Wind 1 stands 262 feet tall in Falmouth. As many as 50 residents of the town have complained of the health effects the turbine's noise and shadows have had on their lives.
In his kitchen table at his Falmouth home, Neil Anderson holds the calendar where he and his wife record their daily reactions to the wind turbine located nearby.
Neil Anderson and his wife keep a log of how the turbine affects them. It shows nights of disrupted sleeping, headaches, and even mood-swings.
Wind One, as the turbine is officially called, is owned by the town of Falmouth and is located at the town’s wastewater treatment plant, where it stands 262 feet tall to the turbine’s hub. That’s about 10 feet taller than the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown. The blades extend just shy of 400 feet, which is about half the height of the John Hancock Building in Boston.
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But now, as many as 50 people are complaining about the turbine and the noise it makes at different speeds. A dozen families are retaining a lawyer for that reason.
“It is dangerous. Headaches. Loss of sleep. And the ringing in my ears never goes away. I could look at it all day, and it does not bother me. It’s quite majestic — but it’s way too close,” Anderson said.
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Wind One is expected to save the town about $375,000 a year in electricity. Heather Harper, Falmouth’s acting town manager, says Falmouth owes about $5 million on the 1.65-megawatt turbine.
Harper said one of the challenges of running the turbine is that the type of sound some neighbors complain about — that low-level pulse — isn’t regulated by the state.
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“The existing peer-reviewed studies suggest that there are no health effects associated with the sound and noise from wind turbines,” McGlinchey said. “That being said, people clearly experience symptoms. People have headaches, people have their sleep disturbed, people are not living well next to them in some situations. In some situations they are. So, both sides are right.”
http://climatide.wgbh.org/2011/03/the-falmouth-experience-life-under-the-blades/
Hm, some interesting info. So the town owes $5 million on the windmill and it will save them $375,000 per year on electricity. So that's at least 13 years for the thing to pay for itself (assuming $5 mil was total cost and they didn't get a federal / state grant).. BUT.. how long do these last? Fifteen years, twenty, what? And I assume there are maintenance costs, I wonder if that 375k savings is taking that into account. And now a "dozen families" are going to sue the town, so you can tack on lawyers fees and a possible settlement to the windmill costs.
As for the health effects.. don't know if there's anything to that, "low-pulse" noise pollution.
On the bright side, power has to come from somewhere and at least these aren't burning oil or coal (though it takes many barrels of oil to make one of these and more to maintain it).
