today's Halifax Daily News

N.S. goes green, but at what cost?
In remedying one problem, we shouldn't ignore signs we're creating another

David Rodenhiser
The Daily News

Wind energy will be an important part of Nova Scotia's cleaner, greener future. But in the rush to set up giant wind-powered turbines to fight global warming, we shouldn't discount growing evidence that they can significantly harm the health of their neighbours if built too close to homes.

Premier Rodney MacDonald's government and Nova Scotia Power are eager to show themselves taking action to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. They've embarked on an aggressive campaign to see the number of turbines operating in the province grow from 40 to more than 250 by 2013.

Their public-relations goals don't justify giving short shrift to the potential health hazards of what's being called "wind turbine syndrome."

Theories about what's causing the condition - including low-frequency vibrations and sound too low for humans to hear called infrasound - are tough to wrap your head around. That plays into the hands of governments and businesses that want to ignore the issue.

After all, if you can't hear a sound, how can it hurt you?

Well, you can't see ultraviolet light, and it can hurt you plenty.

Daniel d'Entremont, his wife Carolyn and six children know the terrifying truth of living next to a wind farm. They started experiencing problems in early 2005 after Atlantic Wind Power installed 17 massive turbines near their home in Lower West Pubnico. The closest tower is little more than 300 metres from their home; all 17 are within 1.6 kilometres.

"Immediately, we noticed ringing in the ears," d'Entremont said. "The children began acting differently. Their behaviour changed. They weren't doing well in school. Things like that. My wife developed high blood pressure."

Over time, it got worse. Carolyn began experiencing blurred vision. One adult son would go blind in one eye or the other for a few minutes at a time. It would clear up, then after a day or two it would happen again. Some mornings when getting out of bed, the same son would have trouble convincing his legs to move.

"I get this pulsating feeling in my chest - a feeling I don't like, but I can't get rid of," d'Entremont said. "I can't shake it off, unless I get away from the turbines."

In February 2006, the d'Entremonts moved to Carolyn's parents' home 30 minutes away. Their problems resolved, some quickly, some more gradually, although Carolyn's blurred vision hasn't completely cleared yet.

The d'Entremonts never wanted to leave their house, which they built in 1982. But d'Entremont, a former fisherman who now works part-time at Wal-Mart, said they can't live there anymore. They haven't found anyone willing to buy it.

"Nobody in his right mind will move here," he said.

Nina Pierpont - the pediatrician, brain specialist and evolutionary biologist who named wind-turbine syndrome - has studied the d'Entremont family's case. She said the d'Entremonts are victims of an industry that tries to discredit or diminish complaints about noise, infrasound and health problems.

"The current approach of the wind industry is to deny that the problems exist and to do nothing about them," Pierpont said.

The industry relies on acoustics consultants, who base their conclusions on engineering principles, as opposed to audiologists and physicians who consider the effects of sound and vibration on the human body.

Pierpont said wind turbine syndrome is very real, and can cause a host of problems including insomnia, headaches, dizziness, unsteadiness, nausea, exhaustion, anxiety, anger, irritability, depression, memory loss, eye problems, tinnitus and problems with concentration and learning.

There may not be just one sole cause of the syndrome. It affects some people, but not others. It may have to with the configuration of individual homes, or the geology beneath them, Pierpont said.

"It's unclear whether it's infrasound or the vibration getting transmitted through rock... Certain people, houses, geological structures, whatever it is causes there to be particularly bothersome forms of noise or vibrations."

Receptors in our extremities that sense vibration and the stretching of muscles respond to inaudible infrasound. Those receptors are tied in neurologically with our sense of equilibrium. Equilibrium can impact balance and vision. Additionally, infrasound can also stimulate the production of the stress hormone cortisol, which can cause high blood pressure.

Pierpont, who practises in rural New York about 30 kilometres from the Quebec border, is one of a number of doctors researching health problems caused by wind turbines. She intends to publish her study in six months and establish a clinical definition of wind turbine syndrome.

Pierpont recommends turbines be erected at least two kilometres away from the nearest home. In Nova Scotia, only four municipalities have bylaws governing turbine setbacks. The common standard is just 500 metres. That's less than the distance from Halifax City Hall to Spring Garden Road.

Tuesday, provincial Energy Minister Bill Dooks announced his department will help the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities hire a consultant to develop best-practice guidelines for wind-turbine bylaws.

"We're very serious about putting towers in the right place," Dooks said. "We want to make people who live in their communities comfortable about this."

It's crucial that they fully consider the human health impacts, but I'm not optimistic. The Energy Department's website includes no discussion of health concerns and places great faith in the wind energy industry. In fact, for Nova Scotians seeking more information, it links to industry websites.

One department official I spoke with Tuesday claimed infrasound fears have been disproved, and referred me to industry research conducted by engineering consultants.

Environmentalists don't seem worried about wind-turbine syndrome, either. The need to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions has created an atmosphere where it's tantamount to sacrilege to raise concerns about turbines. Complaints are dismissed as NIMBYism.

Remember, though, governments and business rejected the science of climate change for decades, producing their own reports in rebuttal. We're seeing the same reaction on a smaller scale to warnings that wind turbines are injuring their neighbours.

Have we learned nothing? In trying to remedy one problem, we shouldn't ignore signs we're creating another.

David Rodenhiser thinks the energy minister should move his family into Daniel d'Entremont's house for a year, then consider policy.

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http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=64760&sc=93

Land availability

It is our understanding that wind energy companies were supposed to have secured land lease agreements before they make their application to NSPI.

The land owner that AWPC had planned on putting the nine most easterly turbines (#19 - 27) never signed the lease agreement. This land is not, nor will ever be, available for wind energy development.

It seems other local land owners are being approached by AWPC for land lease agreements.

Does NSPI know this?

Has the environmental assessment included these sites?

What is going on?

Holding our breath

Applications to Nova Scotia Power Inc (NSPI) for request for Proposals (RFPs) were due by August 31st.

Everyone - proponents, land owners and local residents alike - are holding their breath, waiting to find out who's projects have reached NSPI's short list. This list is to be released fairly soon. The final list should be released later in the fall.

Some proponents have put in multiple applications, some have grouped multiple projects in one application.

Rumours abound as to who has applied for which projects, or if they have deferred to the next phase of RFPs.

We are told that NSPI is very sensitive to controversial proposals. It is a private company which, we are told, would prefer to avoid any conflict.

We (Gulf Shore Preservation Association) have sent letters to the Premier, the Ministers of Environment and Labour, Energy, Tourism, Municipal Relations and Economic Development and to NSPI. AWPC, CAWF, CBCL and Cumberland County Municipality have been sent copies. Included in these communications have been copies of letters of opposition from large community groups. There are over 1,100 paper petitions signed and 270 online versions. The paper petitions are in the last stages of being collated.

The opposition to this particular project is made crystal clear.

Dutch turbines going offshore

The story below comes from Monday's Globe and Mail. The original story is found at the link:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070903.wdutchwind0903/BNStory/Science/home

The comments section is very interesting and worth a visit, even though it turns into a wind vs nuclear discussion.

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Dutch adding more wind turbines

ALEXANDRA HUDSON

Reuters

September 3, 2007 at 1:31 PM EDT

IJMUIDEN, Netherlands — There is no shortage of wind in the densely populated Netherlands, but there is a shortage of space and in a nation that likes its houses small and its gardens cosy, opposition to wind farms is immense.

That is why a new Dutch wind farm is being built so far out to sea that it is barely visible on the horizon, reducing the visual impact of its 60 turbines to virtually nil while at the same time harnessing higher offshore wind speeds.

Offshore wind farms are likely to appear more and more frequently off European coastlines as governments seek to increase their use of renewable energy without angering their citizens by placing giant turbines on their doorsteps.

The €383-million ($549-million Canadian) Q7 wind park development, 23 kilometres from the Dutch North Sea coast, is the farthest offshore wind park anywhere in the world, and its developers Econcern and Eneco Energie say a further five to 10 such wind parks will likely follow in the next few years.

"Q7 will contribute enough electricity for 125,000 households, but it is also a learning process. We are learning how to build these wind farms, how to organize the supply chain, and how to manage and operate them," said Bernard van Hemert, one of the wind farm's engineering directors.

"Most campaigns against turbines are based around the noise and the visual impact, and these have been reduced by going offshore. It is more expensive to do it here than to do it on land, but we have all agreed we don't have enough space on land," Mr. van Hemert said.

Blessed with shallow sandy soils around their coastline, Dutch engineers say the foundations for the turbines can be hammered 25 metres into the ground in just a matter of hours, although there are myriad other challenges.

The proportions are breathtaking. The turbines extend about 98 metres from the ocean, with three sharp narrow blades, each 40 metres long.

It is hoped that when they start rotating in early 2008 they will cut carbon-dioxide emissions by 225,000 tonnes, helping the Dutch to meet a target of 20-per-cent renewable energy use by 2020.

Tricky logistics

The turbines are so massive that they can be transported only by sea and there is only one factory in Europe which can weld and construct the 4.5-metre-diameter piles, which must be first driven into the sea to form the base of the turbines, Mr. van Hemert said.

"It is a huge logistical operation that requires lots of space. There are only a few crane vessels that can handle those huge structures and hammer them down.

"But bringing up the cables is the most challenging for all offshore wind projects."

Expert divers are helping to fit the electrics.

Developers have also had to ensure that the wind park is well away from busy shipping channels.

"Studies in the United Kingdom have shown that there can be some radio interference but in the situation we have here it is completely safe and there is no risk of confusion or reduced visibility for vessels."

Jim Mollet, chairman of a Dutch group campaigning against wind energy acknowledges off-shore wind farms have some benefits over land-based wind turbines.

"They can be a better solution. But the problem is people tend to believe they are an entire solution. We think the vast sums spent on wind farms would be better spent on research and innovation in other energy sources."

Wind farms cannot generate the sheer amounts of energy the continent requires with cost or space efficiency, he added.