This important paper by acoustics expert, Steven Cooper, challenges the current standards for siting wind turbines in Australia.

Army Corps' letter to UPC Wind states that the Sheffield Wind project "is not eligible for authorization under the VT General Permit, and must be reviewed under the individual permit review procedure." The letter further states that UPC Wind "may not proceed with any proposed work within our jurisdiction until you have received written authorization from this office." The full letter can be accessed by clicking on the link below.

Horizon Wind has proposed a massive (800 megawatts) wind energy facility for the northern reaches of Maine in Aroostook County near the Canadian border. Click on the link below to download a copy of the lease agreement Horizon has offered landowners who might have turbines or met towers erected on their land.

This important collaborative document describes the current research on wind energy and the assessment of impacts on nocturnally active birds and bats.

The U.S. House Subcommittee on Oversight and Subcommittee on Energy conducted an informative hearing on wind energy. The charter of the hearing, the witnesses who appeared and links to their testimony as well as detailed background information on the purpose of the hearing were released in this document prepared by staffers for the Committee.

Richard Bolton, of Environmental Compliance Alliance critiqued RSE's methodology. His prepared comments, as submitted to the Maine DEP, can be accessed below.

"Developers and owners of wind turbines have a duty to ensure the safety of the general public and their own staff. However, there are currently no guidelines for dealing with potential dangers arising from ice thrown off wind turbines. This puts developers, owners, planning authorities and insurers in a difficult position. To rectify this situation, the work presented here has commenced in order to produce an authoritative set of guidelines. Initial work has resulted in the development of a risk assessment methodology which has been used to demonstrate that the risk of being struck by ice thrown from a turbine is diminishingly small at distances greater than approximately 250 m from the turbine in a climate where moderate icing occurs."

Executive Summary of a document prepared by the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) which discusses the cost/benefit of deploying wind turbines to meet the Kansas Governor's challenge “to have 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy capacity installed in Kansas by 2015.” Included below are sections 0.80 and 0.90 of the executive summary. The full document can be accessed by clicking on one of the below links.

In 2008, the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation ('MPAC') assessed the 1,320-square-foot house owned by Paul Thompson at $255,000. Mr. Thompson, sought a reduction in the house value from MPAC due to noise from Canadian Hydro Developers' transformer station built 360 meters from his front door. The station services the nearby Melancthon I wind energy facility consisting of 133 wind turbines located in Melancthon and Amaranth townships in Ontario Canada. Thompson was denied the reduction and he appealed to the Assessment Review Board ('ARB'). The ARB found in favor of Mr. Thompson's appeal and issued an order to reduce the assessment of his property to $127,000, a 50% drop in value. The report found "There is evidence that noise contaminations exists without any apparent cure." The documentation explaining the property value reduction can be accessed by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.

While the public and many decision-makers generally believe that wind energy is environmentally benign, it may entail significant detriments to wildlife and essential habitats, which need to be more clearly understood, and addressed. State fish and wildlife agencies should be at the forefront of cooperative development and implementation of measures to characterize, avoid, minimize and effectively mitigate the impacts of wind energy development on natural resources. Therefore the position of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, in regard to wind energy development is to: ...