jjstautt

CBC has an article up today about wind turbines causing health problems from the noise they make. Lots of residents that live near wind turbines are coming together to claim that they are having ill health affects when they are near the wind turbines in their area.

Although I have visited the Huron Wind Farm near Kinkardine a number of times, I have never really been near any wind turbine that has been moving at very much speed. So I am not going to vouch for how noisy they are. I find it interesting though that Huron Wind claims in their fact file that

<< The noise produced by the Vestas wind turbines selected by Huron Wind is about 43
decibels at a distance of 250 metres. This is about the same as normal conversation.
Ambient noise in this area is normally above 50 decibels because of nearby industry. >>

This is very interesting. Ashbee and Lormand in the CBC article are claiming the turbines create a large whooshing noise that can be heard throughout their house, which is 450 meters from the nearest turbine. Not something you would expect from something that should be normal conversation level 200 meters away. This leads me to believe that either whoever installed those wind turbines installed the cheaper, noisier, crappier models, or Ashbee and Lormand have super hearing, or Vestas lies about the noise levels produced.

I have read before that wind farms are generally intended to live slightly off-shore. There are no trees to worry about, no bats to kill, and no houses to disturb there. Perhaps some of the models of wind turbines ignore trying to make them quiet because this is where they intend to deploy them.

Rather than banish the idea of wind farms as the article seems to be implying, a better idea may be to study, with actual decible meters and double-blind studies and all, the affects of wind turbine noise from different manufacturers and models of wind turbines. Following the studies government should implement regulations on turbines within a certain distance of residential areas. New installations can adhere to these standards and old installations can be retrofitted.

Wind energy is nothing new. Windmills have existed for a very long time. Local farms have used small windmills to generate electricity for the farm for many years. What is new is using wind energy on a large scale. Proper research and regulations need to be in affect to ensure the safety of everyone around the large-scale installations.