For Those Nearby, the Miserable Hum of Clean Energy

[Liberal_in_LA]

For Those Nearby, the Miserable Hum of Clean Energy

Matt McInnis for The New York Times
Residents living less than a mile from the $15 million wind facility in Vinalhaven, Me., say the industrial whoosh-and-whoop of the 123-foot blades is making life unbearable.

By TOM ZELLER Jr.
Published: October 5, 2010

Like nearly all of the residents on this island in Penobscot Bay, Art Lindgren and his wife, Cheryl, celebrated the arrival of three giant wind turbines late last year. That was before they were turned on.

“In the first 10 minutes, our jaws dropped to the ground,” Mr. Lindgren said. “Nobody in the area could believe it. They were so loud.”

Now, the Lindgrens, along with a dozen or so neighbors living less than a mile from the $15 million wind facility here, say the industrial whoosh-and-whoop of the 123-foot blades is making life in this otherwise tranquil corner of the island unbearable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/business/energy-environment/06noise.html?src=busln

[derby378]

1. It could be much, much worse...

They could have been residents of Centralia, PA.

[TwilightGardener]

2. Well, the complainers are certainly poetic:

But that is cold comfort for Mrs. Lindgren and her neighbors, who say their corner of the island will never be the same.

“I remember the sound of silence so palpable, so merciless in its depths, that you could almost feel your heart stop in sympathy,” she said. “Now we are prisoners of sonic effluence. I grieve for the past.”

[bighart]

3. I am in favor of doing all we can to exploit alternative engery sources

BUT everyone does need to be aware that "conventional" alternative sources have down sides as well.

[Dreamer Tatum]

4. And a new class of NIMBYers is born nt

[jdlh8894]

6. Guess Ted WAS correct! n/t

[Warpy]

5. They are loud

I stayed in a motel on one of my cross country trips that was adjacent to a wind farm. I couldn't believe how loud those suckers were, they looked so placid in all the pictures.

However, once I closed the (cheap) door to the (non sound insulated) room, I could barely hear them and they certainly didn't make me turn the TV up.

I think I could get used to them, really. I remember what it was like when people heated with coal, and I'd rather deal with noise pollution than smoke, smog, smut, and cinders.

[Vincardog]

7. I live next to a wind farm in Iowa, the noise is nothing to get excited about. Methinks somebody

wanted to have a little whine.

[DCKit]

10. Perhaps the granite (it's ME, right?) is allowing the sound to travel...

right into the structure of the house.

They may need to install some sound-deadening buffers, as they do in earthquake zones.

[Beartracks]

8. Anyone looking at vert-axis maglev designs in USA?

For example: http://www.magturbine.com/

In addition to being much more efficient in energy conversion, I think they are supposed to be quieter than windmills.

[Ian David]

11. I saw a video on YouTube of a dude who built a small one in his back yard. n/t

[Ian David]

9. Maybe we just need to build them more than 1 mile away from where people live.

Still leaves plenty of spaces available.

[ThomWV]

12. I go to a remote spot that has a wind farm a couple of times a year - its loud

I go riding to a place on top of a mountain ridge a couple of times each year, there's probably 25 or so wind generators in a line that's maybe a mile or two long. Being on a motorcycle I'm always wearing a helmet and even with it on and with the other noises you get on a bike I can still hear them, quite noticeably.

[LanternWaste]

13. I imagine almost as loud as...

I imagine almost as loud as the constant sound of trains traveling past hundreds of thousands of homes in the U.S.

[bighart]

14. Except trains are not a constant source of noise.

They come and go and there is a period of "silence" between them. Wind turbines are a constant source of noise as long as they are functioning.