Wind-turbine lights have ruined some rural night sky views; states have moved to regulate, but changes may be slow

Red lights on wind turbines flash against an overcast sky.
(Photo by Evert Nelson, The Topeka Capital-Journal)

Rural residents living near wind turbines have reported their formely idyllic settings are now more like "industrial zones," and the turbines' lights are one cause, reports Shannon Najmabadi of The Wall Street Journal. "The lights are an eyesore that has ruined their view of the night sky and disrupted the bucolic stillness that defined their counties. . . .'Imagine…red blinking stoplights…every night, all night long…and not in sync,' Gayla Randel, who can see the lights on more than 130 turbines from her Marshall County, Kan., home, told lawmakers this year."

Wind power has been "loosely regulated, but lawmakers in some states are cracking down," Najmabadi reports. "Kansas and Colorado recently passed laws to limit the flashing lights—by turning them on only when aircraft are approaching. North Dakota approved a similar measure in 2017. Aircraft-detection technology approved by the Federal Aviation Administration has been on the market for a half-dozen years. The systems are estimated to cost $1 million to $2 million to install with additional operating expenses each year. . . . Many wind developers and renewable energy proponents have backed the recent efforts." Kimberly Svaty, the Kansas Power Alliance public policy director, told Najmabodi, "Light-mitigation technology is definitely something that can be done to help improve the relationship with the community."

The last five years have seen a push to regulate the side effects of wind power, Najmabodi reports: "Towns, counties and states passed some 1,800 ordinances regulating wind energy as of 2022, according to a database compiled by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. By comparison, researchers there found around 250 ordinances in 2018. . . . Officials with Terma and DeTect Inc., two aircraft-detection lighting system vendors, said they have seen demand for their technology increase significantly since 2018. . . . The companies use radars to activate red lights if a low-flying aircraft comes within 3½ miles of a project."

"Residents in states that don't regulate the red lights have said the nighttime presence of the turbines has been more disruptive than they anticipated, "Najmabodi adds. "Nakila Blessing and her husband built a house on his family's farm in Schuyler County, Missouri, in 2018, on a hill looking out at fields and trees. Two years later, the 175-turbine High Prairie wind farm project was constructed. Blessing said their landscape is now cluttered with 500-foot-tall turbines, and the night sky is polluted with light." She told Najmabodi, "They like to say you'll get used to it.You don't get used to it."

How effective light-mitigation laws will be for rural residents depends on timing and contracts. "Colorado law doesn't require existing wind turbines to be retrofitted with light-mitigating technology," Najmabodi explains. "Older wind projects in Washington state have to apply for the new technology by early 2028. . . .Starting in 2026, wind developers in Kansas must apply to use the technology after they renegotiate power purchase contracts. The terms for those agreements can last 20 years. . . . "Jerry Sonnenberg, a Republican former state senator who wrote the red-light law in Colorado, said the technology isn't cost-prohibitive for most companies, but they have not been required to use it. . . . Sonnenberg, now a county commissioner, compared the red lights to those on an ambulance and said the flashing is 'rather annoying.'"