This recent Canadian study, “
Wind turbines: Vacated/abandoned homes study – Exploring research participants’ descriptions of observed effects on their pets, animals, and well water,” suggests it’s harmful to people’s (and animals’) health to live close by wind turbines. The study concludes that anyone who lives within a
radius of up to ten kilometers of wind power plants must expect serious health impairments – including malformations, miscarriages and cancer.
In forest animals, the cortisol level was increased by up to 264 percent, which indicates massive stress. In addition, the domestic and farm animals became much more aggressive. The people examined showed higher cancer rates and an increase in still births and miscarriages. Even the
water quality in the wells of the region deteriorated significantly.
The study mentions a distance of 10 kilometers. I had a look at the distance policy within European countries, and it varies.
- Denmark maintains a distance of about 1 kilometer (the owner of the wind turbine has to pay a fine to the property owner if their house decreases in value);
- in
Belgium it’s 350 meters, but
in practice many turbines are only 150 meters from houses;
-
England and Wales have no regulations and distances of about 350 meters are observed;
- in
France, in practice 500 meters seems observed (there is only limited noise legislation);
- in the
Netherlands new rules dictate a distance of 500 meters;
- limits vary in
Germany per state, but I found a minimum distance of 300 metres in a ‘standard region’ based on the noise level protection.
Other countries vary as well, usually around 500 meters, which is super close. In Holland it is noticed that the value of a property that’s close to a turbine (2,5 kilometer), decreases, but only by 2.6%. I guess people don’t care that much. My friend lived within 5 kilometers of several wind turbines for some 10 years. She developed an aggressive type of breast cancer. After going through all kinds of surgery and therapies, she survived and they moved far, far away from turbines. Today she is healthy and well.
An aspect that is possibly still far too little noticed as a side effect of the construction of wind turbines, is the thematic influence on groundwater which was researched in the study.
The change or contamination of the groundwater – even by visible dirt particles – takes place not only through the wind turbines themselves, but also through electricity pylons that are not carefully insulated.
According to the study:
“Baseline testing conducted prior to IWT construction, and testing during construction reported that at least one local well had a “14,000 times increase in black shale particles.”[43] Several years after black shale had appeared in well water, analyses found that sediments were raising more concerns than before including “excessive sediment, problematic gases and potentially infection-causing biofilm,” and that these were among the problems “plaguing water-well owners” in the area.[34] Findings included that:
* The sediments that have been continuously discharging into a number of water wells since wind farms were constructed in North Chatham-Kent have been found to contain Kettle Point Black Shale.
Furthermore:
* Kettle point black shale is a material considered an Environmental Hazard in Canada because it has been shown the material contains heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury, lead, and uranium.”[34]
FWIW, I thought to include some “fun” wind energy facts for the Netherlands:
- The government aims to spend 20 million euro’s from 2024 to 2027 on subsidies for small wind turbines;
- The Dutch Statistics Agency says that without subsidies, wind energy is not economically viable. They have spent about 3 billion euro’s over the past 20 years already.
- If a land owner (farmer) agrees to have a wind turbine constructed on his property, he receives a yearly stipend of about 40 to 50K euro’s, which in today’s world is quite a lot imo.
- The PTB in Holland believe in wind parks in the North Sea, yet Dutch major player Eneco dropped out of the bidding race in March of this year, citing increased inflation, high interest rates, increased cost for material, labour and construction vessels, as well as hefty fines if the construction isn’t ready on time. We have to wait and see what the impact will be on other players and the plans of the government.