‘Rights of people are being squashed. It is impossible to take on wind farm firms’ [Ireland]

Irish Examiner ^ | September 18, 2017 | Michael Clifford

[Olog-hai]

Some nights, Sean Harris is sitting watching the TV and he thinks he hears the fridge humming. On other occasions, he has been out on the road around his home in Ballyduff in West Waterford, and the engine sounds as if it’s a car approaching him from behind.

Those are the more benign effects of the Barnafaddock Wind Farm, as he sees it. He is not alone, but neither are his problems shared with huge numbers in his rural community.

In most people’s view, the wind farm is in the mountains and its developer has compensated the community with funds for social and sporting clubs. They, however, don’t live on its doorstep, as Mr. Harris and some of his neighbors do.

“It’s been there since it started up,” Harris says. “It depends on the weather. If you get wind coming from the west, it can be very noisy and it’s worse in the winter. But it’s there all the time. It’s worst of all at night, or at least most noticeable because you don’t have noise coming from anything else at that time.” […]

The Harrises and their neighbors believe that noise limits stipulated in planning are being breached. But they also believe they have evidence that the wind farm has been constructed much bigger than allowed by planning, making it noisier, more obstructive, and, from the owner’s point of view, more productive. Their complaints have delivered a major headache to Waterford City and County Council, and raise questions that are applicable right across the country. …

[Monterrosa-24]

The Greens support wind power generally even though...

1. It creates an unnatural blight on the countryside.
2. It is not efficient.
3. It creates noise pollution and magnetic field interference.
4. It kills birdlife.

[txnativegop]

that explains the absence of birds in northeastern Indiana then. Those things are everywhere up there.

[Pontiac]

Later

[jonrick46]

Does anyone have any knowledge about the possibility of the wind farms causing voltage surges in the power grid? If true, then wind farms can cause damage to electronics which can be an expensive consequence.

[huldah1776]

no birds, more bugs, more insecticide, more cancer.

BTW, that sound is going to deafen the locals a lot earlier than normal but at least they won’t hear it. I wonder how much damage it causes to infants and children.

I hate them. period.

[Daffynition]

To fix the “problem” a helicopter is employed (burning aviation fuel) to spray hot water (which is heated in the frigid temperatures using a truck equipped with a 260 kW oil burner) on the blades of the turbine to de-ice them.

The aviation fuel, the diesel for the truck, and the oil burned to heat the water, could produce more electricity (at the right time to meet demand) than the unfrozen wind turbine could ever produce. (Before it freezes up again).

Apparently we need global warming to keep the wind gennies running to prevent global warming.

Thank goodness they didn’t waste the avgas and diesel on something silly like producing electricity.

[Daffynition]

I'm hoping a hurricane will take down the turbines off Montauk. Jose? Maybe. I'm hoping.

Many of the beautiful mountain vistas in Vermont and Maine have been ruined by these monstrosities.

[School of Rational Thought]

Saw an article not too long ago about the environmentally oriented Swedes burning trash for power. They even have to immport trash.

It is only a political position that wind power is out there. Long subsidized under PURPA and crosssubsidized by other sources internally, wind power is a bust.

[FreedomPoster]

10-12 years ago we were driving from LAX to an event in Palm Springs, and I drove through the San Gorgonio Pass (AKA the Banning Pass) for the first time. There is a huge wind farm in the pass, which naturally creates elevated wind speeds.

I was struck at the time at how ugly this made a very beautiful landscape, and at how many of the wind turbines were non-operational, even with the very high California electricity rates. It just screamed “SCAM!” to me.

[chimera]

It is only a political position that wind power is out there. Long subsidized under PURPA and crosssubsidized by other sources internally, wind power is a bust.

Bust is putting it mildly. I have always said that these things don't farm the wind so much as farm the subsidies.

In my state the industrial wind industry was going nuts lobbying the legislature to extend (yet again) the state-sponsored subsidies, which we due to expire. Those are something like 20% of the federal subsidies, yet without them they claimed they'd go bust. So naturally the legislature caved and renewed the subsidies for another three years. After all, everyone knows it's "green".

[exDemMom]

4. It kills birdlife.

With all that noise, I would not be surprised if the wind farms have a deleterious effect on other wildlife, as well. Rodents cannibalize their young if placed in a stressful environment. I am not familiar with how other animals react to stress, but I'm sure that the effect is not benign.

I'd like to see some studies on the effects of wind power generator noise on the wildlife.

[chimera]

They are ugly as hell. In Vermont they have chopped up hundreds of miles of ridgeline to put these 400 foot-tall monstrosities in place. They have bulldozed thousands of trees and scarred the land putting in access roads. In some places the windmill owners sheared off the top of the ridge to make a flat area to put up the towers.

For all that, as of 2012, Vermont had 109 MW of installed wind capacity, and generated 323 GWhrs of energy with an average capacity factor around 30%. Vermont used to have a modest-sized nuclear plant, Vermont Yankee, that the politicians and kooks got shut down and the operating staff run out of town on a rail. For comparison, Vermont Yankee had a capacity of 620 MW, over a 90% capacity factor, and an average annual output of 4,700 GWhr. So just one moderate-sized nuclear plant generated 15 times the energy of all the windmills in Vermont combined. It did all that with zero carbon emissions, on 125 acres of land area (compare the land area to that taken up by the windmills).

[huldah1776]

I left VT when it was still relatively sane. I would literally cry if I climbed all the way up Mt Mansfield and saw those stinking things.

Stupid, stupid people. Actually pretty dang funny for Vermont since you can’t have large road signs! LOL how about advertising on the windmills? LOL stupid jerks. Let’s keep things natural.

By the way, the President built a golf course in Scotland. He had neighbors who had loved the natural dunes and could see them from their homes. He planted trees and blocked the view of their homes with piles of dirt (probably now covered with grass). They were protesting their loss of view.

Then the Scots put up windmills after he was done building the course. He tried to sue but lost so he bought another one in Ireland. What comes around goes around, but at least we know he hates windmills.

[texas booster]

Strange, isn't it, that loud noises underwater from shipping and our Navy can cause harm to sea life, but wind farms are never calculated into the entire picture of noise pollution and the increasing levels of background noise ...

[huldah1776]

in regards to maintenance: putting the things up, like solar, was just another way of raising the national debt by the ones who ultimately want the US to fail.

[Albion Wilde]

Even Donald Trump tried to fight the spiteful installation of a wind farm next to his golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland, but the marxism is strong with those ones and he could not prevail over the OneWorlders.

[TheNext]

Liberals are coastal big city.

Windmills, noise, & no birds, is how liberals piss on rural folks who they consider banjo playing rednecks.

[justa-hairyape]

5. Affects climate change by removing energy from the climate and changing wind patterns.

Climate change and the environment are not the issue. Hurting the American economy and limiting world population is the cause.

[huldah1776]

I lived there for a little bit and reading this breaks my heart. Reminds me of the LOTR and the scouring of the Shire when Frodo and Co. return to find the land polluted.

The reason VT has maples is that they were planted after the forests had been clear-cut by loggers. So the damage is repairable except for the ridgelines. I guess they have not only destroyed the morality of the state but also its land. Apropos.

I wonder if tourism has dropped.