worldwide electricity usage,[18] 11.4% in the EU.

Wind power

[19]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wind Energy

Wind power is the use of air flow through wind

turbines to mechanically power generators for
electricity. Wind power, as an alternative to
burning fossil fuels, is plentiful, renewable,
widely distributed, clean, produces no greenhouse
gas emissions during operation, uses no water, and
uses little land.[2] The net effects on the
environment are far less problematic than those of
nonrenewable power sources.

Wind energy is the process by which the wind is

used to generate mechanical power or electricity.
People have been using energy from the wind for
hundreds of years to pump water or grind grain.
Today, we use a wind turbines to generate
electricity. Wind power has a relatively high
output, but only a fraction of its potential is
currently used. Wind power plants cannot produce
power on demandtheir output depends on how
hard the wind blows. So, wind power is often used
as a supplement to other power sources. Wind
power plants are also not feasible for all
geographical locations. For example, very cold
areas may not be ideal for wind power because of
a small chance for ice being thrown off the turbine
blades.

Wind farms consist of many individual wind

turbines which are connected to the electric power
transmission network. Onshore wind is an
inexpensive source of electricity, competitive with
or in many places cheaper than coal or gas plants.
[3][4][5]
Offshore wind is steadier and stronger than
on land, and offshore farms have less visual
impact, but construction and maintenance costs
are considerably higher. Small onshore wind
farms can feed some energy into the grid or
provide electricity to isolated off-grid locations.[6]

Wind is a form of solar energy. The suns radiation

heats different parts of the Earth at different rates
most notably during the day and night
influenced by the shape of the planets terrain,
bodies of water, and vegetation. Hot air rises,
reducing the atmospheric pressure at the Earths
surface, and cooler air is drawn in to replace it.
The result is wind.

Wind power gives variable power which is very

consistent from year to year but which has
significant variation over shorter time scales. It is
therefore used in conjunction with other electric
power sources to give a reliable supply. As the
proportion of wind power in a region increases, a
need to upgrade the grid, and a lowered ability to
supplant conventional production can occur.[7][8]
Power management techniques such as having
excess capacity, geographically distributed
turbines, dispatchable backing sources, sufficient
hydroelectric power, exporting and importing
power to neighboring areas, using vehicle-to-grid
strategies or reducing demand when wind
production is low, can in many cases overcome
these problems.[9][10] In addition, weather
forecasting permits the electricity network to be
readied for the predictable variations in
production that occur.[11][12][13]

Wind energy does not produce harmful

greenhouse gases or waste products. According to
the American Wind Energy Association, wind
reduces emissions. One modern turbine could
prevent 1,500 tons of carbon dioxide from being
released into the atmosphere in the US each year.
Wind turbines may pose a threat to birds and bats.
Areas that are home to endangered species should
not be considered suitable for the development of
wind power plants. But overall, wind turbines
pose a far smaller threat to birds and bats than
buildings, cars and predatory animals (for
example, house cats are believed to kill 1 billion
birds every year in the US alone!).

As of 2015, Denmark generates 40% of its

electricity from wind,[14][15] and at least 83 other
countries around the world are using wind power
to supply their electricity grids.[16] In 2014 global
wind power capacity expanded 16% to 369,553
MW.[17] Yearly wind energy production is also
growing rapidly and has reached around 4% of

How Wind Energy is Formed and Used

Wind turbines convert kinetic energy in the wind
into mechanical power. This mechanical power
can be used for specific tasks (such as grinding
grain or pumping water) or a generator can
1

convert this mechanical power into electricity. A

typical horizontal wind machine is as tall as a 20story building. Wind machines need to be very tall
to capture enough wind to generate large amounts
of electricity. An average wind speed of only 14
miles (22.5 kilometers) per hour is needed to
convert wind energy into electricity.

to minimize this issue by using computer

simulations to evaluate the visual impact before
construction beings and by using turbines that are
the same size and spacing them out evenly once
the project is approved.

Wind power plants create little disruption to local

ecosystems. Utility-scale wind power plants built
on open terrain require about 60 acres per
megawatt of installed capacity. But, according to
the American Wind Energy Association, only
about 5% of this area is needed for the actual
turbines and other equipment. The rest of the land
can be used for other purposes like farming and
ranching.

A common concern about wind power plants is

noise: Dont those huge turbines make a lot of
noise when theyre spinning? While turbines do
make noise, it is generally not loud enough to be
disruptive to peoples day-to-day activities. Earlier
turbine models were much noisier than todays
models, which have been redesigned to be more
streamlined and efficient (and considerably
quieter!). According to a study by a panel of
doctors, audiologists and acoustical professionals
from the US, Canada, Denmark and the United
Kingdom, the sounds generated by wind turbines
are not harmful to human health. The study,
commissioned by the American Wind Energy
Association and the Canadian Wind Energy
Association, found that the noise generated by
wind turbines is no worse than the noise generated
in average urban environments. The mechanical
components of wind turbines do, of course, make
some noise. But since the nearest houses are
usually at least 300 meters/984 feet away,
RenewableUK asserts that the noise that can be
heard inside the houses would be comparable to
that inside a quiet, air-conditioned office.

Are Wind Turbines Noisy?

Wind energy is gaining popularity around the

world. Scotland, for example, is home to the
United Kingdoms largest wind farm, in addition
to two huge offshore wind turbines and several
other onshore wind farms. Scotlands windy
climate makes it the perfect spot for successful
wind turbines. Scotlands government wants to
generate 31% of its electricity from renewable
energy by 2011, with much of that coming from
wind power.
And in China, which has a vast amount of land
and a long coastline, wind power has great
potential to generate power for the countrys large
population. Around 80 wind farms are currently
operating in China, and more than a dozen
Chinese companies are building wind turbines and
their accompanying components. But the country
is experiencing some problems with wind power,
because not all of its current wind power capacity
is connected to its power grids, meaning some
wind power (about 28%, according to China
Power Union) is lost.

People who live near the turbines may argue this

point, though. For example, in Minnesota (in
northeastern US), where people may live within
152 meters/500 feet of turbines in rural areas,
critics say the noise is a constant hum that disrupts
their lives. New York doctor Nina Pierpoint, who
has studied the effects of turbines on people,
developed the term wind turbine syndrome, the
symptoms of which are ear pressure, sleep
disturbance, vertigo, nausea, blurred vision,
memory problems and panic attacks. Critics in
Minnesota want regulations to mandate greater
distances between turbines and homes (from
Noise, Shadows From Wind Farms are Creating
Uproar in Rural Minnesota, by Tom Meersman,
Minneapolis Star Tribune, 17 Jan., 2010).

Wind power has a high initial cost building the

turbines, towers and foundations is expensive.
However, wind energy is becoming more
affordable as technology improves. According to
RenewableUK, world wind energy capacity
doubled every three years between 1990 and
2002, and with each doubling, prices fell by 15%.

Shadow Flicker

Some critics of wind energy say that wind

turbines are unsightly. Industry professionals work
2

Wind turbines turning blades can cast a moving

shadow on nearby buildings. This is called
shadow flicker. The American Wind Energy
Association says wind power plant developers can
calculate whether a flickering shadow will fall on
a given location near a wind farm and how many
hours in the year it will do so. This makes it
possible for developers to erect turbines in
locations that wont cast a shadow on houses.
People who live near turbines that cast shadows
on their homes often say the flickering is irritating
one US farmer whose home is located 900
feet/274 meters from a wind turbine with 122foot/37-meter blades compared it to a light switch
being flipped on and off for hours at a time.

grids, and public opinion. If those factors remain

relatively constant, wind power generation
capacity is expected to grow about one-third by
2040.

Wind

But by far the largest impediment to greater use of

intermittent energy sources is that they currently
lack a practical and cost-effective way to store the
electricity generated so that it can be used when
needed, rather than when available. Battery arrays
are an obvious option, but they are typically best
suited to storing relatively small amounts locally.
(Although the city of Fairbanks, Alaska, has an
immense central emergency battery that can
provide 26 megawatts of power for 15 minutes in
the event of an outage.)

Wind energy, like sunlight, is a free source. The

cost arises in converting it to electricity and
integrating that electricity into the nations power
grid. It is not, however, universally welcomed.
Many oppose its use on aesthetic and
environmental grounds. Wind turbines (sometimes
grouped into wind farms containing hundreds of
turbines) can prompt complaints from
communities whose sight lines are altered. Current
designs are also hazardous to some birds and bats.

Wind energy is an indirect form of solar energy

created by a combination of factors, including the
uneven heating of Earths atmosphere by solar
radiation, variations in topography, and the
rotation of Earth. People have been putting wind
energy to use throughout history to propel sail
boats, mill flour from grain, and pump water.
Today the wind-induced mechanical power of
huge multi-blade rotorssweeping circles in the
air as much as 100 meters in diameteris routed
to generators that produce electricity.

Intermittent electricity can be used to pump water

to higher elevations, raising its potential energy.
Similarly, electrical energy can be stored as heat
in an insulated enclosure or used to compress gas
underground, where the pressure could be bled off
to generate power on demand. Electricity from
wind and solar sources can be harnessed to spin
up giant flywheels or used to produce hydrogen,
which could be stored and used in fuel cells when
needed. Every time energy changes form, of
course, there is some loss and efficiency is an
urgent concern in all conversion technologies. At
present, such solutions are relatively costly and
have typically been deployed to serve areas off the
main power grid.

In 2014, wind power provided about 18% of all

the energy consumed from renewable sources.
That contribution is expected to grow and the
potential is large: Energy from wind available in
the United States is at least an order of magnitude
larger than the nations total annual consumption
of energy, although only a small fraction of it can
be captured. As of 2014, 39 states had at least
some installed wind power systems, with the
largest share on the West Coast and in the
Midwest. Wind energy produced about 4.1% of
Americas electricity in 2013; the U.S. Energy
Information Administration projects that it will
account for 4.6% by the end of 2015.

Wind turbine

As of 2014, 39 states had at least some installed

wind power systems, with the largest share on the
West Coast and in the Midwest.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A wind turbine is a device that converts the

wind's kinetic energy into electrical power. The
term appears to have been adopted from
hydroelectric technology (rotary propeller). The
technical description of a wind turbine is aerofoilpowered generator.

Expansion of wind power depends on a variety of

factors, including fossil-fuel prices, federal tax
credits, state renewable energy programs,
technology improvements, access to transmission
3

As a result of over a millennium of windmill

development and modern engineering, today's
wind turbines are manufactured in a wide range of
vertical and horizontal axis types. The smallest
turbines are used for applications such as battery
charging for auxiliary power for boats or caravans
or to power traffic warning signs. Slightly larger
turbines can be used for making contributions to a
domestic power supply while selling unused
power back to the utility supplier via the electrical
grid. Arrays of large turbines, known as wind
farms, are becoming an increasingly important
source of renewable energy and are used by many
countries as part of a strategy to reduce their
reliance on fossil fuels.

Turbines used in wind farms for commercial

production of electric power are usually threebladed and pointed into the wind by computercontrolled motors. These have high tip speeds of
over 320 km/h (200 mph), high efficiency, and
low torque ripple, which contribute to good
reliability. The blades are usually colored white
for daytime visibility by aircraft and range in
length from 20 to 40 meters (66 to 131 ft) or
more. The tubular steel towers range from 60 to
90 meters (200 to 300 ft) tall.
The blades rotate at 10 to 22 revolutions per
minute. At 22 rotations per minute the tip speed
exceeds 90 meters per second (300 ft/s).[24][25] A
gear box is commonly used for stepping up the
speed of the generator, although designs may also
use direct drive of an annular generator. Some
models operate at constant speed, but more energy
can be collected by variable-speed turbines which
use a solid-state power converter to interface to
the transmission system. All turbines are equipped
with protective features to avoid damage at high
wind speeds, by feathering the blades into the
wind which ceases their rotation, supplemented by
brakes.

Types
Wind turbines can rotate about either a horizontal
or a vertical axis, the former being both older and
more common.[20] They can also include blades
(transparent or not)[21] or be bladeless.[22]

Horizontal axis
Horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWT) have the
main rotor shaft and electrical generator at the top
of a tower, and must be pointed into the wind.
Small turbines are pointed by a simple wind vane,
while large turbines generally use a wind sensor
coupled with a servo motor. Most have a gearbox,
which turns the slow rotation of the blades into a
quicker rotation that is more suitable to drive an
electrical generator.[23]

Year by year the size and height of turbines

increase. Offshore wind turbines are built up to
8MW today and have a blade length up to 80m.
Onshore wind turbines are installed in low wind
speed areas and getting higher and higher towers.
Usual towers of multi megawatt turbines have a
height of 70 m to 120 m and in extremes up to
160 m, with blade tip speeds reaching 80 m/s to
90 m/s. Higher tip speeds means more noise and
blade erosion.

Since a tower produces turbulence behind it, the

turbine is usually positioned upwind of its
supporting tower. Turbine blades are made stiff to
prevent the blades from being pushed into the
tower by high winds. Additionally, the blades are
placed a considerable distance in front of the
tower and are sometimes tilted forward into the
wind a small amount.

Vertical axis design

Vertical-axis wind turbines (or VAWTs) have the
main rotor shaft arranged vertically. One
advantage of this arrangement is that the turbine
does not need to be pointed into the wind to be
effective, which is an advantage on a site where
the wind direction is highly variable. It is also an
advantage when the turbine is integrated into a
building because it is inherently less steerable.
Also, the generator and gearbox can be placed
near the ground, using a direct drive from the
rotor assembly to the ground-based gearbox,
improving accessibility for maintenance.

Downwind machines have been built, despite the

problem of turbulence (mast wake), because they
don't need an additional mechanism for keeping
them in line with the wind, and because in high
winds the blades can be allowed to bend which
reduces their swept area and thus their wind
resistance. Since cyclical (that is repetitive)
turbulence may lead to fatigue failures, most
HAWTs are of upwind design.
4

The key disadvantages include the relatively low

rotational speed with the consequential higher
torque and hence higher cost of the drive train, the
inherently lower power coefficient, the 360 degree
rotation of the aerofoil within the wind flow
during each cycle and hence the highly dynamic
loading on the blade, the pulsating torque
generated by some rotor designs on the drive train,
and the difficulty of modelling the wind flow
accurately and hence the challenges of analysing
and designing the rotor prior to fabricating a
prototype.[26]

cost, includes the blades for converting

wind energy to low speed rotational
energy.

When a turbine is mounted on a rooftop the

building generally redirects wind over the roof
and this can double the wind speed at the turbine.
If the height of a rooftop mounted turbine tower is
approximately 50% of the building height it is
near the optimum for maximum wind energy and
minimum wind turbulence. Wind speeds within
the built environment are generally much lower
than at exposed rural sites,[27][28] noise may be a
concern and an existing structure may not
adequately resist the additional stress.

The generator component, which is

approximately 34% of the wind turbine
cost, includes the electrical generator,[37][38]
the control electronics, and most likely a
gearbox (e.g. planetary gearbox),[39]
adjustable-speed drive or continuously
variable transmission[40] component for
converting the low speed incoming
rotation to high speed rotation suitable for
generating electricity.

The structural support component, which

is approximately 15% of the wind turbine
cost, includes the tower and rotor yaw
mechanism.[41]

A 1.5 MW wind turbine of a type frequently seen

in the United States has a tower 80 meters (260 ft)
high. The rotor assembly (blades and hub) weighs
22,000 kilograms (48,000 lb). The nacelle, which
contains the generator component, weighs 52,000
kilograms (115,000 lb). The concrete base for the
tower is constructed using 26,000 kilograms
(58,000 lb) of reinforcing steel and contains 190
cubic meters (250 cu yd) of concrete. The base is
15 meters (50 ft) in diameter and 2.4 meters (8 ft)
thick near the center.[42]

Vortexis
The most recent advancement in Vertical Axis
Wind Turbines has been the Vortexis VAWT,
utilizing a pre-swirled augmented vertical axis
wind turbine (PA-VAWT) designed for the
purpose of developing a high efficiency VAWT
concept that keeps the advantages of VAWTs
compact size, lack of bias as to incoming wind
direction, easy deployment and low radar cross
section for use in mobile applications for the
military, referred to in Special Operations as
"Black Swan." [35][36]

Among all renewable energy systems wind

turbines have the highest effective intensity of
power-harvesting surface[43] because turbine
blades not only harvest wind power, but also
concentrate it.[44][dubious discuss]

Materials and durability

Design and construction

Currently serving wind turbine blades are mainly

made of composite materials. These blades are
usually made of a polyester resin, a vinyl resin,
and epoxy thermosetting matrix resin and E-glass
fibers, S- glass fibers and carbon fiber reinforced
materials. Construction may use manual layup
techniques or composite resin injection molding.
As the price of glass fibers is only about one tenth
the price of carbon fiber, glass fiber is still
dominant. One of the predominant ways wind
turbines have gain performance is by increasing
rotor diameters, and thus blade length. Longer

Wind turbines are designed to exploit the wind

energy that exists at a location. Aerodynamic
modeling is used to determine the optimum tower
height, control systems, number of blades and
blade shape.
Wind turbines convert wind energy to electricity
for distribution. Conventional horizontal axis
turbines can be divided into three components:

The rotor component, which is

approximately 20% of the wind turbine
5

blades place more demands on the strength and

stiffness of the materials. Stiffness is especially
important to avoid having blades flex to the
degree that they hit the tower of the wind turbine.
Carbon fiber is between 4 and 6 times stiffer than
glass fiber,[49] so carbon fiber is becoming more
common in wind turbine blades.[50]

Vertical axis wind

turbine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) are a type

of wind turbine where the main rotor shaft is set
transverse to the wind (but not necessarily
vertically) while the main components are located
at the base of the turbine. This arrangement allows
the generator and gearbox to be located close to
the ground, facilitating service and repair. VAWTs
do not need to be pointed into the wind,[1] which
removes the need for wind-sensing and orientation
mechanisms. Major drawbacks for the early
designs (Savonius, Darrieus and giromill)
included the significant torque variation or
"ripple" during each revolution, and the large
bending moments on the blades. Later designs
addressed the torque ripple issue by sweeping the
blades helically.
A VAWT tipped sideways, with the axis
perpendicular to the wind streamlines, functions
similarly. A more general term that includes this
option is "transverse axis wind turbine" or "crossflow wind turbine." For example, the original
Darrieus patent, US Patent 1835018, includes both
options.
Drag-type VAWTs such as the Savonius rotor
typically operate at lower tipspeed ratios than liftbased VAWTs such as Darrieus rotors and
cycloturbines.

Advantages of vertical axis

wind turbines
VAWTs offer a number of advantages over
traditional horizontal-axis wind turbines
(HAWTs).

They are omni-directional and do not need

to track the wind. This makes them more
reliable due to their not requiring a
complex mechanism and motors to yaw
the rotor and pitch the blades. In addition,
any claimed inefficiencies are in fact
cancelled out by the VAWT's ability to
take advantage of turbulent and gusty
winds. Such winds are not harvested by
HAWTs, and in fact cause accelerated
fatigue for HAWTs.

The gearbox of a VAWT takes much less

fatigue than that of a HAWT. Should it be
required, replacement is less costly and
simpler, as the gearbox is easily accessible
at ground level. This means that a crane or
other large equipment is not needed at the
site, reducing cost and impact on the
environment. Motor and gearbox failures
generally increase the operational and
maintenance costs of HAWT wind farms
both on and offshore.

VAWTs (4Navitas) can use a screw pile

foundation, allowing a huge reduction in
the carbon cost of an installation as well as
a reduction in road transport of concrete
during installation. They can be fully
recycled at the end of their life.

VAWT wings of the Darrieus type have a

constant chord and so are easier to
manufacture than the blades of a HAWT,
which have a much more complex shape
and structure.

VAWTs can be grouped more closely in

wind farms, increasing the generated
power per unit of land area.

VAWTs can be installed on a wind farm

below the existing HAWTs; this will
improve the efficiency (power output) of
the existing farm.[4]

Research at Caltech has also shown that a

carefully designed wind farm using
VAWTs can have an output power ten
times that of a HAWT wind farm of the
same size.[5]

On most horizontal windturbine farms, a spacing

of about 6-10 times the rotor diameter is often
upheld. However, for large wind farms distances
of about 15 rotor diameters should be more
economically optimal, taking into account typical
wind turbine and land costs. This conclusion has
been reached by research[54] conducted by Charles
Meneveau of the Johns Hopkins University,[55] and
Johan Meyers of Leuven University in Belgium,
based on computer simulations[56] that take into
account the detailed interactions among wind
turbines (wakes) as well as with the entire
turbulent atmospheric boundary layer. Moreover,
recent research by John Dabiri of Caltech suggests
that vertical wind turbines may be placed much
more closely together so long as an alternating
pattern of rotation is created allowing blades of
neighbouring turbines to move in the same
direction as they approach one another.[57]

Disadvantages of vertical axis

wind turbines
One of the major outstanding challenges facing
vertical axis wind turbine technology is dynamic
stall of the blades as the angle of attack varies
rapidly.[6][7]
The blades of a VAWT are fatigue-prone due to
the wide variation in applied forces during each
rotation. This can be overcome by the use of
modern composite materials and improvements in
design - including the use of aerodynamic wing
tips that cause the spreader wing connections to
have a static load. The vertically oriented blades
can twist and bend during each turn, causing them
to break apart.
VAWTs have proven less reliable than HAWTs.[8]
Modern designs of VAWTs have overcome many
of the issues associated with early designs,.[9]

Betz's law
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Small wind turbines

Betz's law indicates the maximum power that can

be extracted from the wind, independent of the
design of a wind turbine in open flow. It was
published in 1919, by the German physicist Albert
Betz.[1] The law is derived from the principles of
conservation of mass and momentum of the air
stream flowing through an idealized "actuator
disk" that extracts energy from the wind stream.
According to Betz's law, no turbine can capture
more than 16/27 (59.3%) of the kinetic energy in
wind. The factor 16/27 (0.593) is known as Betz's
coefficient. Practical utility-scale wind turbines
achieve at peak 75% to 80% of the Betz limit.[2][3]

Small wind turbines may be used for a variety of

applications including on- or off-grid residences,
telecom towers, offshore platforms, rural schools
and clinics, remote monitoring and other purposes
that require energy where there is no electric grid,
or where the grid is unstable. Small wind turbines
may be as small as a fifty-watt generator for boat
or caravan use. Hybrid solar and wind powered
units are increasingly being used for traffic
signage, particularly in rural locations, as they
avoid the need to lay long cables from the nearest
mains connection point.[52] The U.S. Department
of Energy's National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL) defines small wind turbines
as those smaller than or equal to 100 kilowatts.[53]
Small units often have direct drive generators,
direct current output, aeroelastic blades, lifetime
bearings and use a vane to point into the wind.

The Betz limit is based on an open disk actuator.

If a diffuser is used to collect additional wind flow
and direct it through the turbine, more energy can
be extracted, but the limit still applies to the crosssection of the entire structure.

Concepts

Larger, more costly turbines generally have geared

power trains, alternating current output, flaps and
are actively pointed into the wind. Direct drive
generators and aeroelastic blades for large wind
turbines are being researched.

Betz' Law applies to all Newtonian fluids, but this

article will use wind as an example. Consider that
if all of the energy coming from wind movement
through a turbine was extracted as useful energy
the wind speed afterwards would drop to zero. If
the wind stopped moving at the exit of the turbine,
then no more fresh wind could get in - it would be

Wind turbine spacing

7

blocked. In order to keep the wind moving

through the turbine there has to be some wind
movement, however small, on the other side with
a wind speed greater than zero. Betz' law shows
that as air flows through a certain area, and when
it slows from losing energy to extraction from a
turbine, it must spread out to a wider area. As a
result geometry limits any turbine efficiency to
59.3%.

true of the early windmills, especially in the case

of the wind farm located near Altamont Pass in
California. Those turbines spun at high speeds and
were located near a major avian thoroughfare.
Todays high efficiency turbines spin at lower
speeds and use smooth poles to support the
turbine instead of the lattice-style structures used
earlier which actually made nice bird nesting
grounds.

Wind Power: Pros and

Cons

Today, even the Audubon Society supports wind

power, recognizing that global warming causing a
far greater threat to the long term viability of bird
populations than the occasional collision of a bird
with a tower. The number of annual bird fatalities
(around 20,000) is tiny when compared to
transmission lines or cats.

by RP Siegel on Wednesday, Jun 27th, 2012

When we think of wind power, we generally think

of those large, high tech towers with slowly
spinning blades that have sprung up in the past
decade on hilltops in many areas of the country.
But the fact is, wind is one of the oldest sources of
power used by man. Our ancient ancestors used
the wind to propel boats, grind grain and pump
water.

Another controversy that has been brewing

recently is the idea that windmills can cause
global warming. This is another misconception.
Based on a study produced at the State University
of NY (SUNY) at Albany, the ground around the
turbines can warm up at night. This is due to the
mixing, by the turbines, of the cool night air at
ground level with the warmer air above. While the
effect is real, the concern is not, since this
phenomenon does not introduce new heat into the
planets atmosphere, as the carbon dioxide layer
does by trapping heat that would otherwise escape
into space. Rather, this small, localized effect is
simply mixing heat that is already there, with
cooler air below it. If you think of it as a pot of
soup on a stove, the sun provides the heat, the
greenhouse gases form the lid, and the action of
the windmills would be like you stirring the soup,
albeit with a very small spoon. Life on Earth, as
we know it today, evolved at temperatures that
were present before the lid was on.

While all of these applications still exist today,

wind power is now primarily used to generate
electricity at both the large and the small scale.
Our discussion today will focus on large utility
scale installations. In all cases, it is the kinetic
energy, or movement of the air, that provides the
mechanical power to perform the various forms of
work.
According to a recent report posted by the DOEs
National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL),
renewables can contribute 80% of American
electricity by the year 2050. Much of it will be
provided by wind power installations of this type.
Wind power has some obvious advantages: its
clean and renewable and relatively cheap. While
these advantages are largely global in nature (e.g.
reduced greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel
depletion), the disadvantages are primarily local
(e.g. land use, noise and visual pollution). Of
course, the main disadvantage of wind power is
that the wind does not blow consistently or
steadily.

It is true that this mixing of air could impact local

weather in the vicinity of the windmills, but
experts believe that this effect can be reduced with
enhanced turbine blade designs that minimize
mixing and by siting the turbines in areas that are
naturally more turbulent.
Here then are the wind power pros and cons.

Other issues have been raised, which have often

been misconceptions. For example, one criticism
is that windmills kill lots of wild birds. This was

Pros

Clean energy, no fuel to drill, frack, mine,

transport or burn

Renewable and sustainable

Costs are relatively low and continue to

decrease

Abundant domestic supply (16X current

electric demand!)

The power is essentially free once the

infrastructure is paid for.

Low life cycle carbon footprint. Breakeven

in eight months.

Can be used almost anywhere.

have available at the moment. I would consider it

a good long term transitional energy source over
the next fifty to a hundred years.
The other good thing about wind: unlike nuclear
power, or tar sands oil, which will each leave a
long term toxic legacy, when we are finally done
with wind, we can simply take down the towers
and allow nature to grow back in.

Bladeless Wind Turbines May

Offer More Form Than
Function
Startup Vortex Bladeless makes a turbine that
looks intriguing, but it may not solve wind
powers challenges.
by Phil McKenna
May 27, 2015

Cons

As mentioned earlier, the wind is

inconsistent, unsteady and unpredictable

Wind power is not cheap and like many

energy sources, rely on government
subsidies to remain competitive.

Wind farms are generally located in rural

areas that might be otherwise picturesque.
They are considered by some people to be
an eyesore.

Wind power has become a legitimate source of

energy over the past few decades as larger, more
efficient turbine designs have produced everincreasing amounts of power. But even though the
industry saw a record $99.5 billion global
investment in 2014, turbine growth may be
reaching its limits.
Vortex says its bladeless turbines will
generate electricity for 40 percent less than the
cost of power from conventional wind turbines.

Some people complain of noise from the

turbines.

Wildlife impact. Not only birds, but bats

have experienced fatalities.

Localized impact on night-time

temperatures and weather

Transportation is increasingly challenging because

of the size of the components: individual blades
and tower sections often require specialized trucks
and straight, wide roads. Todays wind turbines
are also incredibly top heavy. Generators and
gearboxes sitting on support towers 100 meters off
the ground can weigh more than 100 tons. As the
weight and height of turbines increase, the
materials costs of wider, stronger support towers,
as well as the cost of maintaining components
housed so far from the ground, are cutting into the
efficiency benefits of larger turbines.

At the end of 2011, the US had 46,919MW of

installed wind capacity. This number is expected
to grow rapidly, whether or not production tax
credits (PTC) are renewed. There have been a
number of recent mergers among wind developers
as the industry consolidates.

The alternative energy industry has repeatedly

tried to solve these issues to no avail. But the
latest entry promises a radically different type of
wind turbine: a bladeless cylinder that oscillates or
vibrates.

In summary, wind power, is not a perfect solution,

but it is far better than just about anything else we
9

Spanish startup Vortex Bladeless has developed

turbines that harness vorticity, the spinning motion
of air or other fluids. When wind passes one of the
cylindrical turbines, it shears off the downwind
side of the cylinder in a spinning whirlpool or
vortex. That vortex then exerts force on the
cylinder, causing it to vibrate. The kinetic energy
of the oscillating cylinder is converted to
electricity through a linear generator similar to
those used to harness wave energy.

Yez concedes that the oscillating turbine design

will sweep a smaller area and have a lower
conversion efficiency, but says significant
reductions in manufacturing and maintenance
costs will outweigh the losses.
As Vortex builds bigger devices that catch higherspeed winds further from the ground, it will also
run up against other challenges inherent to the
physics of fluid mechanics. Air or other fluids
moving at low speeds past small-diameter
cylinders flow in a smooth, constant motion.
Increase the diameter of the cylinder and the
speed at which the air flows across it, however,
and the flow becomes turbulent, producing chaotic
eddies or vortices. The turbulent flow causes the
oscillating frequency of the cylinder to vary,
making it difficult to optimize for energy
production.

David Yez, one of the companys cofounders,

first came across the concept as a student studying
the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in
Washington. The bridge collapsed in 1940 due to
excessive vibrations formed by the spinning
motion of wind as it blew past the bridge and is a
textbook engineering failure. Yez, however,
learned a different lesson. This is a very good
way to transmit energy from a fluid to a
structure, he says.

With very thin cylinders and very slow velocities

you get singing telephone lines, an absolutely pure
frequency or tone, says Sheila Widnall, an
aeronautics and astronautics professor at MIT.
But when the cylinder gets very big and wind
gets very high, you get a range of frequencies.
You wont be able to get as much energy out of it
as you want to because the oscillation is
fundamentally turbulent.

Vortexs lightweight cylinder design has no gears

or bearings. Yez says it will generate electricity
for 40 percent less than the cost of power from
conventional wind turbines. The company has
received $1 million in private capital and
government funding in Spain and is seeking
another $5 million in venture capital funding.
Yez says the company plans to release a fourkilowatt system in 2016 and a much larger onemegawatt device around 2018.

Widnall also questions the companys claim that

its turbines will be silent. The oscillating
frequencies that shake the cylinder will make
noise, she says. It will sound like a freight train
coming through your wind farm.

The Vortex turbine sounds promising, but like any

radical new alternative energy design, bladeless
turbines have plenty of skeptics.

Oscillating cylinders are just one of several

emerging technologies aimed at harvesting more
of the wind for less. Makani Power is developing
a tethered energy kite (see Flying Windmills).
It flies in a large circle similar to the tip of a
conventional turbine blade while harnessing wind
power via smaller onboard turbines. Astro Teller,
head of Google X, Googles semi-secret research
facility that acquired Makani in 2013, said in
March that the company would soon begin tests of
a full-scale, 600-kilowatt kite.

If you have a common propeller-type wind

turbine, you have a big area swept by the blades,
says Martin Hansen, a wind energy specialist at
the Technical University of Denmark. Here you
just have a pole.
In addition to capturing less energy, oscillating
cylinders cant convert as much of that energy into
electricity, Hansen says. A conventional wind
turbine typically converts 80 to 90 percent of the
kinetic energy of its spinning rotor into electricity.
Yez says his companys custom-built linear
generator will have a conversion efficiency of 70
percent.

John Dabiri, an aeronautics and bioengineering

professor at Caltech, is testing different
configurations of vertical axis turbines, which are
essentially windmills that spin like a merry-goround rather than on a horizontal axis like a
10

bicycle wheel. Typically wind turbines are placed

far apart from each other to optimize energy
production. Drawing on the same principles that
fish use to conserve energy by schooling, Dabiri
found that turbines placed close to each other
could produce more energy than those that are far
apart.

with that view. A Spanish company called Vortex

Bladeless is proposing a radical new way to
generate wind energy that will once again upend
what you see outside your car window.
Their idea is the Vortex, a bladeless wind turbine
that looks like a giant rolled joint shooting into the
sky. The Vortex has the same goals as
conventional wind turbines: To turn breezes into
kinetic energy that can be used as electricity. But
it goes about it in an entirely different way.

You can cordinate the operation of multiple

wind turbines such that the whole is greater than
the sum of its parts, he says.
Dabiri says such synergistic effects could also
apply to conventional, horizontal axis windmills
or even oscillating turbines. The latter pose a
greater challenge because the wake of such
turbines is very chaotic but also a potential benefit
because the wake packs a lot of energy, he says.

Instead of capturing energy via the circular motion

of a propeller, the Vortex takes advantage of
whats known as vorticity, an aerodynamic effect
that produces a pattern of spinning vortices.
Vorticity has long been considered the enemy of
architects and engineers, who actively try to
design their way around these whirlpools of wind.
And for good reason: With enough wind, vorticity
can lead to an oscillating motion in structures,
which, in some cases, like the Tacoma Narrows
Bridge, can cause their eventual collapse.

Much remains to be seen with Vortexs oscillating

turbine, Dabiri says, but he adds that he is excited
by the companys concept. Anyone who says the
three-bladed turbine is the best we can do is
lacking in vision.

Where designers see danger, Vortex Bladelesss

foundersDavid Suriol, David Yez, and Raul
Martnsees opportunity. We said, Why dont
we try to use this energy, not avoid it, Suriol
says. The team started Vortex Bladeless in 2010 as
a way to turn this vibrating energy into something
productive. They just launched a crowdfunding
campaign to raise awareness of the technology.

Liz Stinson Design

Date of Publication: 05.15.15. 05.15.15
Time of Publication: 2:58 pm. 2:58 pm

The Future of Wind

Turbines? No Blades

The Vortexs shape was developed

computationally to ensure the
spinning wind (vortices) occurs synchronously
along the entirety of the mast. The swirls have to
work together to achieve good performance,
Villarreal explains. In its current prototype, the
elongated cone is made from a composite of
fiberglass and carbon fiber, which allows the mast
to vibrate as much as possible (an increase in mass
reduces natural frequency). At the base of the cone
are two rings of repelling magnets, which act as a
sort of nonelectrical motor. When the cone
oscillates one way, the repelling magnets pull it in
the other direction, like a slight nudge to boost the
masts movement regardless of wind speed. This
kinetic energy is then converted into electricity via
an alternator that multiplies the frequency of the
masts oscillation to improve the energy-gathering
efficiency.

Its no longer surprising to encounter 100-foot

pinwheels spinning in the breeze as you drive
down the highway. But dont get too comfortable
11

Its makers boast the fact that there are no gears,

bolts, or mechanically moving parts, which they
say makes the Vortex cheaper to manufacture and
maintain. The founders claim their Vortex Mini,
which stands at around 41 feet tall, can capture up
to 40 percent of the winds power during ideal
conditions (this is when the wind is blowing at
around 26 miles per hour). Based on field testing,
the Mini ultimately captures 30 percent less than
conventional wind turbines, but that shortcoming
is compensated by the fact that you can put double
the Vortex turbines into the same space as a
propeller turbine.

Can bladeless wind

turbines mute
opposition?
Dominic Bates
Monday 1 June 2015 12.56 BST

A more efficient and less intrusive wind turbine

design has been welcomed by two of the UK
industrys biggest critics and government
regulators

The Vortex team says there are some clear

advantages to their model: Its less expensive to
manufacture, totally silent, and safer for birds
since there are no blades to fly into. Vortex
Bladeless says its turbine would cost around 51
percent less than a traditional turbine whose major
costs come from the blades and support
system. Plus, Suriol says, its pretty cool-looking.
It looks like asparagus, he says. Its much more
natural.

A new bladeless wind turbine that promises to be

more efficient, less visually intrusive, and safer
for birdlife than conventional turbines has been
welcomed by two of the UK wind energy
industrys most vocal critics.
The RSPB and the Campaign to Protect Rural
England (CPRE), which have both expressed
concerns over the impacts of industrial-scale
windfarms on the landscape and wildlife, said the
new turbine was encouraging news for birds and
had the potential to open up more urban
environments to the sector.

The company has already raised $1 million from

private capital and government funding in Spain,
and they have plans to close a round in the United
States soon. Theres enough interest, Suriol says,
that he fields upward of 200 emails a day from
people inquiring about the turbine. Of course, the
technology still has a ways to go. Theyre hoping
to have their first product, a 9-foot, 100watt turbine that will be used in developing
countries, ready before the end of the year. The
Mini, its 41-foot counterpart, will be ready in a
year.

The streamlined design contains no contacting

moving parts, making it virtually noiseless and
less prone to vibration. Vortex Bladeless, the
turbines Spanish developers, hopes these
advantages could finally help usher in a viable
consumer wind power market.

For the time being, youll continue seeing

pinwheels dotting the landscape, which Suriol is
actually happy about. We cant say anything bad
about conventional wind turbines; theyre great
machines, he says. Were just proposing a new
way, a different way.

Wind turbines now are too noisy for peoples

backyard, says David Suriol, who co-founded the
company with Raul Martin and the turbines
inventor, David Yez. We want to bring wind
power generation to peoples houses like solar
power.

1. Correction 10:50 am EST 05/18/15 This story

originally misstated Raul Martns name. We
regret the error.

Big improvements
Using the scientific principles of natural
frequency and vorticity, the turbine oscillates in
swirling air caused by the wind bypassing the
mast, and then builds exponentially as it reaches
12

the structures natural resonance. Its a powerful

effect that famously caused the collapse of the
Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940, footage of
which inspired Yez to try to build a structure to
harness this energy rather than prevent it.

Support from wind farm

opponents
You can put four, five or six 4kW turbines in the
space of one conventional turbine, which need 5
metre diameter space around them, he says. In
fact, wind tunnel tests have shown they perform
even better placed closer together as they benefit
from the vortices each of them creates.

The best wind turbine will collect around 50% of

energy from the wind, says Suriol. We are close
to 40% with bladeless turbines in our wind tunnel
laboratory.
The turbine floats on magnets, which as well as
significantly amplifying the oscillation, also
eliminates any friction and the need for expensive
lubricating oils or mechanical parts. So even if
newer conventional turbines are promising greater
and greater power generation, Vortex Bladeless
claims that the efficiency of their design will
always make it cheaper at whatever scale.

But of most interest to conservationists is the

elimination of standard wind turbine issues of
noise disturbance, shadow flicker and bird strike,
and the new design is arguably less visually
intrusive.
Any development in the countryside needs
proper scrutiny to ensure it doesnt damage the
environment in any way, but if [this] technology
helps lower greenhouse gas emissions and doesnt
cause harm to birds, then fantastic, says Grahame
Madge, senior media officer at the RSPB.

We are using less parts so manufacturing costs

will be 53% less, and the operational costs
including maintenance, land rental and
administration will be 51% cheaper, predicts
Suriol for a planned 150-metre tall, one-megawatt
bladeless turbine, compared to current onshore
windfarms most common three-bladed turbines.
We estimate that it will be 40% less expensive
than conventional wind turbines per megawatt of
generation.

Nick Clack, senior energy campaigner at CPRE,

agrees. If the claims can be verified about the
impacts of this new bladeless wind turbine on
carbon, the surrounding area, and cost then it
could play a really useful part in our energy mix,
he says, adding that any proposed project would
still need to be properly scrutinised to reduce
impact on the landscape as much as possible.

This industrial-sized turbine is at least four years

away from reality, Suriol confesses, but within 18
months he hopes to sell a three-metre-high
version, generating 100W, paired with a 125W
solar panel and small battery. This, he says, could
be offered as a really cheap system for people
living off-grid in Africa and India, supplying
enough electricity for three lights, a TV and a
refrigerator.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change,

whose new minister Amber Rudd recently pledged
to remove subsidies for large onshore windfarms
and delegate future planning decisions on them to
local councils in consultation with residents,
couldnt say whether the new bladeless turbines
would be exempt from such measures. But the
government quango responsible for approving
English windfarm developments, Natural
England, said, We could only comment on the
potential landscape impact of these designs once
we see where and how they would operate in any
given location. However, by avoiding the use of
blades, this design clearly has the potential to
reduce the impact on birds.

A 13-metre, 4kW turbine for domestic use is

planned within a similar timeframe, which would
fall foul of current residential planning permission
rules in England that stipulate free-standing
turbines can be no higher than 11.1 metres high.
Even if these issues couldnt be surmounted,
Suriol argues that the 13-metre turbines could be
used en masse as viable alternatives to current
windfarms.

With the support, among others, of Harvard

University, advisers from US solar power giant
SunEdison, and international design consultancy
IDEO, Vortex Bladeless hopes to raise more
13

money from venture capitalists to develop its

turbines further before approaching any major
energy companies to roll out for commercial
generation.

tiny wind turbine, it wont scale to

anything useful economically.
3. The claims that they make in the video of
50% cheaper to build are based on a small
prototype with no experience in
manufacturing. Similar claims are made by
every wind innovator, but its never proven
true before. Serious skepticism is required.

Lots of people from around the world are

supporting us, which is amazing, so we just have
to work hard to do what we have to do, says
Suriol.

4. The founders have no prior experience of

any sort with wind or electrical generation
or fluid dynamics for that matter. They
made artificial noses and small electronic
stuff in a couple of R&D ventures. Red
flag.

Bladeless Wind
Turbine Reality
Check

5. Many are reporting that these devices

could be put in narrow spaces next to
buildings with zero apparent
comprehension that this would eliminate
winds that would usefully power them.

May 21st, 2015 by Guest Contributor

The Vortex Bladeless wind turbine recently

covered here on CleanTechnica and many other
sites is, unfortunately, yet another example of an
impractical, uncompetitive wind turbine that is
getting too much hype for its extremely weak
results and potential.

6. The mechanical resonance mechanism that

theyve designed to maintain oscillation
depends on relatively stable winds, but
their target market is for turbulent small
turbine areas. Uh oh.

The Vortex Bladeless wind turbine has

essentially the same problems that all micro-wind
turbines have. Wind non-experts dont seem to
understand these well enough to avoid big
mistakes in their coverage. So Ill run down 8 key
problems.

7. Some are suggesting that this will be

relatively noiseless, but oscillating poles
creak. In fact, the tonality of creaking
is more piercing than the blade pass
frequency swoosh of turbines. The Vortex
Bladeless material doesnt even say
anything about noise wisely.

1. Its tiny, and potential energy from the

wind comes from swept area.
2. It doesnt move through a swept area as
wind turbine blades do with limited
materials, so scaling to intercept more
wind is a virtually linear progression of
materials to swept area, unlike HAWTs.
This means it has fundamental limits to
scale, and while it might possibly beat a

8. Oh, look, prior art. The Windstalk

concept which went nowhere
claimed to do the same thing with
piezoelectrics.

14

15

16

I came across an article on the internet just the

other day that basically was saying that we should
stop building wind turbines. Heres an extract:
Although I have been professionally concerned by
the delusions surrounding wind power for some
years, I have recently become personally
involved. I am chairman of a group that opposes
the plan for the first giant turbine to surmount the
1,000-foot-high escarpment of the Mendip Hills in
Somerset And theres more: We were therefore
delighted last week to win the support of the
doughtiest anti-wind campaigner of all, the
veteran conservationist Prof David Bellamy And
more:The statistics demonstrating the futility of
wind power are now overwhelming.

Why are wind turbines so

controversial?

What I was left wondering is why are

environmentalists all for wind turbines and
conservationists dead against them?...So I wrote
this article
"Wind turbines" one of the most controversial
environmental subjects around today on the one
hand we have environmentalists saying that we
desperately need to build as many wind turbines
as possible to make clean energy. On the other
hand we have conservationists saying stop ruining
the countryside building turbines that won''t solve
any of our global warming problems anyway. Are
you confused? (I am) I thought that
environmentalists and conservationists were
basically the same thing. People who want to look
after the planet.
So why can''t environmentalists and
conservationists agree about wind turbines?
This is very confusing to me because both groups
are supposed to have the same interests at heart. If
these two groups continue to argue about wind
power it only serves to undermine the efforts of
both parties and divert attention away from the
real issue which is GLOBAL WARMING and
what do we do about it?
The environmentalists point of view
The wind spins a wind turbine to make electricity
instead of burning fossil fuels, great lets have one.
I think anyone can see the benefit, How can there
be a problem?

17

The uk has 40% of the wind potential that

the whole of Europe has (by gum it''s
windy)

Wind power is the most cost effective

source of renewable energy

We need 20% of our electricity to be

produced from renewable sources (should
be doable)

the time for talking, arguing and debating is past

it''s time to DO something. The only solution I can
offer is if you don''t want wind turbines stop using
electricity if you could get a pressure group
together that would make everyone use 20% less
electricity then maybe we could build less
turbines.

Wind power
controversy

20% of our electricity to be produced from

renewable sources? it should be more like
50% this is no impossible goal lets just do
it!

Author: May, Murray

Wind power often appears in environmental

images as one of the iconic clean sources of
electricity that will reduce our dependence on
fossil fuels, as for example, in the Federal
governments advertising program on the carbon
tax. In Lester Browns 2011 book World on the
Edge, he tracks the rapid development of wind
power on a global scale as part of the shift to
renewable electricity generation. Between 2000
and 2010 according to the Global Wind Energy
Council, world wind electric generating capacity
increased at a frenetic pace from 17,000
megawatts to nearly 200,000 megawatts.

The conservationists point of view

Hold on a minute, these things look horrible and
to make enough electricity we would need to build
thousands of them. there has to be another option
that won''t permanently scar the countryside.

They look horrible!

Some are 400 feet tall (they look horrible)

They want to put them in areas of

outstanding natural beauty (they look
horrible)

Wind power also seems to have an ability to

generate considerable conflict. On both energy
grounds and with respect to threats to countryside,
James Lovelock (2009, p. 81) states that
Europes massive use of wind as a supplement to
base load electricity will probably be remembered
as one of the great follies of the twenty-first
century an example of impressive engineering
misused by ideology and as inappropriate as
passenger transport by hydrogen-filled airships.
Likewise Prince Charles is given as one of a
number of exemplary environmental sustainability
leaders in a recent book on this topic (Parkin,
2010). Yet on the question of wind farms, his
position has consistently been that they are a
horrendous blot on the landscape and if they
have to be built at all, it should be well out at sea.

Put them somewhere else like out to sea

(because they look horrible)

Ah I think I can see the problem we need wind

turbines but they don''t look very nice.
Environmentalists think about the whole earth in
general terms and how humans can live in a
sustainable way on it. Conservationists on the
other hand look at nature in detail studying plants,
organisms and animal habitats they are in fact so
close to nature shoving their heads in the sand is
totally natural.
My conclusions
Everyone will sooner or later have to do
something about global warming the fact is that
we are not likely to meet our commitment to
reducing greenhouse gasses and this means that
global warming will happen, natural habitats will
be destroyed and the world will become warmer.

Rising concerns about the adverse health effects

of wind farms were aired in an ABC Four Corners
program (Against the wind, 25 July 2011), and
also explored by a Senate committee, with its final
report in June 2011. The committee report states
that it received many accounts of adverse health
effects in submissions and during its hearings. A
18

significant number of submissions gave actual

accounts of serious symptoms of ill health that
witnesses said occurred after wind turbines began
operating in close proximity to their residences
(Senate Community Affairs References
Committee, 2011, p. 7).

Diesendorf, Deputy Director of the Institute of

Environmental Studies, University of New South
Wales: Noise is rarely a problem beyond a
distance of 500m and very few dwellings in
Australia are within 400m of a large wind turbine.
Licence conditions for wind farms should, and
mostly do, set objective, measurable noise limits.
Similarly, a National Health and Medical
Research Council (NHMRC) Rapid Review of the
evidence in July 2010 acknowledged that while a
range of effects such as annoyance, anxiety,
hearing loss, and interference with sleep, speech
and learning have been reported anecdotally, there
is no published scientific evidence to support
adverse effects of wind turbines on health.

Ruth Corrigan lives near the Capital Wind Farm

near Bungendore, energy from which is being
used for Sydney Waters new desalination plant.
Her account (submission no. 622) to the Senate
committee is typical of the commonly reported
diminished quality of life after wind farms begin
operation: To the northwest of our home there
are 17 turbines ranging from about 2 to 4 kms
from us, to the south there are another 10 or so
When the wind blows from the NE the noise from
the turbines can be heard inside and outside the
house, constant and relentless, over the sound of
wind in the trees. It is particularly loud at night
when the constant sound is often accompanied by
a whoomp or pulse, which can be felt as well as
heard. We are often startled awake sometimes as
many as 4-5 times a night with the noise sounding
as though a truck is coming in, sleep loss of up to
3 hours a night is not uncommon.

However, there are good grounds for questioning

the above. An NHMRC Scientific Forum on Wind
Farms and Human Health held in June 2011 (a
year after its Rapid Review) had four
presentations from those regarded as experts in the
area. Of significance is the wide divergence in the
assessments presented. Those challenging the
wind industry position included Dr Bob Thorne,
whose expertise is in noise assessment and
monitoring. In contrast to the wind industry
position that there are no adverse impacts on
people from wind farms, Dr Thorne stated that
there is already peer-reviewed research on the
deleterious effects of wind farm noise on people.
Complaint histories to regulatory authorities are
another form of evidence. For example, in the
period April 2009 to March 2010, 906 complaints
were made to Wellington City Council, New
Zealand concerning the noise from the wind farm
at Makara. The Te Rere Hau wind farm in New
Zealand recorded 378 complaints over an 11month period, and is the subject of a legal review
of its compliance (Thorne, 2011).

Since the existing turbines began operating in mid

2009 I have suffered frequent nosebleeds,
sometimes on a daily basis, and headaches as well
as a feeling of fuzziness in the head and almost
constant tiredness.
Another example comes from a resident of the
West Wind wind farm in Makara, New Zealand
(Thorne, 2011, p. 282): We get the lowfrequency thump/whump inside the house, is very
similar to a truck driving past or boy racers sub
woofer 100 meters away we have no line of
sight turbines and the closest one in 1.35 km
away. There are however 27 turbines within 2.5
km. The sound is extremely penetrating and
while we have a new house with insulation and
double glazing, the low frequency modulation is
still very evident in the dead of night.

Another presentation was from Professor Mariana

Alves-Pereira from Lisbon, Portugal. Her team
has been systematically studying the effects of
infrasound and low frequency noise (<500 Hz) in
both human and animal models since 1980, and
more recently in relation to wind turbines. She
makes the point that the dBA scale commonly
used to measure audible noise de-emphasizes all
acoustical phenomena below 500 Hz, and ignores
infrasound. Her research work to date suggests
that in-home infrasound and low frequency noise
generated by wind turbines can lead to severe
health problems.

The contrasting position from the wind industry

and its advocates (including many people
supporting renewable energy) is that there isnt an
issue concerning noise and vibration. The parallel
with a sound akin to that of a refrigerator is made,
for example. Consider the comments to the Senate
committee (submission no. 204) from Dr Mark
19

The peer-reviewed journal the Bulletin of Science,

Technology & Society of August 2011 is devoted
to the issue of wind turbines and health, with
papers from medical and other professionals such
as those in the noise measurement and assessment
field. Robert McMurtry (2011), a former Dean of
Medicine at the University of Western Ontario,
puts forward a scheme for the diagnosis of
adverse health effects in the environs of industrial
wind turbines, in order to facilitate future research
efforts. He reports that there was multidisciplinary
confirmation of the key characteristics of the
adverse health effects in the environs of industrial
wind turbines at the first international symposium
on this issue held in Ontario in October 2010.

real-time monitoring of wind farms is required to

check for compliance. Further, the complex
character of wind turbine noise means that
compliance measures based on a specified noise
number alone (e.g. a dBA level) will fail to
address the noise issues.
It is apparent that the wind turbine issue has
become very polarized with widely varying
positions being adopted. Where noise problems
are acknowledged, some academics such as
Professors Simon Chapman at the University of
Sydney and Keith Petrie at the University of
Auckland subscribe to the mass hysteria ideas
promoted by controversial British psychiatrist
Simon Wessely. Such assessments primarily
implicate peoples fears and anxieties about new
technologies to explain noise complaints and
sleeping difficulties that appear in conjunction
with wind farm developments. [I am not
persuaded by such arguments, given the
seriousness of some of the adverse health effects
observed. In addition, some people are obliged for
health reasons to move away from their
properties]. At the other pole are people such as
the US paediatrician Nina Pierpont (2009), whose
proposed pathophysiology posits direct
disturbance to the bodys balance system, with
low frequency noise or vibration stimulating the
organs of the inner ear, and visual stimulation
from moving shadows also acting in a discordant
fashion. On the latter, residents complaints
sometimes extend beyond the noise and vibration
issues, to visual factors such as blade glint and
flicker, and the red glow from warning lights on
the top of each tower (essentially light pollution).

The adverse effects include issues such as

continuing sleep disruption, fatigue, annoyance
producing increased levels of stress and/or
psychological distress, headaches, tinnitus,
earache, difficulties with balance, cognitive
impairments, hypertension, palpitations, nausea,
and compromised quality of life. In addition, there
is a striking similarity internationally in the
pattern of complaints, with a predictable pattern of
symptoms with exposure to wind turbines, and
amelioration when the exposure ceases.
Additionally, there is a revealed preference for
victims to seek restoration away from their homes.
With respect to the number of people affected,
John Harrison (2011) (Emeritus Professor in
Physics, Queens University, Ontario, Canada)
states that wind turbines cause annoyance in about
20% of residents living within a distance currently
considered acceptable by regulatory authorities,
and that for many of this 20%, the annoyance and
sleep disturbance leads on to adverse health
effects. In addition, anecdotal evidence and field
studies suggest that turbine noise has a character
that makes it far more annoying and stressful than
other sources of noise at the same A-weighted
sound level. The characteristics of wind turbine
noise are linked in part it is believed to the
amplitude modulation associated with the blade
passage past the tower. A pulsing infrasound
and low frequency pattern able to be transmitted
for longer distances enhances annoyance, and is
readily able to penetrate walls and resonate inside
rooms. Because wind farms are unique sound
sources, and the sound propagation varies
significantly under differing wind and weather
conditions, Thorne (2011) suggests that full-time

Many unanswered questions arise, and much

research remains to be done. The Senate report
(2011) recommends as a matter of priority
adequately resourced epidemiological studies on
the possible impacts of wind farms on human
health. In addition, the committee recommends
the development of separation criteria between
residences and wind farms. Various health
authorities have recommended setback distances
in the range of 1.5 to 2 kilometres. McMurtrys
(2011) schema for adverse health effects includes
domicile within 5 km of industrial wind turbines
as a criterion. Until the necessary studies are done,
the Waubra Foundation in Australia recommends a
precautionary approach of 10 km. Thorne (2011)
20

suggests that further detailed research is needed to

establish setback distances.

the coming decade are placed too close to homes,

the industry will be faced with an echoing chorus
of complaints and resistance for years to come,
even if it manages to invent much quieter
machines. Better to be conservative, accepting the
fact that even occasional atmospheric effects
should be factored in to siting decisions today, so
as to build a reservoir of good will, rather than a
rising tide of complaints.

Offshore wind farms are potentially one way of

avoiding the noise issues linked to onshore wind
turbines, but even here noise can be a problem, as
sound propagates readily over water. Using an
example with 64 offshore wind turbines, Harrison
(2011) finds that for the worst case scenario the
setback of the wind farm needs to be 20 km
offshore. Denmark is looking to push the wind
share of its electricity to 50% by 2025, with most
of the additional power coming from offshore.

Nature and Society, October-November 2011, pp.

10-13
References
Harrison, J. P. (2011). Wind turbine noise. Bulletin of
Science, Technology & Society, 31(4), 256-261.
Lovelock, J. (2009). The vanishing face of Gaia: A final
warning. Melbourne: Allen Lane.
McMurtry, R. Y. (2011). Toward a case definition of adverse
health effects in the environs of industrial wind turbines:
Facilitating a clinical diagnosis. Bulletin of Science,
Technology & Society, 31(4), 316-320.
Parkin, S. (2010). The positive deviant: Sustainability
leadership in a perverse world. London: Earthscan.
Pierpont, N. (2009). Wind turbine syndrome. Santa Fe, NM:
K-Selected Books.
Senate Community Affairs References Committee. (2011).
The social and economic impact of rural wind farms.
Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.
Thorne, B. (2011). The problems with noise numbers for
wind farm noise assessment. Bulletin of Science,
Technology & Society, 31(4), 262-290.

Over a thousand submissions were made to the

Australian Senate inquiry (Senate Community
Affairs References Committee, 2011, p. 67), with
535 being prowind farm, 468 being antiwind
farm, and 14 being neutral. It should be noted that
those who are initially pro-wind farm can later
switch to being antiwind farm, after the wind
farm is installed. According to the Acoustic
Ecology Institute in the USA, many people living
near wind farms report that noise from large wind
turbines is much more disruptive than they had
been led to believe by project planners.
The need for a pragmatic approach to conflict
management is perhaps best summarised in the
following comment from the same institute: If
the thousands of wind farms likely to be built in

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