SCIENCE IN THE NEWS DAILY
Maine Wind Farm Not Soothing to All Ears
from the Boston Globe (Registration Required)
VINALHAVEN, Maine -- Three white wind turbines, their 124-foot blades stretching 39 stories high, churn out more electricity than is used on this picturesque, pine-studded island off mid-coast Maine. Some residents call them objects of graceful art, others point to lower utility bills, and the environmentally conscious hail the benefits of clean energy.
But to some families living near the land-bound turbines, which began spinning in November, the blades signify something else. "That noise is so insidious that you can feel it," said David Wylie, 62, a transplant from Concord, Mass., who has owned property on the island since 1992. "I didn't come up to Vinalhaven to live next to a dishwasher."
Instead of a win-win mix of green power and continued tranquility, Wylie and other critics said, the turbines have brought chest-thumping noise, questionable cost savings, and frustrating stonewalling from wind farm managers who reject their claims of night-rattling sound.
Read more...
Science in the Media
Newspapers:
Magazines and Web Sites:
The Science-Media Intersection:
Subscribe to Our Content!
Visit our RSS Feeds page to choose among 13 customized feeds, or create a free My AmSci account to request an email notice whenever a specified author, department or discipline appears online.