Poor Planning Behind Division Over Wind Projects – John McMahon, Courier
John McMahon, writing in the Courier August 3, 2013 berates planning laws which allow wind facilities to be granted approval when the adverse health effects and other downside effects are already well known.
“Lal Lal’s 95-metre diameter turbine blade tips regularly rotate at more than 200km/h. The atmospheric disturbance and consequent audible and sub-audible noise created by blades this large would be immense.
While there remains such ignorance as to the effects of large turbines, wind project investors are playing Russian Roulette; not only with their neighbours, but also with their own money.
It is inevitable that noise regulations will tighten and adequate noise policing will occur in time, such that large turbines in close proximity to houses and communities will be temporarily or permanently shut down. I would not want to invest millions of dollars in a turbine which later had its operations restricted.
In situations where such intervention is tardy, and the negative community effects are large, lawyers will no doubt find their place.
Poorly located wind turbines are a can of worms for all concerned, not the least of whom will be landowners inevitably left with the turbines that have ceased to operate.”