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| 1 |
Wind power is
the least efficient and the most environmentally intrusive form of
renewable energy. At the recently installed wind farm at Dun
Law, south of Edinburgh each turbine
required a hole the size of 3 double-decker buses to be dug out and filled with reinforced
concrete. |
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| 2 |
In Germany there are
a growing number of people who live near wind farms that are unfit for
work due to pulse irregularities and states of anxiety from the effects of
infrasound (sound of frequencies below the normal audible limit).
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| 3 |
Documented hazards
linked with wind turbines include examples which have: Caught
fire - Had parts blow off in high winds - Blades
break off and fly distances in excess of 500 yards - Induced
lightning strikes - Killed turbine workers -
Caused grass fires - Caused ice blasts (large shards of ice
fly from the blades) in colder weather |
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| 4 |
Flickering effects
caused by sunlight filtered through the blades causes problems up to a
distance of 2 kilometres away from wind farms. This has been
extensively documented to cause horses and other wildlife to bolt
unexpectedly. This may also have an impact on people suffering from
brain damage or epilepsy |
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| 5 |
Wind farms breach
planning noise nuisance levels. The wind turbine at
Nympsfield in Gloucestershire
described by the developers as the quietest available emits sound at
source of 99dB(A) measured by the German Wind Energy Institute ( DEWI ).
The noise that it emits, a mixture of whooshing, whistling and humming,
can clearly be heard 1000 yards
away. One turbine manufacturer states
that dwellings should be 2km away. |
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| 6 |
Evidence is
accumulating from the UK, US and Denmark to suggest a substantial fall in
house values (up to 40%). Public opinion in the proximity of wind turbines
will also work against sales. Two interested parties in a house near the
Knockastanna site took no further action when it was revealed that a
windfarm was proposed nearby. |
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| 7 |
To date, wind farms
have not caused the closure of a single coal fired power station and will
not do so |
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| 8 |
There is very serious
risk of fundamental disturbance to the whole moor itself. Peat
erodes very quickly when disturbed, and the resulting impact would affect
the water quality in the reservoirs. Click here
to read the results of environmental damage at nearby Ovenden
Moor. |
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| 9 |
TV, radio and mobile
phone interference. Effectively turbines cause a reception shadow of
up to 10 km when they stand between a TV transmitter and dwellings with TV
aerials, pointing through the wind turbines towards the transmitter.
Viewers in such locations will have their signal scattered, causing loss
of detail, loss of colour or buzz on sound. |
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| 10 |
The wind turbines in
Altamont Pass in California have on average killed 200-300 Redtail Hawks
and 40-60 Golden Eagles each year, while it is estimated that 7000
migrating birds a year are killed at other wind turbine sites in Southern
California (California Energy Commission). There are similar
reports emerging from other wind farms around the UK. |
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