Category Archives: The problem with Wind Turbines

Adverse Health Effects, Children Affected, Green Energy, The problem with Wind Turbines

Interview AM900 CHML of WLGWAG Chair

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wlwag-2013

West Lincoln Glanbrook Wind Action Group (WLGWAG) in partnership with Mothers Against Wind Turbines Inc. held a recent information session in Smithville.  On December 1st , 2016  WLGWAG Chair, Mike Jankowski was interviewed prior to the public meeting and questioned on reactions to the Premier’s “mistake”, the Green Energy Act, impacts to health and well-being and the recently operational Niagara Wind Project.

P.S. His last name is  “JAN-KOW-SKI”

To hear the interview:

  1. Set “Audio Date” to December 1
  2. Set “Audio Time: to 2:00 PM, click play
  3. Fast forward to 40:00 (3 quarters of the way) by clicking the bar below the play button

http://www.900chml.com/audio/

Direct Effects, Green Energy, Health, The problem with Wind Turbines

Heat or Eat- Green Energy Benefits Few

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energy-povertty-2016“Soaring hydro costs have become an Achilles heel for the Liberal government, which took a costly plunge into green energy in 2009 and has been raked over the coals by the auditor general for ignoring its own energy planners and saddling consumers with billions of dollars above market prices for power.”

 

High hydro costs sending Ontarians to food banks, report says

By John Miner, The London Free Press

Monday, November 28, 2016 9:47:20 EST AM

Rising power bills — not just lack of good jobs and high food prices — are forcing hundreds of thousands of Ontarians to turn to food banks, a new report by a food bank umbrella group warns.

In yet another sign of the crisis caused for many in the province by soaring electricity rates, the Ontario Association of Food Banks says the fallout is putting the squeeze on the basic needs of many.

“If people have to choose between keeping the lights on and going hungry, they go without food,”

Carolyn Stewart, executive director of the association, said ahead of Monday’s release of the group’s Hunger Report 2016…

READ AT: http://www.lfpress.com/2016/11/27/new-report-says-soaring-power-bills-help-force-hundreds-of-thousands-in-ontario-to-food-banks

Destruction from turbines, Environment, Green Energy, Property Rights, The problem with Wind Turbines

Ocotillo Wind Turbine 126 Collapse

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November 21, 2016  turbine 126 suffered a catastrophic structural collapse as documented in photos shared on Facebook. Ocotillo Wind Energy consists of 112- 2.37 MW Siemens  wind turbines. The project was built on California public lands by Pattern Energy and began commercial operations in 2013.  It is now 3 years and the project continues to demonstrate ongoing structural and operational issues for this ill conceived facility.

The project responded with the following statement:

“Ocotillo Wind

On November 21, 2016, one of the turbines at the Ocotillo Wind facility fell within the designated setback zone surrounding the turbine’s base. No one was injured in the incident. We are working closely with the turbine manufacturer, Siemens, to identify the root cause of the failure and a full investigation is currently underway. Relevant authorities have also been notified.

Our first priority is the safety of our employees, contractors, neighbors and the environment. We are taking this issue very seriously and will communicate more information as it becomes available.

Pattern Energy is proud to be part of the Imperial Valley. Our Ocotillo Wind facility is an investment in the region that is creating many economic benefits, including jobs and substantial growth in the property tax base.

The facility supports local initiatives through the Ocotillo Wind Community Benefits Program, which established the Ocotillo Wind Community Fund, Ocotillo Wind Education Fund and Ocotillo Wind Imperial Valley Fund, and is administered by the Imperial Valley Community Foundation. Sign up here to receive updates about the community benefits program and facility news.

Pattern Energy is focused on being a responsible community partner by respecting the land, its resources and the people of the Imperial Valley. The Ocotillo Wind facility is located on public lands administered by the BLM, with a small portion on lands under the jurisdiction of Imperial County. The permanent footprint is approximately 120 acres, which is less than 1% of the total project area, allowing the overwhelming majority of the project land to be preserved in its natural state and allowing the project infrastructure to be sited in areas that do not directly impact cultural resources.”

READ AT: http://www.ocotillowind.com/

Adverse Health Effects, Corruption, Government corruption, Government Misrepresentation, Noise, The problem with Wind Turbines

Damning report of the Polish national auditor on wind developments

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Wind Power Complex installations demonstrate a common, reoccurring  and global pattern of adverse effects and harm.  The following  mirrors the range of issues being reported and documented by impacted residents in Ontario, Canada.

Massive conflict of interests, no adequate measurement of noise and deliberate misinformation of residents.
stopwiatrakom.eu
A NATIONAL ONLINE PLATFORM
FOR SAFE WIND TURBINE SETBACKS FROM HOMES

 

13 May 2016

The president of the Polish National Audit Authority (NIK) told a parliamentary committee on 12 May 2016 that in up to one third of all the rural municipalities covered by the NIK investigation, decision makers responsible for granting permits for wind farm developments, or close family members of such local officials, were beneficiaries of land leases for these projects.

These are the findings of a multi-year study by the Polish Audit Authority, which sought to investigate if the public interest was adequately safeguarded in the planning and permitting process for publicly-subsidized wind power developments. Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, NIK president, told the parliamentary committee on infrastructure that the study included a total of 70 inspections in 51 municipalities and 19 county-level local government administrations.

In 90 per cent of inspected municipalities, local authority’s approval of wind farm developments was made contingent on the developer’s funding the preparation of planning documentation or making donations to the municipality. Yet, under Polish law such expenditures must be covered from the municipality’s own budget. According to the Polish Audit Authority, such actions may give rise to conflict of interests between the developer’s preferences and the interests of municipalities and local communities.

Mr Kwiatkowski also noted that the existing regulations on noise measurement did not guarantee “reliable [assessment] of nuisance resulting from the operation of a wind farm”. Specifically, under the existing regulations noise was measured at low speed levels, with wind speed below 5 m/s. However, the noise is most intensive at wind speeds of 10-12 m per second, which are optimal for wind turbine’s performance. Furthermore, the regulations did not require measurements of other impacts such as infrasound and shadow flicker, according to President Kwiatkowski.

The Polish National Auditor also noted that in the absence of clear laws and consistent caselaw of courts, wind farms were occasionally built in areas of outstanding landscape value.

The inspections also disclosed that in one third of the municipalities there were conflicts of interests involving “individuals who were primary beneficiaries of wind farm projects”, that is people who concluded land lease contracts for wind turbines. Such people tended to be “mayors, members of their immediate families, municipality officials, council members” who had approved changes to local zoning plans enabling the construction of wind farms in the first place.

The Polish National Auditor also questioned the manner in which local communities were being informed about the planned developments. At times, meetings were announced in a manner intended to make it difficult for interested residents to attend and then the failure to attend such meeting was considered to imply consent on the part of local population.

Source: http://www.cire.pl/item,129196,1,0,0,0,0,0,prezes-nik-w-sejmie-o-nieprawidlowosciach-dotyczacych-lokalizacji-wiatrakow.html (12.05.2016)

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Article originally posted on: friends-against-wind.org

Health, Health effects from wind turbines, Noise, Ontario Wind, Protecting our children, The problem with Wind Turbines, Uncategorized

The Negative Health Impact of Noise from Industrial Wind Turbines: The Evidence

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Today’s post, the second of three installments, reviews the major research findings linking low-frequency noise and infrasound from industrial wind turbines with effects on health and quality of life.[1]  

By Jerry Punch, PhD, and Richard James, INCE, BME

jerry punch

Evidence that industrial wind turbines (IWTs) negatively impact human health is vast and growing. Although that evidence acknowledges that the exact exposures needed to impact health and the percentage of the affected population are still unknown, there is indisputable evidence that adverse health effects (AHEs) occur for a nontrivial percentage of exposed populations. Here, we give an overview of that evidence.[2]

Wind turbine noise is not known to cause hearing loss. Interestingly, though, individuals who have hearing disorders may be more susceptible than persons with normal hearing to AHEs from wind turbine noise, and people who are deaf can suffer the same ill effects as those who have normal hearing when exposed to wind turbine noise. The latter finding supports the view that infrasound, not just the audible whooshing, low-frequency noise emitted from wind turbines, is the cause of many of the health complaints.

Richard James

The anecdotal evidence, documented on internet blogs, innewspaper articles, in expert testimony in legal proceedings, and recently in the documentary movies Windfall and Wind Rush, is compelling and illustrative of the similarity in symptoms. These adverse symptoms appear when people are exposed to operating wind turbines, and disappear when the turbines stop operating. These observations resemble single-subject research experiments, in which individuals serve as their own controls while being subjected to alternating conditions or treatments. Dr. Carl Phillips, noted epidemiologist, describes the use of adverse event reporting as a first step in establishing the existence, prevalence, and spread of a variety of health conditions, as well as adverse reactions to such agents as medications and environmental pollutants.

Reports that many families abandon their homes after IWTs begin operation make the anecdotal evidence particularly compelling.

Studies conducted in Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden, where residents have many decades of experience with IWTs, collectively indicate thatwind turbine noise differs from and is more annoying than other sources of noise, including community, transportation, and industrial sources.

Continue reading The Negative Health Impact of Noise from Industrial Wind Turbines: The Evidence →

Health, Health effects from wind turbines, Noise, The problem with Wind Turbines

Adverse Health Effects of Industrial Wind Turbines

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wind turbine noise health

Adverse Health Effects of Industrial Wind Turbines  Jerry Punch PhD  Richard James INCE, BME

This article, the first of three installments, provides a broad overview of the topic. The second installment will review the major research findings linking low-frequency noise and infrasound from industrial wind turbines with effects on health and quality of life, and the third will discuss the relationship between various health effects and the processing of infrasound by the ear and brain.[1]

Cary Shineldecker was skeptical about the wind project the Mason County, Michigan, planning commission was considering for approval. His home, two miles from Lake Michigan, was located in an area where nighttime noise levels were around 25 dBA, with only occasional traffic and seasonal farmland noises. The rolling hills, woodlots, orchards, fields, and meadows surrounding his property contributed to its peaceful country setting. He voiced his skepticism about the wind turbines repeatedly in community meetings held beforeConsumers Energy was finally granted approval to construct 56, 476-foot, turbines that would place one turbine 1,139 feet from his property line (Figure 1), six within 3,000 feet, and 26 that are visible from his property.

He and his wife Karen started to suffer symptoms of ear pressure, severe headaches, anxiety, irritability, sleep disturbance, memory loss, fatigue, and depression immediately after the turbines began operating.

Gradually, as sleep disturbance turned into sleep deprivation, they felt their home was being transformed from a sanctuary to a prison. Deciding to sell their home of 20 years, they put it on the market in March 2011, and it has remained unsold for 3-1/2 years. For the past 1-1/2 years, their nightly ritual is taking sleeping medications and retreating into their basement to try to sleep on a corner mattress. They received few offers to buy their home, and recently accepted an offer that would mean a substantial financial loss. They are scheduled to go to trial against Consumers Energy, and if their case goes to settlement without a trial, they will likely be forced into a confidentiality agreement about their case.

Similar complaints of adverse health effects (AHEs) associated with living near utility-scale wind turbines have become commonplace in the U.S. and other developed countries. Energy companies in the U.S., motivated by lucrative tax subsidies available for developing wind resources as a form of green energy, are pushing aggressively to install more wind turbines, typically locating them near residential properties. Many rural residents now have one or more industrial machines that stand over 40 stories tall on the property alongside their home. Complaints about noise from people living within the footprint of wind energy projects are very similar to those experienced by the Shineldeckers.

Those who have never visited a wind project or who visit one only during the daytime often leave believing that the complaints of noise are unfounded, and commonly assume them to be psychologically motivated or a form of NIMBYism [1]. Those living near wind turbines say that unless one is willing to spend several nights in the area they have not experienced the noise that causes the complaints.

Article can be read here.

Animals and turbines, Canada Wind, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Corruption, Direct Effects, Environment, fighting big wind., Health effects from wind turbines, Ontario Wind, Protecting our children, The problem with Wind Turbines, Turbines run on Subsidies, Uncategorized

Big Wind – Proposal for a one hour television documentary

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DOCUMENTARY
BIG WIND  By Rico Michel

http://www.dliproductions.ca/films/big-wind/
Margaret Welcome to the wacky world of green power, where misguided governments have sparked a massive corporate feeding frenzy (at taxpayers’ expense) to achieve little or nothing of any social benefit. — Margaret Wente, Globe & Mail

unnamed (2)It has taken decades for us all to understand the pressing urgency of protecting the Earth’s environment by finding alternatives to fossil fuels. At last, the development of a green energy industry is presenting the opportunity to heal the environment… along with the opportunity to exploit it further. For politicians, going green provides a convincing election platform. For business, it offers the chance to make hundreds of billions of dollars. Green energy is the future and those who get in there first will benefit greatly. But not only honest players are championing this new industry. And nowhere is this more evident than in the massive development of industrial wind power.

Big Wind is a surprising and compelling documentary about the unprecedented rush to develop industrial wind turbines and how this is transforming the landscape in Canada and the world. The film investigates why governments are spending billions on wind power without first conducting health and environmental studies, why corporations are grabbing up precious farmland to put up hundreds of thousands of enormous industrial wind turbines, why people living near the turbines are falling ill, losing their animals and their farms, and whether these new “green” wind turbines are actually helping our environmental aims.

The rush to go green is pitting corporations against residents, government against citizens, neighbour against neighbour. Through the process the people are being stripped of their due democratic process.

Big Wind is a story of unethical political systems, corporate greed, and ordinary citizens who have had enough and are standing up to big government and big business. They are part of a growing revolution in rural communities in Southern Ontario and around the globe– people fighting to defend their homes, their way of life and the environment against Big Wind. It is a battle that will profoundly impact the green movement, as well as the well being of citizens in Canada and citizens worldwide for years to come.

Preview Link Here

Corruption, Destruction from turbines, Government corruption, Ontario Wind, The problem with Wind Turbines

Wind Turbines “Good For Making Toast”

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Today – Sept 26, 2014 at 10:00 AM

According to the IESO the total energy demand for the province of Ontario was 17,690 MW

The contribution of the industrial wind turbines was 63 MW. That right folks, 63 MW of the total 17,690 MW required to keep the lights on in this province.

63 MW is .00356 % of the energy required. So if 2000 plus Industrial Wind turbines can only produce .00356% of the energy required, can you calculate how many IWT’s would be required to make a meaningful contribution?

What a sham. This is what happens when you engage in a billion dollar industry without due diligence and a business plan. STOP the madness.

Will the last person out, please turn off the lights.

Catherine

Direct Effects, legal challenges, Noise, The problem with Wind Turbines

“So the fight about turbines went on for years and we never took a side.”

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This will be the story for many of our residents in West Lincoln if the NRWC wind farm is placed.  Have YOU taken a side?

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This is why setback distances are so important but really why are these monsters still being built?

Below is a frightening comment to a story in the Batavia, NY newspaper-It was sent by Mary Kay Barton of Wyoming County which is where Orangeville is located. Wyoming County is located just east of Buffalo, NY. Wildlife and wildlife habitat gone with the wind.

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READ the SAD TESTIMONY (below) of another couple now stuck living within Invenergy’s Orangeville, NY wind factory, who unfortunately, did not heed our warnings and get involved in fighting the wind mess prior to the wind factory being built. Can they expect ANY HELP from our elected “Public Servants”? Can they expect any coverage of their problems by the local newspapers & media? Time will tell, but it’s not hard to figure out why the world is in the sad state of affairs that it is in, when people in our own small towns are willing to throw their neighbors under the bus for a few bucks while those who were elected to ‘serve & protect’ them continue to ignore the situation – all in pursuit of a complete FRAUD.

From “sdamike” on Batavia Daily News story about new Orangeville lawsuit (link below):

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I would like to chime in here, being located in Orangeville myself.we never took a side

Where we live, we are surrounded by more than 6 turbines with in 1/4 to

1/2 mile I’d guess. it may be more turbines than that im just going by
how i can see easily.  We moved to orangeville about 5 years ago and were
totally neutral to the whole wind turbine issue.  We figured lower
property taxes would be nice and that how bad can the turbines be?  So
the fight about turbines went on for years and we never took a side.

Then the turbines started being built. It was a mess and you dont absorb how big a turbine is until you see 1 blade being trucked in on a semi with a double length trailer bed. Months later after all the mess, they were done and running. First thing you notice is no more clean night sky, now there is always blinking red lights and if its foggy, the whole sky blinks red.

Then we noticed water vibrating in our barn and in our house. Now we have lived here 5 years and never seen that before. And it happens In Just a plain old water bottle, the water vibrates… like in the movie jurrasic park when the t-rex is coming…its just like that just not as severe.

Then as the weather changed for the worse or if the wind was stronger, we noticed the water vibrations get worse and we also noticed the wind turbines make much more noise.In our house we actually get a type of thumping in the right conditions. Its pretty terrible. I will close windows, turn fans on, turn the a/c on, turn the tv on just to drown out the noises. It also gives me a “I need to get out of here” anxiety feeling…and well, there no getting out of anywhere…its where you live!  And we also run our business from here, so no escape at work!

On the bad nights it effects my sleep, I just cant fall asleep. I even
tried ear plugs…which will work sometimes.

Thats another thing, forget having your windows open for the most
part…especially at night, that seems to always be when the turbines
make the most noise. But they can have noisy days if the weather is
right.

The one time it was like 3 days of constant thumping and noise...we
called the invenergy rep to complain and they sent out some lady…didnt say much and didnt help much either.

We had another instance where she and some head guy from Chicago came…I showed him what the water was doing on a video i had on my phone that I took, and also showed him in person, but he didnt even really acknowledge it. All they care about is the DB meter which is really not a fair measurement of what is going on here. Overall we probably called invenergy 5 or so times to complain over the past 5 or so months. But after a few times it just seemed like the same song and dance and then there doesn’t seem to be a point in calling to complain anymore.

I will say now, i am getting headaches more frequently...not sure if
its related, but it has increased. And i feel like i never really get
good sleep...probably because the noise they make takes you out of REM sleep would be my guess.

But its the thumping and noise that i cant deal with. Forget open
windows, forget enjoying outside. Unless its just the right day with no wind or barely any and the turbine are barely even moving or are just not moving at all…you will hear them.

Looking back now, I would rather pay the higher taxes then have the wind turbines here. They really have changed life in a negative way and i dont think anyone deserves that.

To all that think Im making this stuff up, go live by some turbines…esp. these huge ones we have here in orangeville that are even bigger than the sheldon ones, for at least a month or two, and then tell me what you think.

I wish i would have know about this lawsuit as maybe it will help fix
something, the more people the better as there is strength in numbers, but how were we supposed to know about it to get on board?

$40 Million Dollar Lawsuit Filed by Orangeville, NY citizens against
Invenergy: http://www.thedailynewsonline.com/news/article_326873a8-2a7a-11e4-8f8b-001a4bcf887a.html

Australian Wind, The problem with Wind Turbines

Australia is contemplating amending their renewable energy targets (RET)

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Australia is contemplating amending their renewable energy targets (RET)  This about face in policy has the wind industry and other renewable developers on the offensive and lobbying extensively to protect their interests.  The following are the executive summary and the actual report that has them so concerned.

RET_Review_Report 2014 Australia

RET_Review_Report_Exec_Summary 2014 Australia