Green Backlash: The Wind Turbine Controversy

Now, the Todds have eight 1.5-megawatt turbines near them with the closest just 2,400 feet from their home. After the 28-turbine project went online in March 2007, the Todds and others to the north and east of the project started having trouble with noise, she says. “Noise was asked about at all the meetings, but we were told time and again that the turbines were silent or nearly silent…What we have found living next to them is that there are huge Industrial wind complexes are not only in remote locales but increasingly being inserted into rural residential areas. © Mameframe Photography variations in the noise emitted. On pleasant days, the noise is more bearable but, whenever turbines are running, they can be heard. More often than not, the wind is stronger and steadier in the winter and at night. From 10 p.m. until 2 a.m. they often wail, making it difficult to sleep. But no one is out and about in tour buses then,” she says. The noise from the turbines can go for two or three hours but sometimes goes for days. “When a blade passes the tower, it creates a thump, sort of like rap music. It can be felt in your chest and on the soles of your feet.” In addition, shadow flicker—a strobing effect as blade shadows rapidly sweep the land after sunrise and before sunset—has been an “invasion to our home and land,” Todd says. She says it is much like someone turning lights on and off in the house. Outside, she says, it pulls your attention in the direction it is moving, making you dizzy, even sick to your stomach. “It’s changed the way we live. We built around the views. The project has destroyed the views. Turbines overpower the hillside,” she says. Besides noise and health issues, she wonders about property devaluation and is upset that she would have to try to sell a home that is “smack dab in the middle of Mom and Dad’s property.” Rene Taylor and her husband purchased a century-old restored Victorian home in Ellsworth, Ill., in 2004 as a quiet rural property where they could keep some horses and raise their kids. Now they have three turbines 1,500 to 1,800 feet to the north of their property, a project substation 870 feet from their east property line and 1,100 feet from their home. Taylor can see 150 of the 240 turbines in the project. “We’re kind of surrounded,” she says. When the winds are high, she says, the sound is like the rumble of a train that produces a vibration in your body. She says her 11-year-old daughter tells her: “The hamster is running in my chest again.” They had heard about a possible wind project about three weeks before they closed on the property. “We always considered ourselves to be ‘green’ and thought we would see a few up on a hill.” The high-pitched buzz and hum from the substation and the turbine noise and vibrations now have caused the family, including a high-functioning autistic child, to have headaches and trouble sleeping. They haven’t tried to sell yet because they have to pay down the mortgage first, Taylor says, but she is also concerned about whether they will face problems when they do go to sell.  Noise and Health Concerns The problems being experienced by these homeowners and others are not isolated. As wind turbine projects grow in number, footprints beyond the turbine pad sites extend into thousands of acres and turbines gain size, more concerns have been expressed about effects not only in the U.S. but in Europe as well. The third international conference on wind turbine noise is planned for June 17-19, 2009 in Alborg, Denmark.

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