An Ohio wind farm is temporarily shut down following severe damage to one of the turbines.
The wind farm, Timber Road II, sits in Ohio just beyond the Indiana state line between Edgerton, Indiana, and Payne, Ohio.
Around 12:45 Tuesday (April 24th) afternoon, two blades on a turbine were damaged so severely that debris was sent raining down on the field below. No one was injured.
The owners, EDP Renewables, say while the investigation into what damaged the blades is ongoing, at this point it doesn’t appear that strong winds were a factor.
A spokesperson for EDP tells Indiana’s NewsCenter that all 55 of the wind farm’s turbines were immediately shut down following the incident. Some were turned back on Wednesday as part of the investigation, but officials say it’s unclear how long that investigation will take.
Robert Silliman of Antwerp, Ohio, was out taking pictures of the broken turbine on Wednesday. He says,”I saw this wreckage scattered quite a ways across the field and I was very surprised that it had gone that far. Of course, we had high winds yesterday.”
EDP officials say each turbine is roughly worth $3million, but this turbine is still under warranty by the manufacturer, Vestas. They say Vestas is conducting their own root cause analysis, and is taking every step necessary to make sure similar problems don’t arise in the future.
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KALIDA — After a first reading on a rewritten zoning ordinance to allow wind turbines in industrial areas of Kalida failed, the consensus of Village Council members was to consider putting the contentious issue up for special election.
More than 100 residents filled the council chambers Monday night, the majority against the proposed installation of two wind turbines by Kalida Manufacturing Industries on land they would like annexed into the village.
Union township resident Don Selhorst and Kalida resident Dan Lucke represented those opposing the wind turbines. The two men gave a slide show presentation explaining concerns residents have about the installation of the wind turbines.
Selhorst said while he understands the need for KMI to remain competitive in a global market, he has concerns about the close proximity of these proposed turbines to residential areas.
“Most of the issues that have been raised about wind turbines, such as noise, shadow flicker, and health concerns, come from residents living 1 mile to 1.5 miles from a wind turbine,” Selhorst said.
Lucke said 90 percent of the residents living in Kalida are within 1.25 miles of the proposed turbines.
Continue Reading: http://www.limaohio.com/news/wind-81634-turbines-kalida.html
St. Henry Village Council members passed legislation to ban wind turbines in town. The law was passed unanimously after the third reading on Monday, March 26th 2012.
The village of St. Henry in Mercer county is on track to become the first municipality in the state to ban wind turbines within corporation limits.
Council is taking a proactive approach to what could potentially be a major problem down the road.
Continue reading here.
“Auglaize Neighbors United is a group of local property owners and citizens of Buckland, Wapakoneta, Moulton and Cridersville who have decided the idea of allowing a limited liability company to place 75 industrial wind turbines within a mile of our towns, surrounding countless rural residences, and changing the landscape of our county for the next 30 years (or forever) merits serious investigation and discussion,” the group said in its introductory news release.
Visit their website: http://www.noauglaizewind.org/
This study was conducted at a representative neighbor’s home in Falmouth and confirmed that there are dynamically modulated low frequency acoustic amplitudes and tones produced by the nearby wind turbine.
Dynamic amplitude modulations occurred at 1.4 second intervals that were consistent with the blades rotating past the wind turbine tower (the blade pass rate).
Dynamic amplitude modulations below 10 Hz were stronger indoors than outdoors. Modulations measured indoors were 0.2 Pascal peak to peak, consisting mostly of energy below 20 Hz. Two tones were detected from both the NOTUS and the WIND 1 turbines, at 22.9 Hz and 129 Hz, and are considered signatures of the wind turbines’ acoustic profile.
Outdoors, the A-weighted sound level decreased at a predictable rate of 6 dB per doubling of distance from the nearest turbine.
The linear unweighted sound level decreased according to cylindrical spreading at 3 dB per doubling of distance and was controlled by acoustic energy below 20 Hertz. A-weighting does not reveal this low-frequency information. Sound-level averaging with Leq for any time length hides the low-frequency dynamic amplitude modulations.
The investigators were surprised to experience the same adverse health symptoms described by neighbors living at this house and near other large industrial wind turbine sites.
The onset of adverse health effects was swift, within twenty minutes, and persisted for some time after leaving the study area. The dBA and dBC levels and modulations did not correlate to the health effects experienced. However, the strength and modulation of the un-weighted and dBG-weighted levels increased indoors, consistent with worsened health effects experienced indoors.
The dBG weighted level appeared to be controlled by in-flow turbulence and exceeded physiological thresholds for response to low-frequency and infrasonic acoustic energy as theorized by Salt.
The wind turbine tone at 22.9 Hz was not audible, yet the modulated amplitudes regularly exceeded vestibular detection thresholds. The 22.9 Hz tone lies in the brain’s “high Beta” wave range (associated with alert state, anxiety, and “fight or flight” stress reactions). The brain’s frequency following response (FFR) could be involved in maintaining an alert state during sleeping hours, which could lead to health effects.
Sleep was disturbed during the study when the wind turbine operated with hub height wind speeds above 10 m/s.
It took about a week to recover from the adverse health effects experienced during the study, with lingering recurring nausea and vertigo for almost seven weeks for one of the investigators.
Read the full report here.
A multinational company is considering building a wind farm in Auglaize County, an economic development official confirmed Wednesday.
U.S. Mainstream Renewable Power Inc. has completed preliminary studies for a 100-megawatt project in portions of Duchouquet, Logan and Moulton townships in north central Auglaize County, said Gregory Myers, president of Wapakoneta Area Economic Development Council.
Mainstream is discussing lease opportunities with landowners and whether their properties are appropriate for wind turbine development, Myers said.
The company will continue its analysis throughout 2012 to further determine the wind speeds and the overall feasibility for the development of a wind-generation project.
The Ohio Power Siting Board, which approves wind-turbine projects, does not have an application or pre-application on file for Mainstream and Auglaize County, the board said. Board officials also have not held any informal conversations with the company about Auglaize County. Mainstream has approached the Siting Board informally about other counties in Ohio, said Matt Butler, with the Ohio Public Utilities Commission.
The company is not quite a year into what is typically a two-year preliminary process before permitting, said Dan Schumann, senior development project manager with Mainstream.
Continue reading here.
Columbus – A bill introduced by Ohio Senator Kris Jordan (R-OH-19) would reduce the burden put on Ohioans in former Governor Strickland’s “green” energy mandate.
Senate Bill 216 was introduced Wednesday to “repeal the requirement that electric distribution utilities and electric services companies provide 25% of their retail power supplies from advanced and renewable energy resources by 2025.”
The bill, if passed, will strike from Ohio Revised Code 4928.20 a provision that utility customers be required to pay their current bill “plus any amount attributable to the utility’s cost of compliance with the alternative energy resource provisions of section 4928.64 of the Revised Code to serve the consumer.”
To simplify, left as is, this provision would have significantly increased your electric bill.
Continue reading on Examiner.com Repealing Ohio energy mandate will save you some green – Youngstown Trumbull County Conservative | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/trumbull-county-conservative-in-youngstown/repealing-ohio-energy-mandate-will-save-you-some-green
There’s a big, big hypocrisy here,” Sue Hammer of Tehachapi Wildlife Rehab in Kern County said. “If I shoot an eagle, it’s a $10,000 fine and/or a vacation of one to five years in a federal pen of my choice.
As California attempts to divorce itself from fossil-fueled electricity, it may be trading one environmental sin for another — although you don’t hear state officials admitting it.
Wind power is the fastest growing component in the state’s green energy portfolio, but wildlife advocates say the marriage has an unintended consequence: dead birds, including protected species of eagles, hawks and owls.
“The cumulative impacts are huge,” said Shawn Smallwood, one of the few recognized experts studying the impact of wind farms on migratory birds. “It is not inconceivable to me that we could reduce golden eagle populations by a great deal, if not wipe them out.”
California supports roughly 2,500 golden eagles. The state’s largest wind farms kill, on average, more than 80 eagles per year. But the state is set to triple wind capacity in the coming years as it tries to become the first state in the nation to generate 33 percent of its electricity from clean energy sources by 2020.
WindAction.org
