Teams
Forum List
Toggle sidebar

A new problem with wind turbines ?

Story County is in the process of having a 100 turbine wind farm constructed between Zearing and Colo, and is in the process of approving part of another 100 turbine wind farm, which will bring a total of approximately 130 wind turbines to Northeast Story County.

Through the approval process at the County level, we saw so many studies showing health concerns similar to the ones shown here, we even were given a study showing turbines can cause epileptic seizures from a shadow flicker caused by the turbine interfering with the direct path of sunlight.

To no surprise, there are also as many, if not more, studies that show wind turbines do not cause any health concerns at all, with just as many studies and statistics to back it up.
 
Last edited:
They may as well skip a few steps and just say that wind causes cancer. Everything else does.
 
Its called the placebo effect. You tell these people that living near a wind turbine causes headaches and suddenly they have headaches. I think it is a bunch of you know what. Believe you what you want, but wind turbines create clean power.

Move next to a coal burning power plant and i am sure there is study that shows that causes headaches also.

I have realized that some people always need to be complaining about something. I avoid people like that. I am an optimist and I try not to waste my time on that like a just did with this post.
 
i think solar panels cause skin cancer, because they need light from the sun, and if you're standing by a panel you are in the sun.
 
  • Like
Reactions: birdflu
We have 250 turbines within a 15 minute drive of us. The only complaints I have heard from land owners with the turbines have concerned the noise and the shadows. While the noise is far from loud, it is consistent and I imagine that like living near a rail yard, you would come to no longer notice the noise. However initially some people complained about it. The shadows however seem to illicit the most complaints from those who I've talked to. Depending the time of day, the shadows can be so annoying with the flickering that the homeowners are forced to keep their shades shut at those times. A hindrance at most, but an intrusion none the less.

From an outsider though, I think they are impressive looking, like mythical giants overlooking the countryside.
 
This is NIMBYism at its worst. If you want to ever make something controversial or stir public doubt about a solution the best way is to tie a medical problem with it.

After reading these articles it seems that most of these people were against wind turbines from the beginning, and developed these medical problems as a justification for their angst.

I'll agree that they are an eyesore. Our rural landscapes could very possibly be changed forever, and that is unfortunate. However wind and nuclear energy are our two most pragmatic solutions to our energy problems. There is never a perfect solution, but wind energy is clearly one of the best when taking benefits to drawbacks.

These anti-wind, anti-ethanol, anti-nuclear zealots should turn in their car keys and laptops for a horse and chalk board or shut up.
 
Broodwich said:
This is NIMBYism at its worst. If you want to ever make something controversial or stir public doubt about a solution the best way is to tie a medical problem with it.

After reading these articles it seems that most of these people were against wind turbines from the beginning, and developed these medical problems as a justification for their angst.

I'll agree that they are an eyesore. Our rural landscapes could very possibly be changed forever, and that is unfortunate. However wind and nuclear energy are our two most pragmatic solutions to our energy problems. There is never a perfect solution, but wind energy is clearly one of the best when taking benefits to drawbacks.

These anti-wind, anti-ethanol, anti-nuclear zealots should turn in their car keys and laptops for a horse and chalk board or shut up.
Click to expand...

Funny thing is, a lot of this people are among those that are beating the global warming drum the loudest. We can't burn fossil fuels because of greenhouse gasses, we can't have nuclear because of the danger and the waster. First off it was the wind turbines killing the condors, now they cause headaches! I agree that we should try to build them in isolated areas whenever possible as they can ruin some natural beauty, but seriously, how about instead of just complaining about this stuff these people tell us how they think we should address our energy needs.
 
What are they going to do with all that crap littering the country side when 10 years from now scientists have a new, more efficient way to provide our energy needs?

That is my concern, these things are all the rage, but there are many more effecient energy production forms coming on line out there.
 
okay... a conversation with my dad during our long car trip to Door County.

How long are the blades? How long does it take to make one revolution (seconds). Then figuring out how fast they move at the tip.

2 Pie r squared for distance. find ft/sec. convert to miles/sec. times 60 times 60 = mph. correct?
 
Broodwich said:
These anti-wind, anti-ethanol, anti-nuclear zealots should turn in their car keys and laptops for a horse and chalk board or shut up.
Click to expand...
How many people are anti- all of these things (other than the Amish)? Can't someone be anti-wind but pro-hydro or pro-solar, anti-nuclear but pro-wind, anti-ethanol but pro-natural gas. I think you'll be hard-pressed to find someone that is anti- all forms of energy creation.
 
Personally, I 'liked' the scientific study of 10 families.

I'm not a scientist by trade, but isn't 10 too small of a sample to gain much insight ?

For the record, I'm not against windmills, nuclear, solar or any other source of energy that isn't susidized to death.

I hadn't seen much of this particular argument floating around. The downside I kept seeing about Windmills was; killing birds and the wind doesn't always blow.

Should we conserve when and where it makes sense to ? yes. Should we have multiple sources of affordable energy? yes. Is wind part of the answer ? For windy states like Iowa, Yes.

Solar is probably the longterm answer but anyone who has solar landscape lighting can attest, the sun in January in Iowa is not going to cut it.
 
keepngoal said:
okay... a conversation with my dad during our long car trip to Door County.

How long are the blades? How long does it take to make one revolution (seconds). Then figuring out how fast they move at the tip.

2 Pie r squared for distance. find ft/sec. convert to miles/sec. times 60 times 60 = mph. correct?
Click to expand...

You can get pretty close with that. (The size of the hub would change the total slightly.)

Short answer: fps * (0.682) = mph
Long answer: fps * (1 mi/5280 ft) * (60 s/1 min) * (60 min/1 hr) = mph
 
cyeah said:
What are they going to do with all that crap littering the country side when 10 years from now scientists have a new, more efficient way to provide our energy needs?

That is my concern, these things are all the rage, but there are many more effecient energy production forms coming on line out there.
Click to expand...

Physics suggest differently. Either we get power from the wind, or sun, or make it ourselves. Those are our only real options.
 
keepngoal said:
okay... a conversation with my dad during our long car trip to Door County.

How long are the blades? How long does it take to make one revolution (seconds). Then figuring out how fast they move at the tip.

2 Pie r squared for distance. find ft/sec. convert to miles/sec. times 60 times 60 = mph. correct?
Click to expand...

And also where are these made? I see them pretty much every day being trucked on I80 on my way to work.
 
brianhos said:
Physics suggest differently. Either we get power from the wind, or sun, or make it ourselves. Those are our only real options.
Click to expand...

And geo thermal....which is another form of Drilling....

We will need all the energy self made within our borders that we can get our hands on....Putin and Chavez gives me the creeps.
 
cyeah said:
What are they going to do with all that crap littering the country side when 10 years from now scientists have a new, more efficient way to provide our energy needs?

That is my concern, these things are all the rage, but there are many more effecient energy production forms coming on line out there.
Click to expand...

Story County entered into a pretty extensive de-commissioning agreement with the developer incase the wind farm ever stopped production for longer than one year, which states all components of the wind farm, including the foundations and private gravel roads, must be removed, and everything converted back to pre-construction conditions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Help Support Us

Become a patron
Top Bottom