The BPRC Research Nerd
11/10/09 What's it like to live in a Wisconsin wind farm? Ask Rita and Harvey Freund
What's it like to live in a Wisconsin wind farm?
Wisconsin writer Lynda Barry has been interviewing wind farm residents for a book she is putting together that answers that very question. She's interviewed people from 20 households in both the Blue Sky/Green Field wind farm near the Town of Malone and also the Invenergy Forward Energy wind farm near the Town of Byron. Both wind farms have a setback of 1000 feet from non-participating homes.
This exerpt, from the up-coming book, is based on an interview conducted in late June of 2009:
Harvey and Rita Freund live in the north-central section of the Blue Sky/Green Field 88 turbine wind project. Their home is surrounded by turbines on all sides. The closest turbines appear to be approximately 1500 feet away, with about 11 more turbines within a 2640 foot range of their house.
They’ve lived in their farmhouse since 1962, raising six kids. They are grandparents and great-grandparents and their home is full of family photos.
They welcomed me with that Wisconsin mix of hospitality, friendliness and earthy humor that is one of my favorite things about people in our state. On the afternoon we spoke they were just a few weeks away from their 59th wedding anniversary.
Harvey greeted me from out in front of the house where he was greasing some machinery on a boat. He’s 79 years old, has bright blue eyes, and an easy, open smile. He tells me he’s hard of hearing so the turbine noise doesn’t bother him as much as it bothers his wife. But he is bothered by the disappearance of wildlife from the area since the turbines went on line.
Harvey says, “We used to have so many ducks and geese around. They’d come over there to the pond to mate, and nest.” Harvey says now the ducks are few and the geese seem to have abandoned their nests. There are fewer birds now than he’s seen in the last 35 years.
“And we always had bats. Lots of bats.” He says they’re gone too. “These last two nights I’ve only seen but one.”
He invites me inside to meet Rita.
Rita Freund is 77 years old. She has congestive heart failure and sits in a recliner with a walker near by. Her heart may not be in the best shape but her sense of humor is in top condition. She says, “When Harvey and me got married I told him, I’ll cook for the first fifty years, then you cook for the next fifty years, and then the next fifty years we’ll negotiate.”
She’s wearing a blue dress, which sets off alert blue eyes behind glasses. Her legs and ankles are swollen with the edema that typifies congestive heart failure, and her feet are resting on a towel. She has extreme difficulty getting around and is confined to an electronically adjustable recliner most of the day.
She spoke about severe shadow flicker from the turbines. “The first time it came in through the bathroom so bright and flashing I didn’t know what it was. I was hollering for Harvey because I thought the house was on fire.”
She says the flicker hits their house in the morning. It makes her feel sick and dizzy and she can’t shut it out. When asked what she does about it she says, “I just cover up my head with a blanket until it’s over.”
When asked how long the flicker lasts she says, “It lasts for quite a while. When the sun is out we get it every morning. Drives me crazy. They need to shut that turbine down.”
She says the flicker is terrible but her biggest complaint is the buzzing sound in her ears, which began soon after the turbines, went on line.
“It started off sounding like a Slinky going down the stairs, you know? Then it turned into a buzzing with a beat. And now my head just buzzes all the time.”
She has a history of stroke, and when she mentioned the buzzing to her doctor, he became concerned and recommended she get an MRI. She did and it showed no problems.
But the buzzing continued. She said, “It has three different sounds. One has a beat, like a drum, you know? Then that Slinky. Then that buzzing. It depends on the direction of the wind. I can be sitting here watching TV and inside my head it’s just buzzing away.”
She says a long-time neighbor from across the road also suffers from buzzing in her ears since the turbines went on line. One day they were visiting and talking about the turbine noise and shadow flicker and her neighbor says, “But it's that buzzing in my ears that drives me up a wall.”
“I said, ‘me too’. That’s how we found out it wasn’t just me, we both had it.”
Her neighbor recently decided to move to the nearby town of Chilton because of the turbine troubles.
When asked if Harvey and Rita have complained to the wind company about the noise and shadow-flicker, Harvey shakes his head. He says he learned back when the mega-farms came in that complaining is useless.
“It don’t do no good,” he says, “I’m 79 years old. I have five maybe six years left. I ain’t going to spend it fighting the wind company."
11/6/09 Know anyone in Brown County, Wisconsin? Ask them if they know about the huge wind farm is heading their way.
WIND FARM PLAN STIRS DEBATE IN BROWN CO.; Developer seeks to build largest operation in state.
By Scott Williams
Green Bay Press-Gazette
Business has been slow, so dairy farmer Bernie Kozlovsky could use a little extra cash as much as the next guy.
But a developer’s offer of $6,000 annually for access to his property has Kozlovsky — and many of his neighbors — conflicted about whether to welcome a wind farm into southern Brown County.
The proposal by Chicago-based Invenergy LLC would be Brown County’s first major commercial wind farm and would be larger than any currently operating in the state.
Proponents say wind energy protects the environment and provides economic growth, while opponents fear the intrusion of spinning turbines that stand 400 feet tall.
As presented to state regulators, Invenergy’s plan calls for 100 turbines south of Green Bay in the towns of Glenmore, Wrightstown, Morrison and Holland.
Kozlovsky, who farms 80 acres in Glenmore, has made up his mind.
“I said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’” he said. “Sure the money’s tempting. But then you’ve got to step back.”
In addition to paying farmers and other landowners $6,000 a year or more to allow turbines on their property, Invenergy is offering the county and local communities a combined $600,000 annually in incentives.
Invenergy spokesman Kevin Parzyck said other Wisconsin locations were considered, but the topography of southern Brown County made it an ideal location.
“There’s good wind that can produce good energy,” he said.
The Chicago developer, which already has 18 wind farms throughout the country, outlined its plans in an application filed last week with the state Public Service Commission.
According to the application, 54 turbines would be erected in Morrison, while 22 would be in Holland, 20 in Wrightstown and four in Glenmore. Known as the Ledge Wind Energy Project, the farm would begin operation in 2011 and would generate enough electricity to power about 40,000 homes.
Wisconsin currently is home to nine commercial wind farms, the largest of which is owned by Milwaukee-based We Energies and includes 88 turbines in Fond du Lac County. Twenty more wind projects are under development statewide, including one in Glenmore that would involve eight turbines.
Another developer in 1998 erected two turbines elsewhere in Glenmore, in what was Brown County’s first commercial wind project.
Invenergy’s proposal for the county’s first large-scale operation is stirring strong reactions.
William Hafs, the county’s director of land and water conservation, said county officials support wind energy development because it is environmentally friendly.
Hafs noted that Gov. Jim Doyle has set a goal of utilizing renewable resources to generate 25 percent of the state’s energy needs by 2025.
“This is the future,” Hafs said. “It’s a clean energy, and it’s the way to go.”
The Public Service Commission will hold public hearings before deciding whether to allow the Invenergy development — a process that could take several months. County and town officials also will have an opportunity to review applications for zoning, building permits and other elements of the development.
Local officials in the development site say they have heard mixed feelings from residents.
Kevin Collins, a Morrison trustee, said some residents favor the project because of the economic boost, but others are opposed to the idea of altering the area’s rural aesthetics.
“I don’t think it’s for everybody,” Collins said.
Glenmore Chairman Don Kittell, on the other hand, called the development a boon to the region both financially and in terms of energy resources.
“We’re going to make some money,” Kittell said, “and we’re not going to run out of electricity."
11/5/09 Regarding the Glacier Hills Wind Farm: The people speak. Will the PSC Listen?
Hearings on wind farm packed; hundreds turn out to hear merits debated
By Lyn Jerde
Daily Register
FRIESLAND - Walter Wiersma considered introducing a photo of his children - 5-year-old Spencer and 3-year-old Rianna - into the written record of Wednesday's Public Service Commission of Wisconsin hearing to illustrate his opposition to electricity-generating wind turbines in northeast Columbia County.
Wiersma, of Friesland, was one of many people at the standing-room-only hearings who said worries about the health effects, safety and noise from wind turbines, in a 17,300-acre area in the towns of Scott and Randolph, should lead the commission to reject the We Energies proposal for Glacier Hills Wind Park.
"I'm for green energy," he said, "but I don't want it to hurt my family and friends."
The two hearing sessions, one at 3 p.m. and one at 7 p.m., were moved from the Randolph Town Hall to the Friesland Village Hall next door, in an effort to accommodate the crowds that showed up at both sessions.
All 50 chairs in the village board's meeting room were filled, and attendees spilled into the back of the room, and even into the hall outside.
At the first session, which lasted about an hour and 15 minutes, testimony was fairly divided among proponents and opponents of the wind project, which is expected to generate 207 megawatts of energy (enough to power about 45,000 homes) from 90 turbines, built on about 240 parcels of leased farmland.
Cliff Krentz of the town of Randolph said economics - namely, jobs for builders such as himself - is the strongest argument in favor of the project.
"Glacier Hills Wind Park can do a lot of good for a lot of people in this area," he said.
Several other witnesses, representing construction companies and unions representing workers in the construction business, offered similar testimony.
But at the second session, which lasted about two hours, several of those who testified said they lived near Blue Sky Green Fields, an 88-turbine We Energies wind farm that began operating last year in Fond du Lac County, in the towns of Marshfield and Calumet.
James Mueller of the town of Marshfield said the noise from the turbines is worst in winter, when there are no crops in the field to muffle it.
"It roars above my house like a jet," he said.
James Vollmer, who also lives near Blue Sky Green Fields, said he had to stop raising birds because the noise from the turbines stressed them so much, they stopped laying eggs, they molted in the winter and some of them died.
"Just like anyone else," he said, "if birds can't sleep, they get health problems."
Several other witnesses who live near Blue Sky Green Fields testified about problems with TV and radio reception, a strobe effect from the turbine blades called shadow flicker, and people who are susceptible to motion sickness experiencing queasiness from the turning turbines.
But Art Ondrejkas. who lives in the town of Calumet in Fond du Lac County, said he works for a company that is contracted to service the turbines there - and he has no problems living near them.
"I have a family there," he said, "and if I thought that something would happen to my family because of the wind turbines, I'd be out of there in a minute."
Several residents of the towns of Scott and Randolph said they've tried to sell their homes since hearing of plans for the wind farm, but have had few or no offers because of the possibility of the turbines being built.
Nancy Bump of the town of Scott said she has not leased any of her land for the turbines, but four of them are planned for near her home - the nearest one a little less than 1,200 feet away.
"We will be subjected to sleepless nights and shadow flicker from all four points of the compass," she said.
Carl Vander Galien, Friesland village president, read into the record a village resolution in opposition to the project. If the turbines are built, the resolution asks that We Energies pay the village yearly to compensate for the drop in property values the village is already experiencing just from the anticipation of the project.
"Personally," he said, "I don't see why this project is being built here, because of the low amount of wind."
Several attendees also submitted only written testimony, which was not read aloud to the group.
Administrative Law Judge Michael Newmark, who presided at the hearings, said all testimony, oral and written, is taken under oath. All testimony, except any that might be removed later due to objections from attorneys, will be compiled for the three-member Public Service Commission's consideration when it decides, probably sometime in January, whether to approve, deny or approve with modifications the Glacier Hills Wind Park project.
If the commission approves the project, construction will likely start next summer, and the turbines should be operational sometime in 2011.
ljerde@capitalnewspapers.com
745-3587
Lyn Jerde/Daily Register
James Ebert of Friesland, left, expresses adamant opposition to the proposed Glacier Hills Wind Park Wednesday, as Administrative Law Judge Michaal Newmark listens, during a Public Service Commission of Wisconsin hearing at the Friesland Village Hall. Sworn testimony from the hearing will be given to the three-member Public Service Commission, which will decide, probably in January, whether to approve, modify or deny approval to the proposed We Energies wind energy complex in northeast Columbia County.
Lyn Jerde/Daily Register
Every chair was filled, and people stood in the back of the room and even in the hallway, for a Public Service Commission of Wisconsin public hearing on a proposed wind energy complex in the towns of Scott and Randolph. The hearing, originally scheduled for the Randolph Town Hall, was moved to the Friesland Village Hall next door to allow more seating space. At least 100 people attending each of the two hearing sessions Wednesday.
10/30/09 Follow the stimulus money for wind energy.....as it heads overseas
To follow the stimulus money you'll need a passport
A new report finds that only two out of ten dollars in stimulus money granted for wind energy stays in the US. The other 80% heads straight overseas.