RUNNING HEADER: negative impacts of wind power

Negative impacts of wind power

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Introduction

Nonrenewable sources such as natural gas and coal have been crucial components of

energy since the industrial revolution. The expedition to find a new form of energy was in need

due to the many harmful implications of fossil fuels. Wind power is the electricity created when

generators are mechanically powered by air flowing through wind turbines. It is abundant, clean,

does not emit greenhouse gases while in operation, renewable and is distributed widely as the

main energy source used to replace fossil fuels. In spite of its vast potential, wind power

generation should be moderated and recognized due to the variety of environmental impacts that

it is linked to. The environmental impacts of wind power are known to be less drastic than that of

fossil fuel. However, the ecological footprint and potential long-term effects of wind power

related to noise pollution, visual intrusion and harmful impacts on wildlife are constantly

overlooked.

The impact of wind turbines has contributed tremendously to the casualties of birds and

bats. Open and exposed areas are the best locations to site wind farms as there are the average

wind is high from the highland, shorelines and offshore. This same area is where wildlife uses as

habitat for winter, migration and breeding therefore the turbines can affect the animals lifestyle.

Morality due to collisions is one of the main causes of death for wildlife in wind farm areas.

Fatal injury for birds and bats can result from collisions with rotors. The moving rotors can also

drag birds to the ground or they can be dragged into a vortex created by moving rotors. These

turbines may affect some of the species that have been in existence for long and have low

maturity as well as low productivity (Rosenbloom, 2006). In these cases, the mortality rate can

significantly affect the population levels. The location of a wind farm is very important

especially considering the topographic feature, which may be used by soaring species for lift.
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The positioning of the turbines may result in a great number of avian species being funneled in

an area full of turbines (Rosenbloom, 2006). Birds that fly low along certain areas such as the

coastline may suffer a great risk of colliding with the rotors.

In a study conducted in Spain in 2002, the estimated number of bird deaths caused by

wind turbines was 11,200 (Rosenbloom, 2006). The study focused on the bird of prey alone.

Most of these birds of prey are already endangered and with this rate of death, it will not take

long until they are extinct. The study also showed that around 3 million small bird die each year

through power lines from wind turbines and the turbines themselves (Rosenbloom, 2006). On

another study still in Spain showed that one wind turbine kills an average of twenty to forty birds

each year. A study by the American Fish and Wildlife Services also showed that the European

turbines kills an average of 37 birds on a single turbine every year (Rosenbloom, 2006).

The cause of death of bats due to wind power is not only subjected to rotary blades but

also to impact with transmission lines and turbine towers. According to a recent study, bats can

also be killed by passing close to a turning turbine blade tip as the region contains low air

pressure (Rosenbloom, 2006). Bat enthusiasts are troubled by the rate at which onshore and near-

shore wind facilities are killing bats. Bat fatalities caused by wind turbines are reduced at a great

rate during low wind conditions. The reason is that bats like to move when there is low wind.

This therefore means that the wind turbines should be shut off during low wind conditions to

reduce the fatalities. In 2012 alone, more than 600,000 bats were killed in America by the wind

turbines. Most of these deaths occurred in the Appalachian Mountains (Rosenbloom, 2006).

According to some earlier studies, the rate of bat deaths range from 33,000 to 888,000 bats per

year (Rosenbloom, 2006).

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Wind turbine also have adverse effects on human beings relating to noise pollution. The

percentage of people who are affected by wind turbines is still unknown but the numbers are

great. So far, there is no evidence to show that wind turbine noise can result to hearing loss. In

fact, it is surprising that people with hearing problem are more vulnerable to turbine noises that

the individuals with a normal hearing. It is the infrasound, not the audible whooshing of the wind

turbines, that causes the health complaint (Punch & James, 2014). There are usually low-

frequency sounds produced by the rotating blades, which are more likely to cause adverse

hearing effects than the whooshing sound. The adverse symptoms caused by the operating

turbines are only present when the turbines are at work. Once the turbines stop operating, the

adverse effects disappear (Punch & James, 2014). In studies conducted in Canada, Germany,

Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden show that the residents who have lived a long time near the

wind turbines, find the noise by the turbines annoying and different from other kinds of noises

such as industrial, transportation and community noises (Punch & James, 2014). The difference

is because of the great amount of low frequency sound that is produced by the turbine blades. As

the blades rotates and pass the tower, infrasound pulses are produced. A 35 dBA turbine noise

can be equated to a societal noise of 45 dBA. According to the World Health Organization, when

outside noise exceeds 40 dBA at night, a person is likely to have poor health (Punch & James,

2014). This is also the case when the noises in the bedroom are more than 30 dBA or when the

noises present are of low frequency (Punch & James, 2014).

The main complaint of the residents living closer to the wind turbines is about sleep

disturbances. Prolonged sleep disturbances has some effects on a persons learning ability and

the memory. Lack of sleep increases the stress levels, temperament, and heart health and affects

the hormones responsible for puberty, growth and fertility (Rosenbloom, 2006). To some extent
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lack of sleep can cause heart diseases, high heart rate, high blood pressure, weight gain and

reduced disease immunity. The people who live around working wind turbines mainly report

these adverse symptoms. The people residing within a range of 1.4 kilometers to the industrial

working turbines, showed a greater lack of sleep and poor mental health than the people who

lived at a greater distance of more than 2 kilometers. The lack of sleep was associated with the

noises from the turbines (Punch & James, 2014). In another study, it was observed that the

people who live closer to the wind turbine mostly have a lower quality of life than the people

who live at a longer distance (Punch & James, 2014). People are more likely to abandon their

homes that are near to turbines and this is mainly due to the sleep disturbances and the low

quality of living around the turbines.

Wind turbine syndrome is a term that Nina Pierpont, who is a pediatrician, came up

with in 2009. The word describes the signs and symptoms the pediatrician found in an analysis

that she made on 38 members of 10 families who lived near industrial wind turbines (Punch &

James, 2014). The symptoms include vertigo, dizziness, ear pain and pressure, tinnitus,

unsteadiness, headache, sleep disturbance, visceral vibratory vestibular disturbance, memory

problems, temperament, lack of motivation and fatigue (Punch & James, 2014). Although her

case has been criticized as being nonscientific according to the wind industry, there has been an

increasing evidence of health problems due to wind turbines.

Wind turbines do not only cause noise pollution but they also cause visual intrusions. The

effects on health caused by visual intrusions is not a problem that can be underestimated.

According to the World Health Organization, there is a risk of 40% depression caused by a bad

view out of the window (Harding, Hardin, & Wilkins, 2008). Rotating wind turbine blades

causes interruption to the rays of sunlight therefore causing unavoidable flickers. These flickers
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are usually so bright that they can pass through closed eyelids. The shadows from the moving

blades can affect the illumination inside houses (Harding, Hardin, & Wilkins, 2008). The term

used to describe this effect of the flickers is shadow flicker. Photosensitive epilepsy seizures

can at times be caused by the flickers caused by the wind turbines. This especially occurs when

the flash frequency are more than three per second (Harding, Hardin, & Wilkins, 2008). The

shadow flickers caused by the turbines result to human health effects such as increased stress

levels and annoyance.

Shadow flickers are also a concern to transportation safety. For instance, they can

result in a driver causing an accident due to the distraction of the shadows. Shadow flickers is a

problem that mainly occurs on instances when the sun is hanging lower. The problem by the

flicker is usually displayed both outdoors and indoors (Harding, Hardin, & Wilkins, 2008).

Turbines should be engineered in such a way that the people are protected from the shadow

flickers.

Conclusion

Wind energy is a clean way and conservative energy production method that has been

used to replace the fossil fuels. The use of wind energy has many benefits that has led to people

overlooking its long-term effects such as visual burdens, noise pollution and negative effects on

wildlife especially the birds and bats. The turbine that create wind energy are hazadarous as they

have increased the rate of deaths for the birds and bats. The turbines also cause adverse effects to

human being through noise pollution and visual burden, which sometimes result health problems

such as increased stress levels.

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References
Harding, G., Hardin, P., & Wilkins, A. (2008). Wind turbines, flicker, and
photosensitive epilepsy: Characterizing the flashing that may precipitate
seizures and optimizing guidelines to prevent them. Epilepsia, 10951098.

Punch, J., & James, R. (2014, November 12). Negative health impact of noise from
industrial wind turbines: The evidence . Retrieved from wind-watch.org:
https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/negative-health-impact-of-noise-from-
industrial-wind-turbines-the-evidence/

Rosenbloom, E. (2006, September 5). A Problem With Wind Power. Retrieved from
aweo.org: http://www.aweo.org/problemwithwind.html