The July 24, 2016 print edition of national flagship daily Die Welt wrote a feature story on how German citizens are becoming fed up with the widespread crony capitalism of the wind energy business and are thus now mobilizing a fierce rebellion. The German daily writes of health issues for people living in their vicinity.
The article starts by featuring technology fan Volker Tschischke, who was once an ardent proponent of renewable energy – until wind turbines were built close to his residence and encircled his home village of Etteln. Now he leads a citizens initiative against the construction of wind parkc. The turbines “have driven him to resistance“, Die Welt writes.
Local politicians are no longer serving the interests of the local people, but rather “are rolling out the red carpet for wind power companies” and appear to be “no longer listening to the people and about the concerns of their everyday lives,” the national German daily writes.
A “destructive force”
Die Welt describes an Energiewende (transition to renewable energies) that is “dividing the people“, where those who live in big cities and thus not effected by the blight are open to wind parks, while those living in the countryside are fed up and fiercely resisting them. Die Welt reports that people across rural Germany “no longer view the Energiewende as a necessary national project, but as a destructive force.”
Now, ever so gradually, it even appears that Berlin is getting the message as leading parties see their poll numbers dropping. Die Welt writes that Berlin is now throttling the expansion of wind parks and working to “deescalate the conflict“.
“Ruined and destroyed for generations”
As an example of blight and destruction, Die Welt cites the area surrounding the central city of Paderborn, quoting a local resident who is thinking about packing up and leaving: “Here the living area is being ruined and destroyed for generations.”
Even though Berlin is scrambling to put the brakes on the uncontrolled spread of wind turbine littering across the rural landscape, local residents often remain powerless against the mighty wind industrialists and projects that have already been proposed. And even when local political leaders side up with their residents against the parks, Die Welt describes a David versus Goliath fight:
On one side there’s the mayor of the town and some of his staff, and on the other side there are corporation-like companies that hire staffs of lawyers.”
In such cases the big wind companies have an easy time pile-driving their projects through, Die Welt writes.
Opponents resort to sabotage
Also wind park developers often promise towns and villages cash-flow from wind projects, But as Die Welt reports, most never end up seeing any money. “The promise of business tax revenue is a ‘large fairy tale’.”
Die Welt also adds that wind park opponents are often labeled “grumblers“, “troublemakers” or “Energiewende blockers who use ludicrous ways to try to stop the success of the Energiewende.”
The conflict has even escalated to the point where opponents have even sabotaged a wind measurement instrument used to check the feasibility of a possible future project. Farmers are even blocking deforestation equipment with their tractors, Die Welt reports.
Lawless, Wild West conditions
In other locations it seems that wind energy development resembles the Wild West where there is a complete lack of law and order. Town have corrupted the planning, permitting and building process. Die Welt writes sometimes sleazy towns act as planner, permitting authority, builder and operator all in one. Nothing stands in the way. There are no checks and balances. Only a few profiteers. The German daily writes:
The county of Aurich is a stakeholder in wind park projects. For the investor that is totally practical. He is thus practically the funder, impact study conductor and project approver all in one.”
Whether its solar power or wind energy, there’s a common thread: A very select few are profiting hugely while the rest of society are left to clean up a huge industrial, financial and environmental mess.
Donald Trump bashed renewable energy sources Monday night, saying solar power doesn’t work well and wind turbines kill birds.
The GOP presidential nominee has stated his preference for coal and natural gas, and has previously said that solar power is unreliable and wind turbines are unsightly and harmful to wildlife.
“It’s so expensive,” Trump said of alternative energy at a rally in Pennsylvania.“And honestly, it’s not working so good. I know a lot about solar. I love solar. But the payback is what, 18 years? Oh great, let me do it. Eighteen years,” he said, turning to wind power. “The wind kills all your birds. All your birds, killed. You know, the environmentalists never talk about that.”
Solar power has historically been expensive, but its costs have fallen dramatically in recent years.
The Solar Energy Industries Association estimates that the cost to install solar panels has dropped by 70 percent since 2009 to just over $2 per watt for photovoltaic technology.
The wind industry has challenged Trump’s previous statements about wildlife deaths, including his contention earlier this year that turbines kill more than a million birds a year.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that wind turbines kill about 500,000 birds annually in total, much less than other bird threats like cats and buildings.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has set a goal to expand the country’s solar power capacity sevenfold and generate enough renewable electricity in the United States to power every home by 2027.
At the Pennsylvania rally Monday, Trump also promised to reduce the frequency of coal mine inspections.
“I have friends that own the mines. I mean, they can’t live,” he said.
“The restrictions environmentally are so unbelievable where inspectors come two and three times a day, and they can’t afford it any longer and they’re closing all the mines. … It’s not going to happen anymore, folks. We’re going to use our heads.”
“There is no escaping the torture from infrasound emissions from industrial wind turbines.”
“I would like to ask one question of the WHO: Under what circumstances would the WHO condone torture?”
Wind turbine torture
On July 21, 2016, Emyr Griffiths from Wales wrote to the members of the panel developing the WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region:
Dear Mrs Héroux,
My name is Emyr Griffiths, and I live in Carmarthenshire, Wales, UK. I and my wife live off-grid in very rural hilly terrain. Please accept this email plus attachments as my submission to the WHO review of the environmental noise pollution guidelines for Europe.
Wind farms that we know that can be heard:
Wind farm Name
No. of turbines
Owner
Height
Gen Capacity
Year
Ffynnon Oer
16
RWE-npower
92 m
2 MW
2006
Alltwalis
10
Statkraft
110.5 m
2.3 MW
2009
Mynydd y Betws
15
ECO2
90 m
2.3 MW
2013
Salem Turbine
1
Carmarthenshire Energy
74 m
500 kW
2016
If you happen to be sensitive to infrasound and low frequency noise, through no fault of your own, there is no escaping the torture from infrasound emissions from industrial wind turbines.
My wife has been plagued by unexplained infrasound since 2006 – after Ffynnon Oer wind farm was commissioned. Our observations and research over this time have convinced us that the unexplained infrasound noise pollution is most probably emitted by surrounding wind farms as far as 40 km (25 miles) away from our home.
When my wife started hearing unexplained low frequency noise (LFN) in our home intermittently through the winter of 2006/07, she thought the noise was coming from airplanes since we live under a busy transatlantic flight path. Apart from the planes (which fly over regularly, but not constantly), the occasional distant tractor or other large agricultural machine, there are no known sources of LFN anywhere near our home which could explain the LFN my wife can hear.
My wife also hears LFN over an extensive area around our home while driving around the area. She can’t hear the LFN while driving – only when the engine is turned off. Prior to the winter of 2006 she never heard any unexplained LFN. Several months after she first heard the LFN we discovered other people could also hearing unexplained LFN. One of the LFN hearers used to drive around at all hours of the night “looking for the bugger operating the big machine”.
We live about 200 m above sea level in a very rural location at the end of a long track (0.9 miles) and have no grid electricity. There any no pylons nearby which could produce electrical noise pollution. The nearest main road is about 6 miles away and the nearest town is about 8 miles away, and there is no heavy industry which could produce the LFN my wife can hear.
In late May 2013 my wife became ill for the first time with symptoms identical to those identified as “wind turbine syndrome” – her world was spinning all the time and her balance was very unsteady. Onset of the illness started a few days after commencement of a period of constant loud LFN (not the loudest she’s heard LFN though) during a long period of a stable high pressure weather system. After the weather broke in late June the symptoms of her illness gradually diminished and eventually disappeared over a period of about 10-14 days.
3 years later, a new 74 m 500 kW wind turbine was commissioned 3 km (1.95 miles) from our home near the end of May 2016.
Soon after the turbine became operational, she started hearing metronomic pulses within the infrasound/ low frequency spectrum too – she thinks those were the thumps caused by the blades passing the tower, but since we can’t see the wretched turbine from our home we could not verify that observation.
Within 2.5 weeks of the turbine becoming operational, my wife left home at very short notice due to the speed and severity of the deterioration in her health. Within a few days of the turbine becoming operational, she has been feeling constantly ill – and was getting worse – with constant headaches, nausea, vertigo symptoms and now sharp chest pains.
The chest pains got her so worried, she left home at very short notice like a terrified animal. She has now become a wind turbine refugee 😦
She couldn’t take the chronic torture any more, so she left home. She couldn’t even wait to make a doctor’s appointment to report her health problems because her health had deteriorated so alarmingly quickly.
It may not be a fast death, but it’s a death by a thousand cuts. The chronic torture has taken my wife from me piece by piece over the last 9-10 years, more so since a wind farm was commissioned 8.5 miles (13km) from our home in Sept 2009.
It has been heartbreaking to observe the effects of the torture on my wife – even though the damage is invisible. It has taken her departure to make me realise that my long held suspicions that the chronic effect of torture on her health were correct.
She couldn’t bear to tell me how bad she was getting or that she was planning to leave home. I knew she was deteriorating since the turbine became operational, but I had no idea she’d be driven out of her home so soon after the wretched turbine started turning.
This day has been a long time coming, yet it’s still a shock when the day arrived.
My fight goes on with even more determination than ever before. Many politicians continue to refuse to acknowledge the hard evidence of health damage to human beings and other life forms. They are all in a state of denial… they are complicit in inflicting torture on law abiding citizens living peacefully in their own homes. SHAME on them and any pretence they have for being caring and compassion people. Ignorance is NO excuse in the eyes of the law. In their case it is WILLFUL ignorance.
Within a few days of leaving home and moving to a wind turbine-free area, all my wife’s symptoms have disappeared and her energy has returned – she felt like a new person. She was only home for 1 week before she had to leave again for health reasons.
These observation adds weight to my account above that the infrasonic noise pollution emitted by the newly erected turbine was probably responsible for her severe symptoms and hasty departure. When we discussed these repeatable observations with her doctor on her return, he said there had to be an environmental reason for my wife’s health problems.
Many people like my wife have to endure state sanctioned torture inflicted by infrasound noise pollution emissions by industrial wind turbines (IWTs) because the wind industry has buried NASA’s research for a good 30 years. The industry continually dismisses this body of detailed research because they claim that wind turbine designs have changed.
A Brief history of the start of the “modern” wind industry:
The first reported complaints about wind turbine noise pollution arose in 1979, shortly after a single large wind turbine was erected in N Carolina, USA. This led to 9 years of thorough research and field studies headed by NASA and several other institutions to investigate the source of those complaints. The head researcher was physicist Dr Neil Kelley.
The NASA led research proved a number of points:
LFN and ILFN noise pollution emissions from wind turbine was the source of the complaints reported by people.
Certain frequencies were responsible for health problems reported by people.
Cumulative exposure to LFN/ILFN resulted in increased sensitivity and progressively worsening health problems.
Buildings amplify noise indoors at their resonant frequencies, exacerbating problems of wind turbine noise pollution emissions.
Dr Kelly presented a paper to the wind industry at a conference in San Francisco in Oct 1987, advising the industry how to minimise exposure of wind farm neighbours to LFN/ILFN emissions. The wind industry and buried this information for over 25 years before it was unearthed by some Australian researchers a couple of years ago.
Dr Neil Kelly also informed the wind industry, in 1987, that the use of A-weighted readings would be the worst standards to use to afford reasonable protection to people’s health and use of their amenities.
Yet, 9 years later in the UK in 1996, ETSU-R-97 adopted standards that ignored all the above research. Based on this evidence, the wind industry has clearly demonstrated that it is reprehensible and morally bankrupt – a colossal fraud. With all the research conducted by NASA, it is no wonder that the wind industry continues to fight tooth and nail to avoid having to measure noise emissions in the LFN/ILFN spectrum, and also doing their utmost to discredit the 9 years of thorough research headed by NASA and Dr Kelley.
The burden to the British National Health Service caused by health problems related to chronic exposure to LFN/ILFN emissions will grow significantly over the next 10-20 years. Read about this 1 case in Portugal (2 Euronoise documents attached.) and see the list of symptoms that will develop over time in response to chronic exposure to LFN/ILFN. These clinical symptoms of VAD (Vibroacoustic Disease) were derived from 30 years of research By Dr Alves-Pereira et al on the health of aircraft engineers. They have found the same symptoms developing in some wind farm neighbours (see the 2 Euronoise documents).
If you need further evidence that LFN/ILFN noise pollution emissions from industrial wind power are dangerous, I am more than happy to supply more documents to you.
I would like to ask 1 question of the WHO:
Under what circumstances would the WHO condone torture?
If, after all the evidence I have presented, the WHO do not reform their European noise guidelines, the WHO would be complicit in condoning state sponsored torture by refusing to afford adequate protection to law abiding citizens living in their own homes. Convicted and suspected terrorists already have more human rights than law abiding people living in their own homes.
Concerning noise standards in the UK – ETSU-R-97:
Based on my research, I would state that ETSU-R-97 guidelines never WERE fit for purpose. The opening statement in the introduction states:
“This document describes a framework for the measurement of wind farm noise and gives indicative noise levels thought to offer a reasonable degree of protection to wind farm neighbours, without placing unreasonable restrictions on wind farm development or adding unduly to the costs and administrative burdens on wind farm developers or local authorities.”
To the latter part of the aim, the ETSU regulations have been very successful.
However, ETSU standards and protocols do not afford adequate protection to people’s health and use of amenities because they were designed to NOT to measure the bulk of the noise pollution emitted by industrial wind turbines – i.e. Low Frequency (LFN) and Infrasound (ILFN). This was achieved primarily as follows:
Adopting A-weighted measurements – A-weighted noise readings employ a filter which attempts to approximate the noise that hear by the “average” human ear”. It does this by filtering out a large percentage of the LFN spectrum (20-200 Hz), and an even larger percentage of the ILFN spectrum (<20 Hz). The bulk of the noise emitted by an industrial wind turbine is in the LFN and ILFN frequency spectrum. See attached diagram which illustrates the effect of employing A-weighted readings.
Only predicting noise levels outdoors, AND assuming a 15 dB reduction in noise levels indoors due to attenuation (reduction in volume) by walls and windows. The standards disregard the well known experiments that proved the problem of building resonance. Every building has a resonant frequency spectrum – in the ILFN/LFN spectrum. If you have ever listened to a vibrating tuning fork – you have to have it close to your ear. However, if you place the vibrating tuning fork on a piano or box, the noise is amplified considerably, and is audible from a much further distance… this is the demonstrable effect of resonance. The use of A-weighted readings, combined with the assumed reduction in volume indoors by 10-15 dB totally disguise the known LFN/ILFN noise problems associated with building resonance. See attached graph from Shirley wind farm studies in 2013.
Using time average readings – use of time averaged readings masks the amplitude modulation (pulsating changes in the noise volume). Annoyance and health problems arise, not so much from steady noise levels, but from the pulsating noise levels. The spinning blades create enormous pressure pulses, particularly when the blades pass the tower.
Further notes on ETSU-R-97:
ETSU disclaimer at the front of the document:
“This report was drawn up under the direction of the Noise Working Group. While the information contained in this report is given in good faith, it is issued strictly on the basis that any person or entity relying on it does so entirely at their own risk, and without the benefit of any warranty or commitment whatsoever on the part of the individuals or organisations involved in the report as to the veracity or accuracy of any facts or statements contained in this report. The views and judgements expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of ETSU, the Department of Trade and Industry or any of the other participating organisations.”
ETSU recommendation to review the guidelines in 2 years time (ie. 1998)
“The report was drafted in the light of the best information available at the time. However it is acknowledged that as more experience and information become available and as circumstances develop it may become necessary to revise and improve the contents of this report. The Noise Working Group therefore suggests this report and its recommendations are reviewed in two years time. To this end, any comments on the usefulness of the report would be most welcome, including any suggestions for improvement with any supporting evidence where possible.”
(ETSU-R-97 has never been reviewed or updated and therefore should be declared invalid or obsolete.)
Since the ETSU guidelines were established in 1996, industrial wind turbines have grown significantly in size. They never WERE fit for the purpose of affording adequate protection to people’s health and enjoyment of their amenities. This means that even more of their noise emissions are in the low frequency and infrasound spectrum … most of the noises in this spectrum are DISCARDED and/or ignored by the use of ETSU-R-97 protocols and procedures. Yet successive British governments have refused to update ETSU guidelines. Those governments are therefore complicit in condoning state sanctioned torture. (In the UN definition of torture, noise is considered an instrument of torture.)
I trust you will consider all my evidence and observations in developing better noise guidelines for protecting people’s health from infrasonic noise pollution emissions from industrial wind turbines and other sources.
Please also refer to attached documents for further details.
Two East End town officials who have expressed support for a wind farm 30 miles from the coast of Montauk to power the South Fork say a separate potential wind farm 12 miles off the coast of the South Fork would meet resistance if the state pursues it.
BHP started life in 1885 as the brainchild of station hands and boundary riders on Mount Gipps station in western New South Wales. The town that sprung up around their find of one of the largest lead, silver and zinc deposits in the world, Broken Hill, shares the name with the company, ‘Broken Hill Proprietary’. BHP quickly earned the name of “the Big Australian” and fast became Australia’s economic barometer: whatever was good for BHP, was good for Australians.
World beating woolgrowers, beef producers, dryland farmers and vignerons aside, South Australia has very little going for it – in terms of prosperous, self-sustaining enterprise; and what there is depends very heavily upon the fortunes of BHP. BHP, now ‘BHP Billiton’ owns and operates the enormous gold, copper and uranium mine at Olympic Dam in SA’s far north (see above).
South Australia’s hapless Labor government has been banking on the expansion…
Only the Germans could come up with a single word to capture the churlish sentiment of feeling a sense of malicious glee at another’s downfall. However, to STT the gleeful component of ‘schadenfreude’ is tempered with the realisation that there is no escape for any Australian from the debacle, in which South Australians now find themselves mired for practical eternity.
As the mainstream press continued to throw the spotlight on South Australia’s energy debacle, its witless Energy Minister, Tom Koutsantonis resorted to punch-drunk threats to his counterparts in other states that the disaster playing out on his own patch will soon befall them too. It’s the one point on which Koutsantonis is…
“I live about 10 kilometres from the windmills. I thought I would be safe. I was wrong.”
“Please take the infrasound fact seriously when reviewing the Environmental Noise Pollution Guidelines for Europe.”
Wooden house in Finland
On July 18, 2016, Leena from Finland wrote to the members of the panel developing the WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region:
Dear Mrs Héroux and whom else this may concern,
Here in Western Finland already couple hundred people has moved from their homes because of the infrasound caused by windmills. They have gotten sick because of the infrasound.
I thought I would be safe. I live about 10 kilometres from the Santavuori windmills situated in Ilmajoki.
I was wrong.
Soon after the 17 3.5 MW windmills started this spring my life has changed. I cannot sleep at home at my rural horse ranch, I have constant headache, I feel pressure changes in my ears, my heart beats in odd rhythm and my blood pressure is high when the windmills are working. If they are stopped or I drive about 20-30 kilometres from them, I feel fine.
I could not imagine the effects of the wind power plants would come this far!
Please take the infrasound fact seriously when reviewing the Environmental Noise Pollution Guidelines for Europe.
I am making a research about how the infrasounds effects on animals here in Finland.
I have gotten calls from farmers and it seems that the windmills cause a lot of miscarrying and abortions in cows and minks. There are increased number of sudden deaths in pigs. Foals that born have malformations. Cows, dogs and minks don’t get in heat anymore, they lack the interest for sexual behaving which means that there are less animals born at farms in the near future.
If there is anything you can do to end or minimize this madness, please do so. I don’t want to move from my home. And where could I go with 10 horses?
Judith Sloan: lays out a lesson on avoiding economic & social disaster.
****
In a week when the mainstream media have been (finally) laying out the catastrophic results of South Australia’s ludicrous attempt to power itself on sunshine and breezes, it would be rude not to include this cracking article penned by The Australian’s top-flight economics editor, Judith Sloan.
And, no doubt, with renewed interest in South Australia’s unfolding energy debacle, Judith will have plenty more to say on the issue. Here’s Judith.
Energy price reveals folly of renewables
The Australian
Judith Sloan
19 July 2016
It is unusual for any story related to South Australia to appear on the front page of this newspaper. But when wholesale electricity prices in that state reached more than…
The wind industry in Australia today is in a state of constant hysteria.
The events that have culminated in South Australia’s electricity supply and pricing calamity have thrown a spotlight on wind power, with public sentiment shifting from benign indifference to outright hostility (readers of The Australian’s online stories will find hundreds of comments from people who are both astonished and furious at the political incompetence that led to the greatest energy disaster in Australia’s history).
The wind industry’s parasites and spruikers are mounting a faltering rear-guard action, resorting to hackneyed propaganda and inventing downright lies, in the hope of deflecting attention from the obvious cause. Some of them have resorted to undergraduate ranting, directed at the (obviously) ‘evil corporations’ who are profiting from South Australia’s, now routine, $14,000 per MWh spot price spikes (ignoring, of course, the wind power output collapses upon which such rorting necessarily depends).
"Mothers Against Wind Turbines™" Phoenix Rising... 