The following is from Nina Pierpont to Paul Sieloff, Wellfleet Town Administrator, who asked why she thought her research on WTS would have any bearing whatsoever on the single Vestas V90 that Wellfleet proposes to build in town. Click here for Sieloff’s letter.

Photo from Vestas website, with human figure added for perspective

3/27/10

Dear Mr. Sieloff,

Thank you for your interest in my work. A few clarifications. I did not document potential health impacts; I documented actual health impacts, on both at-risk people (whom I define in my research, and who comprise a large proportion of any American population) and on people without known risk factors. In addition, my research data, analysis, literature review, and conclusions are not the same as anecdotal reports and should not be confused as such.

You may be further interested to know that I have been invited by the editor of an American peer-reviewed medical journal to write an article on my research. This is because scientists who know about inner ear functioning are highly interested in my work, and see that I approach their field with rigor and accuracy.

With appreciation to MedlinePlus

My research was also presented earlier this month at the annual meeting of the Prosper Ménière Society (an international society of scientists and clinicians who research hearing, balance, and the inner ear) by a medical school physiology professor.

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—Calvin Luther Martin, PhD

For years, Big Wind has denied that turbines produce infrasound & low frequency noise (ILFN). Either denied it exists or dismissed its significance as so trivial, it’s not worth considering. The (convenient) rule of thumb among Big Wind acousticians being, “If you can’t hear it, it can’t hurt you.”

This has been definitively proved wrong. Wrong on two counts.

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Dr. Calzada Álvarez testifying before the United States Congress

Calzada Alvarez et al., “Study of the Effects on Employment of Public Aid to Renewable Energy Sources” (2009)

The Study, released March 2009, is a report card on wind energy’s impact on Spain’s economy. (If your kid brought home this report card, you would not be pleased.)

Spain was Europe’s Pied Piper for wind energy, beginning in the mid-1990’s with massive government subsidies and other incentives. Now it’s time, says Calzada Álvarez, to dispense with the wishful thinking and squishy green rhetoric, and to measure with a clear, steely eye the real-world economic repercussions of Big Wind. (more…)

“The issue with wind power is that for every watt of power you install you must also install a watt of of reliable power. In other words you pay twice and you can’t rely on delivery of what you purchased” (D. Robinson).

“Wind Power in Ontario 2010”

–by D. Robinson 3/1/10

Much has been written about Wind Power in Ontario [Canada], but I could find no studies of actual production figures anywhere. The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) figures are easily available and easily imported into a modern database—making these numbers easy to study. The original purpose of this study was to see if I could verify any of the claims I heard about Wind Power Generation. Many of these claims said that we could replace coal power in Ontario, others said it was uneconomic, others said it was unreliable.

Now, rather than making statements like “wind power is unreliable,” we can state clearly how much power is produced and when it is produced. We can also clearly see the “drop-outs,” when the power grid receives little or no wind power.

The graphs produced within clearly show that Wind Power cannot replace Hydro, Nuclear, Coal or Gas Turbine Power. These arguments can easily be extended to solar power by analogy. Further, it becomes clear that for every watt of Green Power of installed capacity—we must supply a corresponding watt from traditional sources. This power must be up and running at the time the power is required—a cold start of a coal plant or a nuclear plant could take several hours. Gas fired plants start up more quickly—but they are not instantaneous. Green Power, as provided by Wind Generation, can replace nothing—it becomes an additional burden on the system and the taxpayer.

I have attempted to prepare the information for a general audience, so I have assumed that no special knowledge of statistics and error analysis is available to any reader. To make the information accessible to as many people as possible, the analysis has been written and organized so that a minimal level of science and mathematical education should be sufficient. A high school graduate who studied maths and science should find that sufficient. There is nothing more sophisticated than an “average” presented in this paper.

Click here to download the article as a PDF—Editor

Professor David MacKay, Dept of Physics, Cambridge University

Dr. David MacKay, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Department of Physics, University of Cambridge (UK), answers that question in a no nonsense, easy-to-read, luxuriously illustrated book called Sustainable Energy—without the Hot Air (Cambridge, UK: UIT Cambridge, 2009). Click here for an interview with Professor MacKay.

Kselected.com recommends you read the book. Professor MacKay is not promoting one kind of energy source over another. He has no axe to grind. His goal is simple: to compare current energy usage throughout the United Kingdom with what can be reasonably expected from non-renewable and renewable energy sources. In other words, he uses numbers to show “this is what we consume” and “this is what wind, solar, oil, nuclear, coal, and natural gas can realistically provide.”

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“Wind-powered Goliath”: Works only at wind speeds of 22-44 mph. Otherwise useless and can be dangerous. (Used with appreciation, this image did not appear in the original article.)

“Engineers cave in to green pressure, thanks to politically-driven funding”

—by Henk Tennekes, Financial Post (Canada) 3/3/10

Wind energy is an engineer’s nightmare. To begin with, the energy density of flowing air is miserably low. Therefore, you need a massive contraption to catch one megawatt at best, and a thousand of these to equal a single gas- or coal-fired power plant.

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Denmark

“Wind energy’s ghosts: Bankrupt Europe has a lesson for Congress about wind power”

—by Andrew Walden, Hawai’i Free Press 2/15/10

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—by Professor Michael J. Trebilcock, Chair in Law & Economics, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto (Canada). The Financial Post 4/8/09.

There is no evidence that industrial wind power is likely to have a significant impact on carbon emissions. The European experience is instructive. Denmark, the world’s most wind-intensive nation, with more than 6,000 turbines generating 19% of its electricity, has yet to close a single fossil-fuel plant. It requires 50% more coal-generated electricity to cover wind power’s unpredictability, and pollution and carbon dioxide emissions have risen (by 36% in 2006 alone).

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Radio Interview

—by Steve Martin, ABC Ballarat, 3/18/10

When it comes to wind farm protests the hottest topic for the last couple of years has been Wind Turbine Syndrome. That’s the name given to the range of symptoms described by some people who live close to wind farms. At this stage illness caused by wind farms is a medical and scientific theory, but people affected are adamant that it is the power generators making them sick.

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“Wind farm opponents plan civil disobedience campaign”

—by Reinaldo Millán, Puerto Rico Daily Sun, 3/17/10

GUAYANILLA — The local mayor and members of the Coalition for the Ventanas Verraco Dry Forest said Tuesday if the government continues with its plans to establish a wind farm on the coast of Guayanilla that they would have no other option but to begin a civil disobedience campaign.

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Illinois wind farm

“Wind turbines stir up bad feelings, health concerns in DeKalb County. Proponents point to reduced dependence on foreign oil, say no evidence of physiological harm”

—by Julie Wernau, Chicago Tribune 3/14/10

Months have passed since anyone has waved hello to one another in Waterman or Shabbona in rural DeKalb County. Some people claim they’ve even stopped going to church to avoid having to talk to former friends.

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Barry Moon and Gill Haythornthwaite’s home in the Cumbrian fells on the outskirts of the village of Askam in Furness. Photo: NNP

—by Louise Gray, Telegraph 3/6/10

The cottages around Askam wind farm occupy the perfect spot, looking out to sea over to the isle of Man and inland to the Lake District. The only problem is the noise.

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This image did not appear in the original article

“Commissioners hear from angry foe of wind farms”

—by Bill Rautenstrauch, The Observer 3/8/10

Some downright vituperative comment on the proposed Antelope Ridge Wind Farm highlighted a meeting of the Union County Board of Commissioners last Tuesday.

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“[Movie] sound engineers deliberately include loud noises well below the lowest frequencies that can be detected by our hearing system (20 Hertz) because, although we cannot hear such sounds directly, our body actually feels them. Studios apparently insist that theaters playing big-bang films be equipped with Dolby-type sub-woofers that can generate frequencies well below 20 Hz.

“This type of sound is called ‘infrasound,’ and the weight of evidence suggests that humans instinctively react to major infrasound with feelings of awe, discomfort, even panic” (Psychology Today).

“How sound skews the Academy Awards”

—by George Michelsen Foy, Psychology Today 3/6/10

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—by Caroline McMorran, The Northern Times 3/4/10

An elderly Golspie resident has vowed she will resort to “civil disobedience” to prevent Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) from transporting turbine parts for the Gordonbush wind farm on the A9 through Golspie and Brora.

Eighty-year-old Valerie Scott, who is disabled and can only walk with the aid of an elbow brace, claims to have the support of at least another 28 activists.

And she warned this week: “We will do whatever it takes.”

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“Going against the wind: Anti-development symposium set for Saturday in Ashton”

—by Sam Smith, SaukValley.com 3/5/10

ASHTON – A wind farm debate that has stirred passions across the country touches down here Saturday.

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“What’s bad about wind power? More than just noise”

—by Monique Aniel, MD, and Steve Thurston, Bangor Daily News 3/6/10

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—reprinted from Better Plan Wisconsin, 3/3/10, with appreciation

“You have an attitude problem!”

That’s the wind industry’s latest explanation for the growing number of complaints from people living in industrial wind projects. They say, “You people just don’t like these things.”

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“The Brewing Tempest Over Wind Power”

—Robert Bryce, Wall Street Journal (3/2/10)

Imagine this scenario: The oil and gas industry launches an aggressive global drilling program with a new type of well. Thousands of these new wells, once operational, emit a noxious odor so offensive that many of the people living within a mile of them are kept awake at night. Some are even forced to move out of their homes. It’s easy to predict the reaction: denunciations of the industry, countless lawsuits, and congressional investigations.

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Wind turbines drive some people from their homes. One of the best known cases being the d’Entremont family, Pubnico Point, Nova Scotia (Canada), featured in this Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary of wind farms and health.

Click on the image, above, to view the video, “Land and Sea Windpower.”