Better Plan: The Trouble With Industrial Wind Farms in Wisconsin

4/30/10 Who's afraid of the Big Bad Turbine Noise? Money doesn't just talk, it shuts people up AND Life in a wind project south of the border: a family from DeKalb shares their daily life with turbines.

Friday, April 30, 2010 at 09:41AM
The BPRC Research Nerd

NOTE FROM THE BPWI RESEARCH NERD:

At yesterday's wind siting council meeting at the PSC, council member and wind project resident Larry Wunsch, let the council know he wanted to play a recording of the noise from the turbine located 1100 feet from his home. He wanted council members to hear what he was living with.

We were troubled to see the instant resistance around the table to this idea from those with direct or indirect financial interest in the outcome of the siting guidelines. The wind developers, utility representatives and wind lobbyist did not want Mr. Wunsch to be able to play his recording for the council and seemed genuinely fearful of listening to it.

Why?

Why are the members of the council fighting so hard to push aside the direct experience of someone who has been living 1100 feet from a turbine around the clock for two years?

What are they so afraid of?

Other council members with no financial stake in the outcome of the rules seemed open to hearing the recording. Chairman Ebert pushed the option off the table as fast as possible, saying the council could hear the turbine noise in person when they visited the Wunsh home next week. He said perhaps Mr. Wunsch could play the recording then.

The Tuesday meeting at the Wunsch home, which is part of a 'field trip' to two wind projects will not be broadcast to the public. If the recording is played then, the members of the public who cannot attend will have no opportunity to hear it, or to hear the reactions of the council members.

Better Plan hopes that the few council members with no financial stake in the outcome of these rules will push back and act on behalf of the thousands of Wisconsin residents who will be living in the projects that will be sited according to the guidelines the council creates.

We doubt that any of those on the council who protested against hearing Mr. Wunch's recording will ever live inside of a wind project. And it was telling to see how the strongest protests came from those with money interests. It was disturbing to see how fast they acted together to make sure the public will not hear that recording.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO HEAR TURBINE NOISE AT 1100 FEET RECORDED BY LARRY WUNSCH

SECOND FEATURE:

What is it like to live in a wind project? If you're in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, or DeKalb County, Illinois, the answer the same. CLICK HERE to visit a daily weblog called "Life with DeKalb Turbines"

we would like our blog readers to know that we are not angry people that go around all day bashing renewable resources. we love life, our neighbors, and people who don't necessarily agree with us. we count our blessings and life goes on. we are not going against the aesthetics of windmills, we are calling for increased setbacks because of constant noise and other issues. we are a small family going up against a very large company who have hired experts to support some of their misleading statements. we are the experts now, because we live with the turbines. 1400 feet is way too close! we would like wind companies, state representatives, county boards, landowners, planning and zoning committees, etc... to realize that they need to make larger setbacks so other residents can be spared from
the issues we (and so many others) are enduring. thank you for reading.

Our home in rural DeKalb County, IL is where we wanted to stay for good. We have put so much into our home to make it a place where we would love to live and raise our children, and unfortunately we are being forced to live differently.

We have been bullied by a large industrial wind company (NextEra Energy, a subsidiary of Florida Power and Light (FPL) and sold-out by the DeKalb County Board. FPL told residents that these wind turbines only "sound like a refrigerator."

Well, we have found that this is not the case. Often times our yard sounds like an airport. We hear and feel the low frequency sound on our property as well as in our home. We are bothered by the noise, whistling, contant swirling movement, and shadow flicker. Complaining is not something that our family is known for doing and we teach our children to look for the positive aspects of life, but this has gone too far with the turbines. Someone needs to speak up.

These industrial wind turbines should not be built close to homes. They should be at least a mile away to avoid these issues. We have 13 within a mile. The closest 2 are 1,400 feet away.

Friday, April 30, 2010

Windy with low noise

yesterday was 30 mph winds from the south. turbines weren't feathered out completely (meaning the tips were more concaved then convexed...the more convexed the blades are the more noise and low frequency). today's conditions are very similar to yesterday.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Can't get used to the quality of sound

today the winds were pretty consistent but the turbines were facing different directions at times and feathered differently from each other. the sounds were up and down all day due to the blade revolutions and feathering. it's something that you can't get used to. it's not a loud booming sound we are so bothered by. it's the quality of sound. an over and over again droning low frequency. and since it is on and off all day...it is an absolute nuisance.

Slept well away from the turbines

we've been gone the last few days and slept very well away from the turbines.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

evening

just came in the house quick to document. we are outside tonight playing and doing yard work. the blades were spinning and we could hear light swishing. all of a sudden the blades rotated out completely and then we could feel the difference and hear that low frequency vibration immediately.

we are so discouraged. it is so wrong that the wind companies are not honest about this sound information especially to those who live 1400 feet away from the turbines. sometimes we feel that maybe we could handle this, especially if it was just like this afternoon....but tonight...for 30 years, that's brutal. we want out of this sound tunnel.

afternoon

5: 48 pm beautiful afternoon. calm winds. turbines all facing different directions, some lightly spinning. good day for no noise. hopefully tonight will be the same. we never know.

morning

shadow flicker and noise this morning.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Blades completely feathered this morning

this morning the turbines were on. we woke up and could feel the vibration and hear the hum in our house. the winds this morning were from WNW at 2mph and the blades were completely feathered (tips of blades bent back slightly).

yesterday afternoon/evening they weren't feathered (still spinning though). wondering why that is? we do know that the operator needs to feather the blades of the turbines to 'catch' the wind. each turbine needs an outside source of electricity to work (turn/feather the hub and blades, power the flashing FAA lights, etc...we even hear the motors at times).

we've noticed that when the operator feathers the blades at their fullest is when we mostly hear/feel the low frequency/vibration sounds as the blades pass through the air.

Turbines off

going to bed last night the turbines were off. what a difference in how fast we were able to fall asleep. it was wonderful.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Relief

this morning woke up, turbines were off. what a nice relief from the droning sounds. we can feel the relief and less pressure in the air. winds From NE at 2mph.

Blades not feathered

yesterday was out on property enjoying the day around 3p.m. winds E @ 7mph. blades were lazily spinning and not feathered completely (limited sound emitted from the turbines due to the blades not being feathered).

the weekend
this past weekend we were home off and on. very windy saturday. sound was bad at night getting to bed.

A lighter feeling

this morning we felt lighter, like a weight was lifted off of us. looked out our bedroom window and the turbines were off. ahhhhhh....a little break, but they came back on shortly after. that low frequency sound creates a heavy feeling in our bodies.

Gardening to a different tune

we were gardening last night in our back yard and had some family over to help. the sound nuissance from the turbines was horrible and the whistling turbine was back. it's like april 1 for us everyday with these machines. it gets comical at times (or we just have to laugh for our own sanity). seriously, this cannot be real.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Tunnel of sound

such a beautiful day today...outside playing with the family, hanging out laundry, and yardwork. wish we could say we didn't hear the windmills, but unfortunately they were going full speed and we were distracted by the swooshing and low toned hum. we have them on 3 sides of us (as if we are in a tunnel of sound), so as we go to different areas of our property the intensity of the noise changes. it's not something that we can 'get used to' because the sounds constantly change with wind speeds/direction. sometimes they sound like swishing/chopping noises, other times like shoes in a dryer cycle, a muffled diesl engine, and so on. we are unable to enjoy our property like we once did.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The wind companies holding back the truth

we were reading on 'the american wind energy' website that the sounds from turbines only sound like a "babbling brook" or a "reading room at a library." they show a video of turbines spinning so people could hear what it sounds like and in some of the pictures the blades are going so slow and they aren't even feathered. these companies are painting a false picture to sell their product. maybe on the light winded days it may sound like a soft wooshing sound standing in the middle of a field, but from 1400 feet away from a residence on most days it does not.
let us tell you the reality:
last night we were out on our back porch and it sounded like someone was standing outside shaking a large piece of sheet metal over and over again. it was disturbing and distracting to our family (the wind turbine we were hearing was the one pictured at the top of our blog). out of all the issues we are facing, the sound is the worst. we remember visiting some wind turbines before this project was completed. we pulled over to the side of the road, put our windows down, could hear the light swishing sounds of the blades and said, "maybe this won't be too bad after all" (even though the constant motion was quite dizzying). now that we live with them, we have found each moment is different with these turbines: wind speeds, wind direction, feathering of blades, etc. our family would like to see the wind companies do studies on the people actually living next to turbines.

we were robbed of sleep again last night because of the resonating low toned frequency sounds coming into our home (like tennis shoes in a dryer).

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Can't sleep.

it is 12:30 a.m. right now and we cannot sleep. the threshing of the blades through the wind and the low frequency is driving us nuts...the droning sound over and over again. this is absurd.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Different location

had the turbines been here first, we would have picked a different location to settle.

Forced to live with constant motion

we took some video yesterday and this morning of the constant motion we see in our home and outside our home. the footage is from behind our house, the reflections in our front windows, our bedroom, the front room, kitchen window, living room and sun porch. the constant swirling is seen from almost every window of our house. we can't get away from it. it makes us sick.

Article originally appeared on Better Plan: The Trouble With Industrial Wind Farms in Wisconsin (http://betterplan.squarespace.com/).

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