Maine island town latest to complain about wind turbine noise

Wind power is key to transitioning U.S. electricity to renewable sources, but those living near wind farms don't always agree. The latest example of that conflict comes from Vinalhaven, Me., a small town on an island in Penobscot Bay. "Art Lindgren and his wife, Cheryl, celebrated the arrival of three giant wind turbines late last year. That was before they were turned on," Tom Zeller Jr. of The New York Times reports. "In the first 10 minutes, our jaws dropped to the ground," Art Lindgren said. "Nobody in the area could believe it. They were so loud." (Times photo by Matt McInnis)

The Lindgrens and their neighbors are "among a small but growing number of families and homeowners across the country who say they have learned the hard way that wind power — a clean alternative to electricity from fossil fuels — is not without emissions of its own," Zeller writes. Complaints about wind turbines have also surfaced in Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Massachusetts. "The quality of life that we came here for was quiet," Cheryl Lindgren told Zeller. "You don’t live in a place where you have to take an hour-and-15-minute ferry ride to live next to an industrial park. And that’s where we are right now."

Complaints about the turbines range "from routine claims that they ruin the look of pastoral landscapes to more elaborate allegations that they have direct physiological impacts like rapid heart beat, nausea and blurred vision caused by the ultra-low-frequency sound and vibrations from the machines," Zeller writes. A panel of doctors and acoustic professionals assembled by the American Wind Energy Association concluded "there is no evidence that the audible or sub-audible sounds emitted by wind turbines have any direct adverse physiological effects."

About a dozen of the 250 wind farms that went online in the last two years have generated significant noise complaints, Jim Cummings, founder of the Acoustic Ecology Institute, told Zeller. Research suggests communities already accustomed to ambient noise are less likely to have an issue with turbine noise. Even in Vinalhaven not everyone has a problem with the noise. Zeller notes, "Deckhands running the ferry sport turbine pins on their hats, and bumper stickers seen on the island declare 'Spin, Baby, Spin.'" (Read more)