Friday, 27th November 2009
The problem with wind farms
Our country is bound by an EU directive to ensure that 10 per cent of the energy we are consuming by 2020 comes from renewable energy sources. We are thus considering all the options available to us to help us reach this target.
Much is being done to encourage the use of solar energy, a sector where we still lag far behind when compared to other Mediterranean countries. Steps are being taken to generate energy in the waste management process. But most of our attention is at present focused on the potentials of wind energy.
The Renewable Energy Policy for Malta (2006) proposed the building of a large offshore wind farm and the possibility of constructing a large farm with up to 19 turbines on the Sikka l-Bajda reef is being studied.
A relatively new development is the proposal being put forward for a wind farm with 12 turbines in Wied Rini, limits of Rabat. This proposal was first mentioned one month after the last general election.
Several studies carried out by different physicians around the world have recorded a common set of ill health effects among people living near wind turbines. The symptoms appear when the turbines begin to turn and are relieved when the victims leave the area. The symptoms include severe headaches, sleep disturbance, nausea, visual blurring, anxiety and depression. They are collectively referred to as "wind turbine syndrome". The primary cause is the effect of low frequency wind turbine noise on the organs of the inner ear. Older people are more likely to be affected due to age-related physiological changes.
When turning with the sun behind them, turbine blades cast moving shadows across the landscape and houses, described as a strobe effect (flicker) within houses, which can be difficult to block out. Some people lose their balance or become nauseated from seeing the movement. People with a personal or family history of migraine, or migraine-associated phenomena such as car sickness or vertigo, are more susceptible to these effects.
The strobe effect can provoke seizures in people with epilepsy.
Based on the data gathered from different studies, notably those by Amanda Harry and Nina Pierpont, it is strongly recommended that those living within 0.8 kilometres of wind turbines should be apprised that they are likely to experience very bothersome levels of noise or flicker.
It is also recommended that wind farms should not be built within 2.5 kilometres of people's homes.
There will still be health and life quality problems caused by wind turbines beyond this radius. People living up to 4.5 kilometres from a proposed turbine site should be notified of potential health and life quality effects and it is recommended that, for this, they should be appropriately compensated.
It is noteworthy that villages like Baħrija lie about 700 metres away from the site proposed for the Wied Rini turbines. Both Rabat and Mtarfa, with a greater population density, lie well within a four-kilometre radius. If the proposal for this onshore wind farm were to be accepted, the potential legal implications for the government are too serious to even contemplate. Rabat local council has already taken a stand against the Wied Rini proposal.
Bearing in mind that a submarine cable will soon be connecting us with mainland Europe's electricity grid, it makes much more sense lobbying Europe to allow us to buy our renewable energy quota from another European country.
Our diminutive size makes many of the other options available to us unfeasible.
Dr Pullicino Orlando is a Nationalist member of Parliament.
RSS
Comments
It is truly hard to understand this inherent destructive nature.
There is ample proof to sustain JPO's cautioning comments and even if the chances of these health problems might remain somewhat questionable, the is absolutely no reason to take these them when other less harmful alternatives are available.
JPO brought to light some valid oppositional points that, I and many others, were unaware of previously. Thanks!
I couldn’t find, within initial internet/library searches, any scientifically valid proof of adverse health risks associated with wind-turbines, only positive ones, and a sign “posing for pictures beside the blades can be hazardous”. However, with due respect to the small group of individuals that claim to be adversely affected by one or more aspects of living next to wind-turbines, their complaints should be scientifically addressed too, and the findings whether valid or not, need be taken into account when determining where the wind-turbines be placed, BUT not have any affect on whether or not they are implemented.
I have ridden, driven, and hiked through 2 of 3 major California wind-farms while on route to another destination, for the last 30 years and personally not noticed any of the said complaints.
For more than 500 years there's been upwards of 10,000 windmills/turbines in Holland.
By rights, the country should be shaking like jelly on the tank of a Harley Davidson.
5 cents-per-kilowatt efficiency=Cure, perhaps!
But S. Altayob really hits the nail on the head. Why don't we stop both power stations, take the buses and a large number of private cars off the road due to acombination of pollution and noise, stop all discoes-including any future Mistra one-, all fireworks, etc. and just get clean energy down a beefed-up interconnector, as suggested by JPO. Provided our neighbours to the north will sell us clean energy of course. At present, the large on-shore wind farm near Agrigento (110 x 900kW) supplies the two large RO plants on the shore. Sicily may have 'clean' energy to spare when its proposed nuclear reactors are in place.
Spot on ! ............................You sum it up beautifully !..................Excellent !
I salute you !
G
“Lobbying Europe to allow us to buy our RE quota from another country” How naïve! As if anybody owes us a living. Everybody will want to purchase RE power to offset emissions.
Maltese are a resilient group as a whole.
Our parents and grand parents stuck it out during the 2 years of Malta Blitzkrieg, often at the point of starvation until British supplies came through.
Many of us, now grown up, survived parents who thought nothing of round the clock smoking, drinking, and watching bad TV in the company of the unborn and, of course, us rug rats.
Most Maltese have survived a life-time of LDL cholesterol packed meals so dense that they could permanently patch the leaks in the Valletta subway tunnel.
We re-live the terrible odors, smoke, and horrendous noise of WWII bombing each time we celebrate a feast with fireworks.
When soot, tar, and limestone particulates fill our lungs, we simply cough it up, often on the next person, and say excuse me.
Some are so tough, resilient, and ambidextrous, that they can breath deadly diesel exhaust from the power-station and buses , and simulaneously wave to a friend, text message,light a cigarette, all while driving!
Therefore, I doubt if a little whoosh from a rotor blade is going to make a difference.
It's like flatulance in a windstorm :^)
The Problem with Wind farms is Politics.
Wind turbines have their own problems when situated close to residential properties and their low frequency drone is indeed annoying, monotonous verging on nerve racking. However offshore turbines are more acceptable and present little environmental concerns, although requiring costlier maintenance.
The inter-connector with Sicily is an attractive alternative in conjunction with locally produced green energy while also increasing our generating capability in case of power interruption via the Sicily connection. In any case, all these proposals, now requirements, produce more expensive energy than what we are paying for today both in terms of consumption costs and in capital expense and replacement costs.
JPO presented valid reasoning and anyone having doubts about living in close proximity to wind turbines of any kind, should do some research himself. Give credit when credit is due!
Can Dr Pullicino please provide references to scientific evidence in support of the claims in this article?
Until he does so, one can only conclude that this article has a hidden agenda. Malta desperately needs to exploit every possible source of renewable energy - including wind - and it is irresponsnsible of Dr Pullicino to come up with such unsubstantiated nonsense.
G
High up in the sky they may only disturb the air trafic, which is not a simple thing, but when this is solved and could be solved then forget ground wind farms.
Roam the internet and possible solutions are found to replace ground wind fams.
Why didn't he check the effect on the environment of vertical axis wind turbines? Don't overhead cables, tree branches, aerial vents, wind powered pumps, fence wire ,and small openings in windows produce various frequences when the wind is blowing?
Why did he not consider that noise levels can be tackled with modern acoustic technology like the one which was going to be used at a disco in Mistra?