Additional to the basic flaws in UK wind energy's economics and climate change case other damage, distress and injustice caused by on-shore turbines should be considered. Most important, in my view, is the real and justified distress of those adversely affected by proximity to one or more threatened or operating turbines. Here's why:
Turbines, usually on high ground, in full view and often moving, dominate any neighbourhood. Imagine one or more turbines between 250 and 410ft high (77-125 meters) perhaps as close as 300m to your own home. There are no enforceable minimum separation distances between turbines and homes, hospitals, schools or holiday accommodation.
One such turbine, let alone a multiple farm, indisputably spoils nearby landscape for inhabitants or visitors. Heritage or special landscape status may offer protection, but much countryside is already ruined or at risk.
There is clear evidence from worldwide studies going back to NASA in the 1980s by independent, well qualified acoustic and medical specialists and countless personal complaints, that audible and inaudible soundwaves, especially low frequency and infrasound, emitted by turbines cause physical and psychological harm. Symptoms, including various adverse effects on brain function, depend on the power, number, design and proximity of turbines, wind activity, local topography and personal susceptibility. No governmental authority in the world can show it has commissioned, let alone published and acted upon, the required independent epidemiological research, but they have ignored, denied, suppressed or misrepresented the evidence. The highly criticised out-of-date ETSU noise impact assessment measures, which exclude low frequency sound and all sound effects inside buildings and are often misapplied, plus a planning regime that has no place for precautionary separation distances, cannot claim to be adequate protection.
Property blight, to the point of unsaleability, and devaluation are major established problems. Estate agents, often acting for turbine developers or landowners, are reticent about publishing the facts. Nevertheless there are many written and countless oral reports of this problem. Those suffering from wind turbines face unacknowledged difficulties. Nationally published surveys showing wide public support for turbines use the total population, including the majority living in towns and cities who will never be directly and constantly exposed to them and have no experience of the threat or actuality of one or more in close proximity. Local opinion in badly affected areas may be 90%+ against a development. Anyone taking a position on renewable energy, wind in particular, should recognise its two driving forces are massive, guaranteed profits and international governmental agreements about the need to reduce emissions.