Occasionally in my travels, the turbines would be close to the road or highway I was driving on. Once, in Kansas, I pulled off the road to take a look and listen.
The nearest turbines towered above me; I guessed they must be within a quarter mile.
Once I moved away from the two-lane federal highway and crossed the nearby railroad tracks, several turbines were clearly audible between passing cars from my upwind location, despite ongoing faint background road noise. Then I drove out the dirt road that ran perpendicular to the turbine arrays, and was surprised to find that the closest turbine was in fact four-tenths of a mile from the tracks.
This is a recurring experience when exploring in wind farms: they always seem much closer than they really are.
Driving toward my first wind farm, I was sure I must be within a couple miles when I was still between three and four miles away, and likewise, was certain they were within a mile when I was still nearly two miles away. Similar distortions of perception occur at close range, even now that I should know better: turbines a half mile away seem incredibly close, and ones a mile away seem to be just far enough away to minimize that sense of looming closeness.
While this may come off as ridiculously fuzzy-wuzzy, it seems to me that the best argument for larger setbacks in populated rural areas is that it’s simply impolite to put a 400-foot turbine closer than around a mile to someone’s home without their agreement. Or to put a sharper edge on it, it’s just plain rude.
Jim Cummings
Executive Director,
Acoustic Ecology Institute
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“Wind Farm Noise 2011”
Science and policy overview
Compiled by Jim Cumming
link to document here
2 comments:
Or, as some locals like to say, "It's just common sense" to keep these things away from people who aren't getting paid.
BP has just pleaded guilty to more crimes associated with the gulf oil disaster. They need their money damn it (billions), they need their money. And, they plan to use the Cape and other communities to extract their money. They could care less about the people or the community. They are criminals and need to offset the cost of their crimes. Example- it has been over six years since BP publicly announced their project and they have stated on more than one occasion that they will not release a map or document that shows the specific location of the towers relative to property lines and residences.
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