Deeping St Nicholas, Lincolnshire in the United Kingdom. In May 2006, the construction of a wind farm comprising eight 2MW turbines was completed 930m from Jane and Julian Davis's farm. One year later, they moved out. Julian Davis explains.
Deeping St Nicholas, Lincolnshire in the United Kingdom. In May 2006, the construction of a wind farm comprising eight 2MW turbines was completed 930m from Jane and Julian Davis's farm. One year later, they moved out. Julian Davis explains.
In May 2006, the construction of a wind farm comprising eight 2MW turbines was completed 930m from Jane and Julian Davis's farm. One year later, they moved out. Julian Davis explains:
"Our original view on wind farms was that we didn't believe there was anything wrong with them, we were in favour of the development. We had very little contact with the developers or the council prior to the build, but from most of the research we looked at, we couldn't believe there would be any problems in terms of noise or anything else.
"[After completion] we noticed changes pretty much straight away. We went to bed and noticed this humming sound. I had an exercise cross-trainer in the room which hummed when plugged in, but to my dismay, I got up and realised it wasn't plugged in. We looked through the house to see what had been left switched on; at this point we had no reason to believe there was any connection with the wind farm. We then found out you could hear a similar hum from outside the house...it's like this drone that never gets here. We have also experienced downwind modulation, a thumping helicopter noise. This is very engrossing and enveloping... you can't get away from it.
"Our neighbours live a quarter of a mile away. The turbines are audible there, but they don't seem to suffer from the internal noise we have here. These people don't complain; they are small farmers, they keep themselves to themselves and they don't want to be put into the arena we've been put into.
"[An acoustician, working on behalf of the council] came to look for low-frequency noise. He suggested a low-frequency hum is possible, probably due to the structural resonance of the wind turbines, but he won't put it on the line. Nobody will come and study us. Our current [independently hired] acoustician is astounded by what he's heard and seen. He can't believe how [other acousticians] keep denying this exists."
Since leaving their home, the Davis family has held countless interviews, taken part in Pierpont's research and presented a paper at the Second International Meeting on Wind Turbine Noise 2007. They currently have accelerometers in the home they left, and are now convinced the house is vibrating.
A court case, taking action against the landowners and wind farm operator Fenland Wind Farm, should be resolved this time next year. Julian Davis says: "Our primary wish is that we can live at home with no interference from the wind farm."