Why does your town need a wind ordinance? Is it just for setbacks from homes and turbine noise limits? And who are you going to call when things go wrong?

A good wind ordinance also considers protections for all residents from the damage that will be done to roads, waterways, and land during the heavy construction of the turbines. Construction work is often done by out of town people who show up, get the work done as fast as possible, and then disappear, leaving the town with few options to correct the damages done unless an ordinance was is place before hand which assures that roads, waterways and land will be repaired and restored.

Here's a video from someone whose town did not have an ordinance with protections in place for the turbine construction period. It shows the hazard presented by the chemicals used to control dust on the roads during the construction. In this case, the chemicals made it into water ways, resulting in fish kills.

Sadly, stories like these are much too common.

Without an ordinance in place, a township is left open to the abuses of wind developers, construction crews, and others who stand to profit from the wind development, while residents lose. Who are you going to call? Why not call your town government today and ask them to get working on a good, solid, defensible wind ordinance. (To read some examples of good Wisconsin wind ordinances, click here)

THE MISGIVINGS HEARD 'ROUND THE WORLD

Ripley farmer regrets wind turbine leases

(Source)

November 13, 2008 by Don Crosby in The Kincardine News

Dave Colling regrets having leased some of his farm near Ripley to a wind energy developer.

Colling is part of a group of neighbours who signed a three-year lease in return for a fixed amount of money a year, plus a percentage of the profits once the project is underway.

"If I knew then what I know now, I never would have signed up," said Colling, whose farm will have wind turbines as part of the second stage of development near Ripley. The first phase of 38 turbines developed by Suncor came online last year.

"We are entering a whole new era of technology and we don't know any of its effects," Colling told about 150 people at a meeting on Wednesday in Feversham put on by a group called Preserve Grey Highlands.

The recently created group made up of former Osprey township residents is holding public information meetings to raise awareness about the potential adverse health concerns, quality of life changes and the turbines effect on property values.

Lorrie Gillis, the group's spokesperson, said members are also questioning the economic feasibility of turbines, which "don't save anything on carbon emissions," nor have they led to the closure of any coal burning generating plants.

The group is circulating a petition to be sent to the provincial government and Grey Highlands council calling for a moratorium on further construction of wind turbines in the province until there is a full independent assessment.

"We don't want them here until they are better studied and the truth is known, good bad or indifferent. The more research I do, the more red flags go up. We need to do a whole lot more study on them... we'd like to know they are a viable energy option," said Gillis.

The local group has joined forces with Wind Concerns Ontario - a coalition of 24 rural groups opposing projects in their own municipalities.

Gillis said research by her group has found adverse impacts to residents' health, local wildlife and the environment.

Colling, who tests homes and farms for the presence of stray voltage, related his experience testing the some homes in the Ripley near new turbines. He found that the lines carrying electricity from the turbines to the transmission lines were located too close to the lines leading to the homes and created much higher than normal levels of electricity in the homes. This was causing residents to display the symptoms of electrical hypersensitivity - dizziness, ringing in the ears, fatigue, headache, feeling of pins and needles and a burning sensation.

"It was like being in a microwave oven on high frequency," said Colling, who noted that once Hydro One buried the cables in the ground, the symptoms disappeared.

Colling urged anyone thinking of signing up with a wind development company to find out as much as possible.

"Educate yourself. Listen to the people you trust," he said.

Other speakers included Ed Long, the head of Blue Highlands Citizens, who said wind developers plan to build 600 turbines between Feversham and Shelburne.

Bill Palmer, a critic of the Kingsbridge wind farm project in the former Ashfield Township, said wind energy does little to supplement power needs during peak demand, since wind is highest at night when the demand for electricity is lowest and then it drops off during the day when demands soar.

He also said the setbacks from buildings and property lines of 400 metres need to be expanded.

Rob Wilton, who lives in a remote area east of Dundalk, said if a proposed wind farm project goes through as planned, he will have six 400-foot turbines within a 1.6-kilometre radius of his house.

"None of the company consultants has come around to tell me they are putting these things up," said Wilton, who doesn't think he can sell his property now.

He's not opposed to wind energy, he just wants to keep his sense of isolation.

"One of the reasons I bought this property is because it's so desolate. I spend most of time outside. I can understand green power and renewable energy, cutting back on greenhouse gases. I just don't want so many of the them just so close to my house. Two, maybe three, but six to me, that's unreasonable."

Web link: http://www.kincardinenews.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?...

THURSDAY--NOVEMBER 13---7:41pm UNION TOWNSHIP PASSES WIND ORDINANCE WITH HALF MILE SET BACK!!

The BPRC Research Nerd is writing this live from the town of Union board meeting where the wind ordinance is about to come up for a vote for adoption......

7:00 Town of Union opens public hearing on adoption of wind ordinance

7:02-- One of the land owners who has signed with the developer and wishes to host the turbines asks where a turbine can be put in our area if the half a mile setback is adopted. He objects to the half mile setback.

He's told by the town lawyer that landowners and neighbors can enter into an agreement with a windfarm developer that allows for a shorter setback if they sign off on it.

7:06 Planning and Zoning chairman Alvin Francis who has already signed on with the wind developer to host a turbine also questions the half mile setback. (Mr. Francis recused himself from the P&Z meetings concerning the ordinance)

7:08 The first land owner questions the town board's decision to not allow a met tower to be on the property line between two farmer's land, and wonders if the town will do the same if two farmers agree to a shorter set back. The town lawyer explains that the met tower decision has to do with an existing town ordiance and is not part of the wind statute.

7:09 BPRC Research Nerd testifies in support of the ordinance. Says she has spoken to people in Fond du Lac County who are reporting serious trouble with noise and shadow flicker due to turbines sited too close to their homes and that those people in Fond du Lac would have been grateful to have this kind of ordinance.

7:13 Planning commission member Doug Zweizig sends in a letter which is read which recommends adopting the ordinance. He says the work done on this ordinance was a result of extraordinary work and study on the part of the town of Union Large Turbine Study Committee, says the substance of the ordinance serves to protect the health and safety of the residents.

7:16 Letter from wind developer Gary Haltaufderheide, employee of EcoEnergy. He says if the ordinance is adopted it will restrict wind development in Union township. He questions the findings of the Large Wind Turbine Wind Study Committee, and says that no one he knows of is having trouble with living near turbines, and questions why there have been no positive findings about the wind farms by the study committee, asks the chairman to look out the window and see if he wants to provide the leadership the community needs.

 7:18 Resident says the problems seems to be that some people like turbines and some people don't. He asks if noise is the main issue.

7:25 Resident from Spring Valley says that he wants his township to adopt an ordinance like the one Union has created. He says it's a good, safe, ordinance and hopes they will adopt it. He mentions that WPPI, which is pushing this project, has solar panels, not wind turbines and if it's good enough for WPPI it should be good enough for us.

7:32 Public hearing closed.

7:35 Town board member says that some people are bothered by noise, turbines could be better designed, and that there is enough leeway in the ordinance to put up a tower if neighbors could agree. He said some people are going to love them and some are going to hate them and that's just the way it is.

7:37 Town board member says that turbines don't make electricity unless they are going 14 miles an hour, and that there are other designs. Says he spent two nights in a wind farm and that at night the lights came on at once and strobed all night. Said it drove him crazy but he didn't have to live there. Spoke about turbines not paying for themselves. Mentioned solar options, and houses off the grid.

7:40 Town board member makes motion to adopt the ordianance

7:40 Seconded-----

7:41 Vote taken

PASSES! UNANIMOUSLY!

BPRC SPOTLIGHT ON THE PLANNED WIND FARM IN

Columbia County, town of Randolph-

Potential site map of 90 turbine wind farm project proposed by We Energies, previously owned and developed by Florida Power and Light

Click on the MAP links below to see  exactly where wind developers are considering siting wind turbines near the town of Randolph. Developers often consider several sites for each turbine. The maps below show the sites being seriously considered. The map is interactive. On the left side of the image is the zoom in (+) and zoom out (-) tool. There is also a satellite image available.

These industrial scale wind turbines are over 45 stories tall, have a blade span wider than a Boeing 747. Each blade is more than 130 feet long. There are documented problems with turbine noise especially at night. Loss of sleep due to noise is the number one complaint from those whose homes are less than 2640 feet from a turbine. Shadow flicker is also a problem. The wind developers and wind lobbyists want to be able to put as many turbines into each project as possible, and ask for a setback of just 1000 feet from our homes. That's about 350 steps. Unless your township has a wind ordinance, the state of Wisconsin allows them to do this.

Better Plan, Rock County has put together a DVD which shows the troubles people in the Fond du Lac and Dodge County areas are having with turbines sited too close to their homes. Included in this DVD is an interview with a dairy farmer having trouble with stray voltage since the turbines went on line in his community, and what happened to a dairy farming family when they said no to wind developers. Unfortunately their township had no ordinance to protect them from the aggressive tactics of the developers. Because of the placement of the 400 foot turbines around their farm, they can no longer spray their crops.

If you'd like a copy of this DVD, please contact us by clicking here. Include your mailing address and we'll get a one right out to you.

If you know anyone Columbia County, why not tell them about this website so they can find out how close developers are planning to put turbines to their homes. Once one wind farm goes in, others soon follow.

MAP 1

CLICK HERE to see a map of the 25 potential industrial wind turbine locations west of Randolph and east of Pardeeville

Click HERE to see the satellite map.

MAP 2

CLICK HERE TO SEE MAP of 25 potential turbine sites north of Cambria, south of Kingston, between hiway 73 and 44

CLICK HERE to see satellite map

MAP 3

CLICK HERE to see satellite map

MAP 4

CLICK HERE to see satellite map

Green jobs?

(Posted by Industrial Wind Action Group November 11, 2008)(CLICK HERE TO READ AT SOURCE)

One compelling argument favoring wind energy development in rural areas is the opportunity for local economic benefits, especially jobs. Wind energy proponents fervently tout numbers showing hundreds of high-paying jobs created. But as with many of the benefits attributed to wind energy development, the details tell a different story.

Most of jobs in a wind energy project are created during the construction phrase. These jobs are temporary lasting between 6 and 18 months. High-paying jobs, in particularly are usually filled by people who come to the area for short periods of time to assemble the towers, turbines, and associated electronics and to build substations and transmission lines necessary to connect wind turbines to the electric grid. Few permanent jobs are created.

Many wind companies publish their estimated employment numbers when trying to secure public support, however, they have no obligation to report actual employment so it is can be difficult to confirm or refute their preconstruction estimates.

Larger project owners have the resources to pool their operational functions (purchasing parts, administrative, payroll, insurance, etc.) and can have centrally located crews to do maintenance on multiple projects. Smaller project owners sign maintenance contracts with turbine vendors that do not rely on local labor. For example, Vestas has its own turbine operations business.

Windaction.org received this report written by a gentleman laboring at a wind energy construction site in the United States:

"I went to jobsite to check in yesterday afternoon. I noticed a lot of folks there who didn't speak English. I put on my mandatory hardhat, safety vest, hard-toed boots, and safety glasses, poured myself a cup of coffee and walked to the warm-up area. There we were given our daily safety talk.

This phase of construction is winding down and now they're 'energizing' the 90 or so turbines erected.

"After the safety talk and the pep talk, we formed a big circle. They put on loud music and a large fellow led us in stretches! Mind you the sun had still not risen and there were more than a hundred people there, about 15 men for every woman, all with hardhats, safety vests, steel-toed boots, and safety glasses on, all doing coordinated stretching.

"I asked someone in my office how many were from here. He said he was a local and that there were a few more. He said most of the early construction jobs, including site preparation labor positions were done by the locals. The actual design work plus the construction, erection of the towers, the energizing, and the operation, were all done by people who have been doing this type of work all over the world - they're trained and experienced, which means they're not from here. And the crews are from Spain, Poland, Germany, and Korea....

"So as usual, the low paying jobs go to us. The investment comes from out-of-state and largely from out-of-country. The profits go out-of-state and largely out-of-country. The workers come from out-of-state, and many from out-of-country.

"By the time the average person realizes what's happening, there will be huge wind farm facilities built across the state. They will all be financed, built, owned, and operated by out-of-state entities, and most of the energy will be sent out-of-state and the profits will largely go out-of-state and overseas. And we will be sitting here wondering what happened.

"Oh well, at least I have a job. I wonder if I'll be paid in Euros."

We're putting together a list of counties in Wisconsin where we know wind developers have been "prospecting"-- so that residents have a chance to get their town governments to get a wind ordinance in place. Unfortunately, by the time most of us hear an industrial scale wind farm is coming to our area, it's already a done deal.

We're grateful to those who have contacted us to let us know they've been approached by wind developers.If you know of any towns and counties we've missed, contact us by clicking here and let us know!


WIND DEVELOPERS HAVE BEEN SPOTTED IN

BROWN COUNTY
Town of Glenmore

BUFFALO COUNTY

CALUMET COUNTY

Town of Brothertown

Town of Charlesburg
Town of Chilton
Town of Lincoln
Town of New Holstein
Town of Rantoul
Town of Stockbridge

COLUMBIA COUNTY
Town of Arlington Town of Cambria Town of Leeds
Town of Randolf
Town of Scott

DANE COUNTY
Town of Springfield

DODGE COUNTY
Town of Herman
Town of Rubicon

DOOR COUNTY
Town of Clay Banks

FOND DU LAC COUNTY

Town of Ashford

Town of Brownsville

Town of Byron
Town of Eden
Town of Empire

GRANT COUNTY
Cuba City
Town of Hazel Green
Town of Paris
Town of Plattville
Town of Smelser

IOWA COUNTY

Town of Montfort

KEWAUNEE COUNTY
Town of Casco

LAFAYETTE COUNTY
Town of Belmont
Town of Seymour

MANITOWAC COUNTY
Town of Mishicot
Town of Two Creeks
Town of Two Rivers

MONROE COUNTY
Town of Ridgeville
Town of Wilton

OUTGAMIE COUNTY
Town of Kaukauna

OZAUKEE COUNTY
Town of Freedonia

ROCK COUNTY
Town of Center
Town of Janesville
Town of Spring Valley
Town of Magnolia
Town of Union

SHEBOYGAN COUNTY
Town of Rhine

TREMPEALEAU COUNTY

Town of Arcadia

Town of Ettrick

VERNON COUNTY
Town of Westby

WASHINGTON COUNTY

Town of Addison

Town of Nabob

Town of West Bend

Though Magnolia Township has a wind ordinance with a 2640 setback, there will be a big legislative push in 2009 to take away all local contol over the siting of industrial wind turbines and hand it to the Public Service Commission. The Public Service Commission believes 1000 foot setback from homes is all we need.

The wind developer wants to put 67 forty story turbines in Magnolia Township. WHERE WILL THEY PUT THE TURBINES?

(scroll down for close ups)

This Map Shows Our Highest Ground

Where will they put 67 turbines that are 400 feet tall each? (that's as tall as the big radio tower south of Evansville)

BPRC contacted EcoEnergy to ask for a map, and were told they had no map to distribute that would be reliable. We then asked if we could assume that the turbines would be sited on the high ground of Magnolia Township and were told that "as a general rule, wind turbines are sited on high, open areas, where there are few obstructions to block the wind."

This is a map of where the high grounds are located in our community. There are documented problems from wind turbine noise and shadow flicker for homes located within 1.5 miles of a turbine. Where will they all go? How close will they be to your home?

These maps were made by overlaying the 2005 Rock County Platbook map with the Rock County Elevation map obtained from the Rock County Department of Planning and Development. The blue and pink areas indicate highgrounds which is where industrial wind turbines are normally sited.

(Note:This story made national news when it appeared in USA Today on November 4th, 2008. Although wind developers and lobbyists continue to downplay and even deny the negative health effects of living too close to industrial scale wind turbines, the first American peer reviewed study makes the truth of the matter quite clear. To read some of the peer reviews, CLICK HERE)

by Judy Keenin USA Today

(Click here to read at source)

Not long after the wind turbines began to spin in March near Gerry Meyer's home, his son Robert, 13, and wife, Cheryl, complained of headaches.
They have trouble sleeping, and Cheryl Meyer, 55, sometimes feels a fluttering in her chest. Gerry is sometimes nauseated and hears crackling.

The culprit, they say, is the whooshing sound from the five industrial wind turbines near the 6-acre spread where they have lived for 37 years. "I don't think anyone should have to put up with this," says Gerry Meyer, who compares the sound to a helicopter or a jet taking off.

As more turbines are built, the noise they create is stirring debate. Industry groups such as the American Wind Energy Association say there's no proof they make people sick, but complaints of nausea, insomnia and other problems have surfaced near wind farms across the USA.

Nina Pierpont, a pediatrician in Malone, N.Y., calls the ailments Wind Turbine Syndrome and is writing a book on them. In the preface, which she shared with USA TODAY, she says the syndrome "is an industrial plague. It is man-made and easily fixed. Proper setbacks are the best cure."

Laurie Jodziewicz, siting manager for the American Wind Energy Association, says there are almost 15,000 wind turbines in the USA, and most people live near them "without incident. ... We would have heard if this was a widespread issue."

The nearest turbine is 1,560 feet from Meyer's house. His dismay over an energy source he once thought was benign has made the retired mailman, 59, an activist. He travels the state warning communities considering wind farms to be wary.

Studies have mixed results

One of the nation's first nuisance lawsuits against a wind farm ended with rulings in 2006 in favor of the company that developed it after landowners near the Abilene, Texas, project objected to turbine noise.

Objections to wind farms continue to be raised:

• Pierpont's website,www.windturbinesyndrome.com,includes reports of illness from Union, Ore.; Mars Hill, Maine; Saginaw, Texas; King City, Mo.; and elsewhere.

Wendy Todd, who lives 2,500 feet from a turbine in Mars Hill, says she suffers sleep deprivation, and her neighbors have headaches and dizziness. "You just can't get used to it," she says of the noise.

• British physician Amanda Harry said in a 2007 study that people living near turbines can experience anxiety, depression, vertigo and tinnitus.
• Mariana Alves-Pereira, a Portuguese acoustical engineer, said in a 2007 study that turbines can cause vibroacoustic disease, which can lead to strokes and epilepsy.

A 2008 study funded by the European Union, however, found that the sound annoys many people, but it doesn't affect health "except for the interruption of sleep."

Some of Meyer's neighbors don't understand the fuss. People who say the noise makes them ill are exaggerating, says Rudy Jaeger, 67, who has a turbine on his farm. "It's no worse than traffic driving by." Francis Ferguson, chairman of the Byron Town Board, which voted to approve the project here, has heard talk that the sound makes people sick, but says, "I haven't seen any documentation."

The American Wind Energy Association would like to see "a credible, third-party" scientific study, Jodziewicz says. Setbacks are settled between developers and communities, and there's no industry standard, she says.

Susan Dennison, spokeswoman for Invenergy, the Chicago company that built the 86-turbine wind farm here, says it hasn't received any complaints about health problems in the area.

The turbines here, which are 389 feet tall including blades, must be 440 feet from property lines and at least 1,000 feet from homes, she says.

Concerns over home values

Eric Rosenbloom of National Wind Watch, an information clearinghouse, says noise and health concerns are the top issues in communities considering them. The group recommends 1-mile setbacks from homes.

Rick James, an acoustical engineer from Okemos, Mich., suggests keeping turbines 1¼ miles from homes.

That makes sense to Larry Wunch, a firefighter who lives a few miles from the Meyers. Turbines encircle his property, and when the wind tops 15 mph, he says, they "just scream." The closest is 1,100 feet from his house.

Wunch says he and his wife, Sharon, "have lost sleep and are irritated." He worries his home's value has declined and says the wind farm has created tension between opponents and those who have them on their property in exchange for annual payments that Dennison says are about $5,000 a year. "It's really turned our township upside down," Wunch says.

"If it's affecting your health," Meyer says, "it's hard to ignore."

Web link:http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/20...

NOTE FROM THE BPRC RESEARCH NERD: Check it out! Small is beautiful! The answer to the energy crisis is not industrial scale, but human-scale--

Portable Power: Tiny Solar Cells Show Promise

Researchers have managed to pull 11 volts of electricity from a small array of solar cells, which are each a quarter of the size of a grain of white rice.

By Reuters
InformationWeek

November 7, 2008 08:00 AM

CHICAGO - Researchers have developed some some of the tiniest solar cells ever made and said Thursday the organic material could potentially be painted on to surfaces.

So far, they have managed to pull 11 volts of electricity from a small array of the cells, which are each just a quarter of the size of a grain of white rice, said Xiaomei Jiang of the University of South Florida, who led the research.

"They could be sprayed on any surface that is exposed to sunlight -- a uniform, a car, a house," Jiang said in a telephone interview.

"Because it is in a solution, you can design a special spray gun where you can control the size and thickness. You could produce a paste and brush it on," she said.

Eventually, Jiang envisions the solar cells being used as a coating on a variety of surfaces, including clothing. They might generate energy to power small electronic devices or charge a cell phone, for example.

Solar cells, which convert energy from the sun into electricity, are in increasing demand amid unstable gas prices and worries over global warming.

Most conventional solar cells are made up of silicon wafers, a brittle substance that limits where they can be placed.

Many teams of scientists are working on different ways to make solar cells more flexible in the hopes of taking better advantage of energy from the sun.

The tiny cells from Jiang's lab are made from an organic polymer that has the same electrical properties of silicon wafers but can be dissolved and applied to flexible materials.

"The main components are carbon and hydrogen -- materials that are present in nature and are environmentally friendly," Jiang said.

In research published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, Jiang and colleagues showed an array of 20 of these cells could generate 7.8 volts of electricity, about half the power needed to run a microscopic sensor for detecting dangerous chemicals and toxins.

Her team is now refining the manufacturing process with the hope of doubling that output to 15 volts. "It's a matter of months," Jiang said.