Film examines drawbacks of wind turbines
Wind energy farms may sound environmentally friendly. Nettie Pena's documentary film "They're Not Green" aims to show that they're anything but. The one-hour film was shown last Saturday night at the Yucca Valley Community Center in an event hosted by the Alliance for Responsible Energy Policy and the Homestead Valley Community Council.
March 23, 2010 by Kris Reilly in The Leader
YUCCA VALLEY • Wind energy farms may sound environmentally friendly. Nettie Pena's documentary film "They're Not Green" aims to show that they're anything but.
The one-hour film was shown last Saturday night at the Yucca Valley Community Center in an event hosted by the Alliance for Responsible Energy Policy and the Homestead Valley Community Council.
The issue is relevant to Lucerne Valley, as 28 wind turbines are planned for the mountains northwest of town.
The film shows interviews with people who live near wind farms, and they say their negative consequences go far beyond the effects on views and property values.
One man who lived near a turbine that caught fire said that firefighters can do little or nothing when the turbines burn because they are so tall. He said he inhaled so much toxic smoke from the burning fiberglass that his coughing resulted in hernia surgery. He also said the company that owned the turbines refused to pay his medical bills.
Other residents spoke of the strobe effect that the windmills create inside their houses as they intermittently block sunlight during the day as well as the flashing red lights that go off during the night.
A scientist interviewed in the film said thousands of birds are killed each year by windmills, and many other problems were examined. Furthermore, the film asserts that the amount of energy provided by these turbines is relatively minuscule.
Pena, who has worked as an assistant film editor at NBC News and Paramount Studios, has been making documentary films since attending UCLA as a graduate student. The destruction of the 1992 Los Angeles riots inspired here to try to improve society, and she became an inner-city math teacher.
Pena said she moved from Los Angeles to Palm Springs three years ago and the windmills "were right in my face." She took her camera to a city council meeting where citizens protested new wind farm developments, and thus "They're Not Green" was born.
Pena spoke after the screening, as did Jim Harvey of the Alliance for Responsible Energy Policy. Both of them are supportive of rooftop solar energy, which does not destroy desert environments and can help people lower their energy costs.
Harvey spoke about AB 811, a state law that makes it easier for homeowners to get low-interest loans for rooftop solar installation. The funding for this program comes from municipal bonds sold by local governments, Harvey said. He's hopeful San Bernardino County will enact an AB 811 program.
Pena said she would like to eventually show "They're Not Green" in Lucerne Valley. Visit web.me.com/thrnotgreen to view portions of the film.
http://www.lucernevalleyleader.com/node/396
Living Next Door to a Wind Farm Australia
This video is a bit long but shows in detail what living next a wind farm would be like.
Wind Farms Causing Health Problems?
Energy Tribune Managing Editor Robert Bryce on wind turbines’' impact on people's health.
Wind Turbine Current Location on Wind Map
The first Wellfleet wind turbine of possibly many is currently planned for one of the least wind stops in Wellfleet, in the National Seashore. This is due to conflicting issues such as noise, danger and the rights to park owned land and a hesitance to place the wind turbine in the harbor. Hence the Wellfleet Energy Committee plans to spend a large amount of town money to place the noisy wind turbine in one of the least windy spots in Wellfleet. Most likely it will never meet the goals and be a costly adventure in Wind Energy by completely inexperienced wind idealists playing with being wind energy operator. Once the warranty is over, who is responsible for the costs of equipment and experts? Already 20 year turbines are breaking down after 6-8 years forcing costly replacements. People near wind farms repeatedly observe turbine ideal for months waiting for experts and parts or mechanical work ongoing.
The first turbine will be more than a 1/2 mile from the area where their meteorological tower was placed. The tower was broken much of the time and sited near the edge of a bluff acting as a wind block when the wind was from the east. The validity of the wind data from the Met tower is quiet impaired. What a tragic waste of resources in a misguided effort at conservation while ruining perfectly good park land.
Windfarm Noise Indisputable – Must see video
This video is from the UK, but you need to see the interviews with regular people talking about their experiences and how local office are dealing with issues they may not understand and making promises they have no way of knowing will turnout out true.
Investigators still looking for cause of wind turbine collapse – NY
video link of report on collapse in NY
http://www.9wsyr.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=275356@wixt.dayport.com
Fenner (WSYR-TV) - Teams of engineers are still trying to figure out what caused one of the huge Fenner wind turbines to collapse in late December.
Piece by piece engineers are going over the wreckage of what was once a 328 foot tall, 187 ton wind turbine. The key section, however, will only be accessible when it's all cut up and removed.
They're anxious to get to the hole left in the foundation where the turbine separated from the base, but so far nobody's been able to access that spot. More than a month after the crash they still have no answers on what caused the giant turbine to come crashing down.
"They have kept us very well informed, I've got to applaud them for that,” said Fenner Town Supervisor Russell Cary. “They had an executive come in all the way from Boston for our Free Center and he also came to my Madison County Energy Committee meeting at Morrisville College just to catch us up, answer questions."
While the cleanup goes on at the site, they have continued to keep the other 19 wind turbines shut down until they get a better idea of what happened. “This is a lesson and we're going to learn. All the engineering in the world, nothing beats hindsight. I think they're doing a good job of really analyzing it and setting up to make the whole process better going forward,” said Cary.
With more and more turbines popping up as wind power becomes more common, there will likely be people from around the world interested in what did cause this collapse.
Enel North America, which operates the wind farm, had hoped to have a determination by the end of last month. Now, it says it’s unclear when the company will have something final.
Charles Gibson on Wind Turbine Noise
ABC's Charles Gibson visits a wind turbine
field outside Bowling Green, Ohio.http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=5978741
Heart Wrenching Video from Amaranth Township, Ontario,
Here is another video from Amaranth Township, Ontario, Canada. What is common for all these videos are that their government and or wind energy representatives PROMISED they would be quiet and low and behold they were LYING from ignorance or hubris! Don't promise they will be quiet if you don't KNOW. People lives are being shattered from caviler turbine builders. Watch the end of part two around 5 minutes to see what has been taken from this family! Does the Town of Wellfleet intend on destroying the tranquility of a good portion of the seashore along with the value of the homes there?
Part 1
Part 2
Life Under A Wind Plant – Meyersdale, PA
Three part documentary of a wind farm operating in Meyersdale, Pennsylvania.
See more people struggle with the consequence of what our public servants allow!
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Interviews with residents of Vinalhaven, ME
Voices of Vinalhaven, Maine Part 1 of 2
Description:
On December 19, WERU 89.9 FM radio conducted a lengthy interview with residents living near the Fox Island Wind Farm located in Vinalhaven, Maine, an island community about 12 miles off the coastline. The wind facility, consisting of 3 GE 1.5 MW wind turbines, was commissioned on November 17, 2009.
This video (part 1 of 2) was compiled using excerpts of the interview. Those speaking are describing their experience of living with turbine noise. The images appearing in this video are not from Vinalhaven, however, they are actual photos of other locations in North America where towers were sited very close to homes.
The entire interview can be heard at WERU 89.9 FM .
View Part 2: Duration: 8 minutes 32 seconds
Endangering Peregrine Falcons With Wind Turbines in Cape Cod, MA
Wellfleet, MA is planning on putting a 400 foot tall wind turbine in Cape Cod National Seashore.
Wind Turbine enthusiasts claim that you should "only" expect to kill one bird per year per turbine. What if that bird is Endangered? In New Jersey, where there are only 20 documented breeding pairs of Peregrine Falcons, at least one and probably more are DEAD from modern wind turbines.
The Peregrine Falcon is still endangered in Massachusetts and New Jersey. Peregrines "were eliminated from the eastern United States" according to the US Fish & Wildlife Service in the 60s and 70s. Man-made chemicals killed them...we all know that. The Peregrine was listed as federally endangered in 1970 under the Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1969, and after a successful breeding program were removed from the Federal List in 1999 with almost 2000 pairs in the entire USA as of 2003.
Well, now come the Wind Turbines...thousands of them with people planning tens of thousands more. They even want to put them in known Peregrine areas like Wellfleet in the Cape Cod National Seashore where the falcons would have previously fed with little worry. Even though we are told the new designs of turbines are safe and we are worrying too much, there is a documented death (remember many aren't documented) to an endangered Peregrine Falcon (as well as at least 2 Osprey) at the very modern 5 turbines array of GE 1.5 mega watt (each 397 foot tall) in Atlantic City, installed in 2005. The birds were killed in 2007. It didn't take long for the logical effect of a 138 mph blade slicing through the air.
The other reckless wind energy argument is they die anyway from hitting things. Peregrine are attracted to the highest object and even live on skyscrapers. I find this thinking so illogical I am saddened to have to point out there are no other 400 foot towers in this National Park, no skyscrapers, plus at least the birds have a chance, if the object isn't moving at 138 mph!!!!!!
There were 20 documented nesting pairs of Peregrine Falcons in NJ in 2008. So from 5 turbines that is 2.5% of the population in NJ DEAD in two years. This is only one species! Are we going back to the annihilation of raptors of the 1960s with our "good" green intention?
There were 14 know Peregrine pairs in Massachusetts in 2007. Raptors fly at the height of these towers and evidently at their mercy. This doesn't even take into account migrations where Cape Cod is the arm stretching out in the Atlantic as a "SAFE HAVEN" for migrating birds. Oil companies have rightly been sued for killing endangered and migratory birds with careless industrialization as should any INDUSTRY knowingly harming them!
Here is a map of recorded locations of a Peregrine Falcon over the course of a week.
Courtesy of Imprints
Documented location of a single Peregrine Falcon
NJ State report on Large Scale Wind Turbines
Peregrine Falcons, like other raptors, are vulnerable to collision with turbines (Barrios and Rodriguez 2004, Driscoll et al. 2004, Smallwood and Thelander 2008). Underscoring the findings of those studies, Mizrahi et al. (2008) documented one peregrine killed at the Atlantic City Utilities Authority’s five-turbine array in 2007.
from Cape Cod Travel
The Cape's "outstretched arm" makes it the first landing point on the north-south Atlantic flyway and offers some of the finest birding on the Eastern Coast.
Should this birding refuge in the Atlantic have 138 mph spinning blades?
Another one collaspses
Massive tower collapse of a modern wind turbine...reminding us that these fall apart. This will be a 100 tons of debris and oil in your National Park if one is put in Wellfleet. They can guarantee all they want that it won't fall and that the town will make it money make...but watch this video:
Freedom, ME Video of Flicker and Noise at 1000 feet on slow day
This is simple video from a gentleman in of all places Freedom, ME.
This seems heavily wooded which muffles some noise and will not be the case in Wellfleet.
Noise
Flicker
Warning for Bird Lovers
Though the Wind Turbine people say that bird kills will be rare this video demonstrates the problem.