Editor’s note: This commentary is by Dennis Hendy, who is retired and lives in Fairfield on Fairfield Pond, near the site of the proposed Swanton Wind project, to which he is opposed.
[T]here seems to be a lot of naiveté on the part of those advocating for industrial wind in Vermont.
Firstly, the eastern part of the U.S. has poor onshore wind resources. The areas with the best wind resources in this country are the Midwest and the mountain areas to the west. That is why Texas is often used as a shining example. Vermont is not Texas. To confirm this, simply look at a map of the wind regions of the U.S.
Because of the increase in wind turbine size to capture the light winds, rotational rates (revolutions per minute) and blade pass frequencies have dropped into the range of motion sickness identified in the International Organization for Standardization’s article ISO 9996:2000, as occurring at 0.1 to 1 herz (Hz) and observed in naval research on motion sickness. Naval studies identified acceleration oscillations in the range of 0.1 to 1 Hz as associated with motion sickness, with sickness strongest at about 0.2 Hz.
The association of acoustic oscillations to motion sickness was documented in studies of large wind turbine noise emissions by Paul Schomer. These sound levels are very low (infrasound) and are not even measured for consideration in the siting of industrial wind turbines. The trend has been larger turbines in closer proximity to people. Swanton Wind exemplifies this with the largest proposed turbines (499 feet) located the closest to homes (1,877 total) in the state of Vermont. This is why setbacks are so important.
Wind energy is very inefficient and requires large areas of land to counter these inadequacies.
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Secondly, these large turbines do not simply start spinning on their own when the wind begins to blow. Electric motors are used to jump-start them. That is why at times you will see a few turbines turning while the others are not. In light winds, they can be constantly searching for enough wind to start spinning on their own and not generating any power — in fact, they are using power. And in gusty winds they are constantly feathering the blades to spill the strong gusts to prevent damage. In general, large industrial wind turbines, 2 megawatt (MW) for example, need 7 mph winds to begin generation, 11 mph winds for 50 percent output and more than 17 mph for 100 perfect output. So, the number of houses they claim to supply can be reduced by two-thirds.
Thirdly, it cannot automatically be assumed that every proposed industrial wind project is sited in an appropriate location. The eastern U.S. is densely populated and industrial wind turbines are not compatible with people. So randomly locating industrial wind projects with regard only to the accessibility of three-phase transmission lines is not a well thought out renewable energy plan. The pace at which these projects are proposed will only quicken as subsidies and production tax credits, which make them feasible, are set in 2019.
Fourthly, because of the poor wind resources here in the East, these industrial wind turbines are inefficient. What they produce for power is held secret by the wind industry, claiming “competitive business information,” so they are obviously not proud of these production numbers. This was revealed by Amazon at its Elizabeth City, North Carolina, location where, along with Avangrid /Iberdrola they have erected 104 2-MW turbines at 492 feet tall over an area of 22,000 acres. Amazon claims the power from these turbines powers their data centers near Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia. The intermittent energy from this wind generation facility can’t supply the actual demand of the data centers and is not used there. Richmond, Virginia-based Dominion Power provides retail electricity to Amazon’s data centers in Virginia. They say that power in 2015 consisted of 30 percent nuclear, 26 percent coal and 23 percent natural gas energy. Renewables — including solar, wind and hydro — constituted 3 percent, and these data centers will continue to operate in the future with the same mix of fuel types that power other Dominion customers.
According to Dominion, onshore wind provides only 13 percent of its nameplate capacity as “firm capacity,” which is available for use on the regional electric grid. This large industrial wind turbine project is just a marketing effort by Amazon to distinguish themselves from their competition, Microsoft and Google. This is all a marketing ploy using a massive wind project for which Amazon won’t even disclose the production numbers to the government, which provided the subsidies for the project, claiming they are “protecting trade practices and secrets.”
Wind energy is very inefficient and requires large areas of land to counter these inadequacies. What Bill McKibben and his fellow professor friend Mark Jacobson have proposed for wind turbine capacity to supply the United States would require 33 times the land area of the state of Vermont. So, what’s the plan? Start with Vermont and use it as a template.