One study noted that people who live or work in close proximity to industrial wind turbines experienced symptoms that include “decreased quality of life, annoyance, stress, sleep disturbance, headache, anxiety, depression and cognitive dysfunction. Some have also felt anger, grief or a sense of injustice. Suggested causes of symptoms include a combination of wind turbine noise, infrasound, dirty electricity, ground current and shadow flicker.” As a result of these findings, several European countries increased the setback requirements for turbines from neighboring properties.

Impact on Landscape Impact on People North Carolina

Opposition to wind farms has intensified around the country in recent years as the skyscraping towers encroach on residential areas and turbine designs get bigger and taller and ever more powerful. Some who live near these energy farms in other states are complaining of headaches, dizziness, sleep disruption and general annoyance caused by whooshing blades, flickering shadows and strobing hazard lights.

Impact on Landscape Impact on People North Carolina

For Annah Bachman, a UNC first-year and Kitty Hawk resident, the Outer Banks are nothing without their views.

Impact on Landscape Impact on Views North Carolina

According to the study, it’s results show that from a survey of 792 beach home renters, of which 484 responded, none of the respondents were willing to pay more to rent a home in sight of offshore wind turbines – thus providing evidence against the belief some wind energy supporters have that turbines could become a tourist attraction – and many of them said they’d vacation elsewhere if turbines were in sight of the beach. 

Impact on Landscape North Carolina

“There was a lot of support for wind energy, but no one was willing to pay more to see wind turbines from the beach by their vacation rental property. And if turbines are built close to shore, most people said they would choose a different vacation location where they wouldn’t have to see turbines."

Impact on Landscape Impact on Views Offshore Wind North Carolina

"Eighty percent of respondents would either not come back to the same vacation spot if turbines were built offshore, or said they would require such large price discounts to re-rent at the same location as to be unrealistic. People want their beaches to remain in a natural state,” said center Director Laura Taylor.

Impact on Landscape Offshore Wind North Carolina

"I think the concern is that the visitors experience the view-shed of a 200-year-old lighthouse," said Chris Webb, director of the Old Baldy Foundation. "There's been a concerted effort from the beginning ... to have a very harmonious environment, so when you look over the island you don’t see massive structures. You see some rooftops, but mostly what you see is the maritime forest’s color."

Impact on Landscape Impact on Views North Carolina

"I think the concern is that the visitors experience the view-shed of a 200-year-old lighthouse," said Chris Webb, director of the Old Baldy Foundation. "There's been a concerted effort from the beginning ... to have a very harmonious environment, so when you look over the island you don’t see massive structures. You see some rooftops, but mostly what you see is the maritime forest’s color."

Impact on Landscape Impact on Views North Carolina

Perquimans County commissioners have declared a four-month moratorium on wind farms after residents opposed a project in which 60-story-tall turbines would dominate the rural vista.

Impact on Landscape Impact on People North Carolina

North Carolina’s environment secretary has urged a federal agency not to sell wind energy leases within 24 miles of the state’s coast, a limit that advocates say would largely block wind farms. ...“We have voiced consistent concerns and sought similar protections for both offshore wind and offshore oil and gas development.”

Impact on Landscape Offshore Wind North Carolina

Maine's experience with is instructive. While everyone was worried about the "visual" pollution of 450-foot tall white towers sticking up four to five times higher than the surrounding forest, the most invasive aspect of wind turbines has actually been the incessant low frequency "thuds" that come from the blades as they rotate. This has caused issues for the people who live within the sound's radius which, even in forested areas, is significantly further away than the quarter mile setback.

Impact on People Impact on Landscape Maine North Carolina

But what is Pantego Wind Energy LLC? It is a subsidiary of Invenergy, a Chicago-based energy corporation that is one of the five largest (and the number one independent) owners of wind generation plants in the U.S. This corporation with more than $130 million in assets wants you (and me) to subsidize their Pantego Wind Facility.

General Impact on Landscape North Carolina

At a November forum on wind power at UNCA, a young staffer from a regional activist group puffed that he had dedicated his life to fighting mountaintop-removal coal mining, blustering that he wasn't about to let "these NIMBYs" who oppose industrializing Western North Carolina's ridge tops stand in his way. I share his anger over mountaintop-removal mining, but as a renewable-energy advocate I find his passion for utility-scale wind power in WNC sorely misplaced - and painfully ironic.

Impact on Landscape North Carolina

There's a cold wind blowing on the hopes of wind-energy advocates in Western North Carolina, thanks to a pending bill in the N.C. General Assembly. As early as May 12, state legislators will take up Senate Bill 1068 when they reconvene in the short session. The bill - which would establish a regulatory system for wind-energy farms - has stirred fierce debate between advocates and opponents of wind energy in the mountains of North Carolina.

Impact on People Impact on Landscape North Carolina

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wants Duke Energy to conduct an environmental impact study of its offshore wind power project in Pamlico Sound. Duke plans to build up to three wind turbines within a 3-mile-square area 7.3 miles west of Avon and 9.1 miles of Frisco. Both communities are on the Outer Banks' Hatteras Island.

Impact on Landscape North Carolina

In 1983, Sugar Top Condos were built on the top of Sugar Mountain in Avery County. Sugar Top Condos rise 131 feet above the ridgeline and can be seen for several miles. These towering condos were so devastating to the scenic splendor of the mountains that the General Assembly wisely enacted strict ridge top laws to stop these monstrosities from appearing throughout our mountains. While the statewide law was too late for Sugar Mountain, the law stopped similar projects of shocking heights and destruction of the mountains. Sugar Top Condos is a permanent reminder that once a structure is built on our mountain tops, we cannot unbuild it.

Impact on Views Impact on Landscape North Carolina

Will wind-generated power save the environment or sacrifice it? The answer depends on who you ask ..."Your senators are very brave in what they're doing," said Lisa Linowes of New Hampshire-based Wind Action. "The legislature already concluded when it adopted the Ridge ordinance that your mountains have cultural significance to the state. When asked now to consider whether that value is worth more - or less - than wind generated electrons on the grid, your mountain senators are doing what most politicians in the U.S. have not done. They're putting a cold eye to the options and deciding wind is not worth the sacrifice, at least for now."

Impact on People Energy Policy Impact on Landscape North Carolina

Rows of wind turbines are unlikely to be spinning atop mountain ridges anytime soon. A Senate committee on Wednesday rejected a proposal that would have paved the way for large-scale wind energy production in the mountains. Large wind turbines are banned under the state's interpretation of a law restricting ridge development. The Agriculture Committee advanced a proposal that would keep it that way, changing the ridge law to cement the ban.

Impact on Views Impact on Landscape North Carolina

If the nature of this debate sends one clear message, it's that wind power legislation needs to be thoroughly studied, not rushed through. The locus of the debate isn't over wind power itself, but of size, scale and most of all - location. Sen. Steve Goss of Watauga County wants farms permitted on ridge top locations in his area; Sens. Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe, John Snow, D-Murphy, and Joe Sam Queen, D-Waynesville, point to the fact that such large structures would run afoul of the mountain ridge law.

Energy Policy Impact on Landscape North Carolina

The debate has its roots in a condominium project that popped up on a mountain ridge in the 1980s. There were no mountain area zoning laws to prevent it, and when the Sugar Top project emerged to stick out like a sore thumb, the General Assembly quickly acted. It adopted the Ridge Law, intended to stop the erection of excessively tall structures atop mountain ridges in altitudes of 3,000 feet or greater.

Impact on Landscape North Carolina