This document compiled for Ontario electricity consumers provides an comprehensive explanation of the hidden-costs of industrial wind energy. It also directly addresses the question of whether wind power provides a meaningful reduction in carbon emissions.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) complaint was filed last week by Stephan C. Volker of Volker Law on behalf of two rural East County grassroots non-profit groups. It challenges the San Diego County Board of Supervisors' May 15th 4-1 vote approving the Wind Energy Ordinance and Plan Amendment that sacrifices predominantly low-income rural communities and valued resources for unreliable, intermittent, and expensive industrial-scale wind and solar projects.

This important letter was submitted to the Commissioner John Auerbach of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in regard to industrial scale wind turbines being built close to where people live and gather.

In times of low wind, or during maintenance, a wind turbine will consume a small amount of power to run computers, communications, hydraulics, yaw motors, heaters and radiator fans. When a turbine is generating, its power curve (or rated output) is net of power consumption, so it does not draw power from the grid at that time. Commercial scale wind turbines produce power 70-80% of the time, with output ranging from a small amount to the full rated capacity of the turbine. A typical wind turbine will produce 100 times more power than it consumes in a given month. Its consumption and peak load are very small. A 1.8 MW turbine may have peak load of 27kW, with a resting consumption of as low as 5 kW. Wind turbines are principally suppliers of power to the system, and any consumption is purely incidental. As such, wind turbines are not typical demand customers and should not be treated as other loads.

The Cape Cod Commission (CCC) has asserted that the Cape Wind energy project qualifies as a Development of Regional Impact (DRI) under Section 12(i) and 13(b) of the Cape Cod Commission Act. The CCC staff report can be accessed from this page.

This case study investigates the impact of wind turbines on residential property values. The study looks at homes near the Melancthon Wind Facility located in Shelburne, Ontario, Canada. The project was built in two phases between 2006 and 2008. It consists of 133 GE 1.5 megawatt turbines with a total nameplate capacity of 200 megawatt. Excerpts of the report appear below. The full case study can be accessed by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page.

Thousands of industrial-scale wind turbines are being built across the world each year to meet the growing demand for sustainable energy. Bats of certain species are dying at wind turbines in unprecedented numbers. Species of bats consistently affected by turbines tend to be those that rely on trees as roosts and most migrate long distances. Although considerable progress has been made in recent years toward better understanding the problem, the causes of bat fatalities at turbines remain unclear. In this synthesis, we review hypothesized causes of bat fatalities at turbines. Hypotheses of cause fall into 2 general categories—proximate and ultimate. Proximate causes explain the direct means by which bats die at turbines and include collision with towers and rotating blades, and barotrauma. Ultimate causes explain why bats come close to turbines and include 3 general types: random collisions, coincidental collisions, and collisions that result from attraction of bats to turbines. The random collision hypothesis posits that interactions between bats and turbines are random events and that fatalities are representative of the bats present at a site. Coincidental hypotheses posit that certain aspects of bat distribution or behavior put them at risk of collision and include aggregation during migration and seasonal increases in flight activity associated with feeding or mating. A surprising number of attraction hypotheses suggest that bats might be attracted to turbines out of curiosity, misperception, or as potential feeding, roosting, flocking, and mating opportunities. Identifying, prioritizing, and testing hypothesized causes of bat collisions with wind turbines are vital steps toward developing practical solutions to the problem.

The Town of Clayton, in Jefferson County New York, has released comments issued by Cavanaugh Tocci Associates in regard to the preconstruction sound level study conducted by PPM Energy for the Clayton Wind Farm. CTA's comments can be accessed by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page. The first two pages of the file provide an executive summary of the comments delivered to the Town at the request of the Town Board.

This letter was sent to Jim Lepinski of the Wisconsin Public Service Commission. The letter captures the anger and frustration of people living within a quarter-mile of industrial turbines.