Opponents of wind farms are not known for their moderation. One UK Conservative MEP has compared the wind industry in Scotland to the . An Australian senator put its actions on a par with the crimes of. Donald Trump calls turbines 鈥溾��.
For some reason, a small minority harbour a vitriolic hatred of spinning blades. And when a came out a fortnight ago, demands that soon followed.
This defies the spectacular popularity of wind turbines and other forms of renewable energy. The latest UK government conducted a few weeks ago found 79 per cent support for renewables, compared with 26 per cent for nuclear power and 17 per cent for fracking.
Advertisement
And a ComRes poll last month , although respondents massively underestimated the level of turbine-love among the wider population 鈥� perhaps because of the many negative stories about wind farms.
Event:
But even though opposition is consistently overblown (convenient for a government making onshore wind development harder), it would be wrong for green evangelists to ignore objections from those who live close to wind farms 鈥� particularly on health grounds.
Anecdotal harm
Critics often cite anecdotal reports that the rhythmic swish of turbine blades 鈥� technically known as amplitude modulation 鈥� can induce stress, anxiety and tinnitus, disturb sleep and harm mental health. These deserve investigation.
For its part, the UK government, as mentioned, published the results of a study that reviewed evidence on turbine noise from around the world. It acknowledged that more research is needed but said the evidence for major health effects is limited at best.
Environmental noise can have real impacts on health but 鈥渟uch effects have so far not been consistently or robustly demonstrated in the case of wind farm noise鈥�, the study concluded. By the way, current UK guidance calls for night-time noise from wind turbines to be no higher than 43 decibels ().
What the review did find was a 鈥渃lear link between overall turbine noise level and annoyance鈥� and that annoyance levels were linked to sleep disturbance (rather than turbine noise per se).
These findings tally with research in other countries. Earlier this year, government agency Health Canada on the impact of turbine noise on 1238 randomly selected people living between 250 metres and 11 kilometres from a wind farm. Again, there was no link between turbine noise levels and migraines, tinnitus, dizziness, sleep disturbance, sleep disorders, quality of life or perceived stress. The only impact was a rise in annoyance with increased noise.
No silent epidemic
This is good news for those who live near turbines and proponents of clean energy alike: it means it is highly unlikely that turbines are causing a silent epidemic of serious health problems.
That doesn鈥檛 mean we should dismiss people鈥檚 annoyance at the swish of blades of course, but it should be put into context. No form of energy comes without its downsides. Air pollution from burning coal, for example, is estimated to cause between annually, and . Nuclear, shale-gas fracking, oil and biofuels all have significant downsides too.
The bigger picture is that onshore wind is currently the cheapest way for the UK to decarbonise its energy supply and meet its legally binding targets for reducing CO2 emissions and mitigating climate change. In that context, annoyance about turbine noise needs to be sensibly balanced against the greater good.
