September 10, 2010
England, Letters

Shock at turbine noise

www.thisissomerset.co.uk 9 September 2010

Firstly, I must stress we are not against renewable energy at all and are keen proponents of tidal and wave power.

We care very much about our environment. We are a group of ordinary people who live within the Huntspill area and enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the village and surrounding countryside.

This will be completely destroyed by the imposition of huge industrial wind turbines proposed for the area.

A monstrous industrial development in an otherwise rural location will be totally out of character with the area within which it is proposed.

How anyone could contemplate that building 14 enormous industrial machines less than 800 metres from many people’s homes without having an impact on their quality of life is quite inconceivable.

On September 2, Ecotricity, who propose five 400ft industrial wind turbines for the West Huntspill area, organised a trip to visit their single turbine at Shooters Bottom on the Mendips. This turbine is in fact 66ft shorter than those proposed for the Huntspills.

My first impression on approaching the Shooters Bottom site was the absence of houses within the immediate area. Quite unlike the sites proposed for The Huntspills, which are surrounded by five villages with many properties in close proximity to the Turbines.

As I got off the minibus, I was horrified by the amount of noise the turbine was making. There was a high-pitched buzzing noise, which we were told was coming from the generator, and also a loud whooshing noise which was made as the turbine blades passed the stem. The amount of noise both surprised and alarmed me, as we had been told that turbines generate very little noise. It was far noisier than any of us had imagined. As we moved some distance down the field, the noise intensified.

I might add we were upwind of the turbine and it was a relatively still day. We were told the turbine was running at 5.5 metres per second. The noise was like an aircraft continually taking off. In fact, a couple of times during the visit I found myself looking up into the sky for a plane.

Imagine the accumulative effect of the nine turbines proposed for the Huntspills by EDF Energy and a further five by Ecotricity.

I find it totally unacceptable these power companies are even considering siting industrial-sized wind turbines so close to people’s homes.

I came away from the visit with the impression that our lives and quality of life are of little importance to the energy companies behind the proposals. This is all about money. The fact that we will lose our residential amenity, we will no longer be able to get the same amount of enjoyment from our homes, gardens and the beautiful area within which we live appeared to be of little consequence.

Julie Trott West Huntspill www.huntspillwindfarms.org.uk


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/09/10/shock-at-turbine-noise/