensive survey of people living within a half-mile of one of the major wind farms in Wisconsin that has triggered noise concerns. The results reinforce the emerging picture: many people are being affected, but negative impacts are not inevitable or universal. The […]
WHO Releases New Night Noise Guidelines
October 15, 2009Refining previous Community Noise Guidelines issued in 1999, and incorporating more recent research, the World Health Organization has released a comprehensive report on the health effects of night time noise, along with new (non-mandatory) guidelines for use in Europe. Rather than a maximum of 30dB inside at night (which equals 45-50dB max inside), the WHO […]