A Breath of Fresh Air

The Falmouth Experience: The Trouble with One Town’s Wind Turbine

Last week, we ran an in-depth series of reports on claims of health impacts caused by wind turbines, focusing on the experience of Falmouth, MA residents living within a quarter of a mile of a town-owned turbine. My colleague Sean Corcoran reported the series. I reviewed the relevant science and provided analysis and commentary. Here’s everything in one place. Enjoy!

And stay tuned for continuing coverage of this issue, including a live chat with David McGlinchey of the Manomet Center for Conservation Science on the state of the science and how to shape responsible wind turbine siting policies in the face of incomplete data … Wednesday, March 16th at 10am.

The Falmouth Experience by Sean Corcoran

Part 1: Life Under the Blades

Encouraged by the Patrick Administration’s goal to expand wind power, communities across the commonwealth are considering or constructing wind turbines. In the town of Falmouth, MA, some residents say a 400-foot tall turbine installed last year has changed their lives – and not for the better.

Extended interview: ‘You can’t be forcing these on people’

Part 2: Sick from the noise

Some residents of Falmouth say the sounds coming from a large, town-owned wind turbine are making them sick. While turbines are not silent, claims of health impacts, including sleep disruption, headaches, ringing in the ears, and depression, are often controversial. And there’s limited scientific data to resolve the debate.

Extended interview: ‘It put me into depression’

Part 3: Flickering light

Residents in the town of Falmouth say that a nearly 400-foot wind turbine has severely impacted their quality of life. They talk about noise and health issues, but sound isn’t the only thing generating discontent. There also are complaints about a phenomenon called ‘shadow flicker’.

Part 4: The Green Debate

Efforts to install land-based wind turbines on the Cape have slowed, largely because of opposition to a turbine that was installed last spring in Falmouth. Prominent pro-wind spokesperson Liz Argo says the Falmouth experience is an isolated incident, but anti-wind advocate Eric Bibler says the same thing could happen anywhere.

Extended Interview with Liz Argo: ‘What can we learn from Falmouth?’
Extended Interview with Eric Bibler: ‘The towns are conflicted’

Part 5: Making Waves in the Wind Debate

Because of its strong winds, Cape Cod is a crucial part of Governor Deval Patrick’s plan to erect enough wind turbines to power 800,000 home by the end of the decade – a quarter of them on land. But complaints about a wind turbine in Falmouth are raising the possibility that one bad experience could jeopardize Patrick’s state-wide push for wind energy.

Analysis and Commentary by Heather Goldstone

flickr/phault 

Wind Energy: The Onshore-Offshore Connection

Proposals for offshore wind energy development around Cape Cod have met with stiff opposition from fishermen and environmentalists. It’s been argued that there’s plenty of space on land, so why develop the ocean? But complaints from people living nearby wind turbines on land are raising a different and challenging question: how much room is enough room for a wind turbine?

Debating the future of renewable energy

Climatide readers weigh in on the relative strengths and weaknesses of various forms of energy generation and share their visions for a sustainable energy portfolio.

Is annoyance a health impact?

We’ve all experienced annoyance of one sort or another, but probably never considered seeing a doctor about it. But a technical definition of annoyance used by some scientists and medical professionals goes well beyond workaday irritation to encompass a significant degradation of quality of life. This semantic difference contributes to misunderstandings in the debate about potential health impacts of wind turbines.

Why not to dismiss health impacts of wind turbines

Despite claims of health problems coming from nearby neighbors of some – by no means all – wind turbines around the world, the American Wind Energy Association maintains that wind turbines do not cause adverse health impacts. A review of the limited science available suggests more research is needed to better understand the nature and origin of complaints.

Wind 1: curbing health complaints could wipe out financial benefit March 17, 2011