I am writing this letter after attending the public comment portion of the Deerfield Windmill Project slated for Searsburg and Readsboro.
I first became interested in windmills when they were placed in Searsburg years ago. At the time I thought they were a great idea to help assist cleaner ways to produce electricity at a reasonable cost, while still being green.
After several years of watching their output, and their actual cost per kilowatt-hour, it became all too apparent that windmills in this area would represent a negligible blip on the radar screen for the demand to produce environmentally friendly electricity. Years later technology has improved, but the need to go higher calls for towers double the size. Total height being at 200 feet, now exceeds 400 feet.
Windmills represent a huge visual blight to Vermont mountains or any other range that plans on putting up windmill farms. With this said here are a few concerns about expanding windmills in Southern Vermont:
1. Windmills will upset the wildlife and the natural environment that has not been significantly altered for thousands of years.
2. Windmills represent an eyesore disrupting the number one resource Vermont has – beautiful pristine mountains.
3. Windmills will alter our rural country night sky with blinking strobe lights to warn airplanes.
4. Windmills take away people’s ability to use the wilderness where they have been erected.
5. Windmills require roads to be cut along the mountainside, which continually wash out, contaminating streams and disrupting the natural environment around them.
6. Windmills kill many birds, bats and force other animals to take circuitous routes to avoid the structures.
7. Windmills create constant noise for the people who live nearby.
8. Windmills’ economic return is not as good as many other alternative solutions such as increasing the number of hydropower plants.
9. Countries that have been leaders using windmills, such as Great Britain, have put a moratorium on any more construction of windmills, because of inefficiency and the visual blight they are creating.
10. Owning property near windmill farms can possibly cause a reduction in your property value.
11. River generators and ocean wave generators are proving to be more cost effective, with the lowest kilowatt price to date 1.2 cents versus 2.4 cents and higher. These generators along with highflying altitude windmills allow for non-stop production of electricity without being disrupted for a fraction of the cost to install or operate.
This is just a short list why the people of Southern Vermont should vigorously resist the installation of ineffective, unsightly windmills. These structures will alter our view, and what we must live with for years to come. Please take the time to investigate any of the claims made above to help you better understand the truth.
DAVE SALDO
Stamford
15 October 2007
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/10/16/the-many-negatives-of-wind-turbines/