Wind Farms Can Cause Stress And Sleep Loss, DECC Study Finds
By Paul Homewood
Annoyance caused by living next to a noisy wind farm can lead some people to become stressed and lose sleep, a Government review has found.
A "clear link" between the amount of noise emitted by an energy site and irritation experienced by nearby residents was identified in a report commissioned by the Department of Energy and Climate Change last year.
Published this week, the paper said there was an "increased risk" of suffering from sleep deprivation from turbines exceeding 40 decibels.
But the prospect of a sleepless night was generally an "indirect" link caused by the frustration evoked from having a loud wind farm in your community, it added.
The review recommended that "excessive" noise should be clamped down on, citing potential measures such as modifying the turbine blade.
The findings ratcheted up pressure on the Government to be more heavy handed with noisy farms, with one MP calling for them to be "shut down permanently".
Complaints about noise disturbance can range from the steady swishing noise from the blade to a louder thump which can sometimes occur, the review said.
But, it added, the annoyance is not just limited to the thunderous sound a wind farm can create.
Flickering shadows created by the swirling blade and its "appearance in the landscape" can similarly irk those who live near one.
Conservative MP Glyn Davies told the Sunday Telegraph: "Where there are noisy wind farms they are hugely disruptive.
"Noisy wind farms should be shut down unless they can be changed.
"They would need to be shut down permanently."
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
“Wind Farms Can Cause Stress And Sleep Loss”
It didn’t need DECC to state the bleedin’ obvious.
I lie awake at night in fear of my electricity supplier passing on the 15.86 p/kWh they’re having to pay for Dudgeon’s electricity, when they’re currently charging me 10.82/ kWh (day-rate) & 6.08p/kWh (night-rate), delivered.
Odd that the DECC are coming out with this report. In the words of David Cameron are the current government getting a bit scared of “green crap”?
As expected, the Government is recommending that excessive AM is controlled through a planning condition using the metric proposed by the Institute of Acoustics, which is controlled by the wind industry. So yet again the corrupt wind industry will be able to get away with ruining peoples’ health and lives.
One can bet one’s bottom dollar that this is an Inconvenient Externality that the Greeno’s choose to ignore.
Another externality shrugged-off as ‘Inconvenient’ is the loss of amenity value in scenic areas. There are precedents for this in at least Alberta in — I think — the Surface Rights Act, which came-about as a result of the ag.-community’s objection to physical AND visual blights to their lands. In those days it was mostly to do with transmission towers, but along came wind-turbines and I recollect that the same arguments were deemed to apply.
‘Thunderous noise’, the main problem is the barely perceptible low frequency/infra-sound, even people that can’t consciously hear it suffer stress/anxiety/sleeplessness/depression etc.
And just how many windfarm scamsters actually live in close proximity to one of their monstrosities?
Reblogged this on Climatism and commented:
Huge health problems in Australia by those exposed to windfarm infrasound.
A particular case in point, followed and highlighted by radio king Alan Jones, has been the despicable treatment of Anne Gardner by wind-industry giants AGL.
Putting her head above the parapet:
http://www.inquisitr.com/3630865/an-ice-age-is-coming-within-15-years-as-solar-activity-plummets-60-percent-scientist-alleges-agw-effort-to-suppress-her-study/
The sainted @afneil has noticed that not many of them are actually spinning at the moment and dealing with spinning from blobbies with fair minded robustness 🙂
Paul a while back (April) you posted how the BBC were fronting up a concerted push on Tesla’s ‘affordable’ electric car and that a conflict of interest was obvious, given the BBC held some £19 million in Tesla shares.
Well they’re at it again, this time giving Tesla’s new solar panels headline space on the BBC site. Just thought I’d flag it up for you.
Front headlines: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science_and_environment
Science headlines: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37809151
And, of course no mention so far of the wind farms study into stress etc
WHAAAAAAT!!!!!!! BBC can play the market? I’ve long-since left the UK, but I’m gobsmacked how you Brits have let a strong member of the media oligopoly play in the Stock Market. (Where in their Charter is this allowed?????)
Time to adopt the Bavarian 10H rule.
‘From now on, the distance to the closest dwelling must be 10 times the height of the wind turbine. A 200 m high wind turbine will thus imply a 2 km setback.’
http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/12/31/the-10xheight-rule-in-bavaria/
BAVARIAN 10H RULE seems sensible to me for a start. I’d suggest legislation allowing retroactive rollback accordingly. And if They resist, throw the book at them on compensating those affected …. up to the hilt.
These promoters *knew* full-well what the side -effects were and seem to have done nothing to mitigate the impacts. They are as liable for compensation as the tobacco companies were, and shd suffer the same fate in the Courts.
Never mind the bird and bat kill!
I think I posted on this (to WUWT?) on this subject …. another externality. If Greeno’s can close a whole industry in Washington forests ‘cos of threat to the the Lesser SpottedToad (was it?) how about the same Greens’s arising against the mass slaughter of flying animals? More hypocrisy ……
My suggestion was to tax the wind-power-industry based on recovered carcasses in hte area, charged on a tariff from $100 per eagle to $1 per pigeon (to mirror rarity, endangered-ness) …. something like that.
Volunteer Wardens check their ranges monthly, and drones monitor for inevitable skulduggery by the WindCos.
(An interesting thought …. how about a cloud of drones launched up-wind of a wind-farm?)
Some years ago a Lincoln couple,if I recall correctly,sued the wind company and received almost £100,000 in damages.Perhaps the ambulance chasers should go after wind mills,instead of our troops.