Wind Power in Japan in Trouble – Part Two
Apparently, Japan now has about 1,500 wind farms generating around 1.86GW of electricity (FY2008). The installed base is expanding at a rapid clip, up 1,300% in terms of energy produced in the last eight years, and production is likely to grow another 20% (my estimate) next year. The largest operator, with about 20% of the nation’s wind power capacity is Eurus, which is a joint venture between TEPCO and Toyota Tsushotwo of Japan’s most powerful companies. As a result, wind will probably continue to be the fastest growing alternative energy source in Japan, certainly more so than solar, hydro, and geothermal.
Perhaps the reason that the Environment Ministry is paying attention is because last year a new illness, dubbed Wind Turbine Syndrome (WTS), was identified by New York-based pediatrician, Nina Pierpoint. Pierpoint studied the health problems of 10 families living close to wind farms and concluded that the installations are probably causing an outbreak of sleep disorders, accelerated heart disease, panic attacks, headaches, learning problems by children, and other stress-related disorders. She took her claims to Congress, and testified in late summer last year, as to the problem.
In Pierpoint’s research, and indeed, from the complaints that have been trickling in from all over Japan as well, these ailments appear to manifest themselves within days of a nearby wind farm going into operation and so are easy for people to associate with the turbines. If the health claims turn out to be true, then according to Pierpoint, one effective measure is to establish a minimum 2-km buffer around each wind installation, with possibly greater distances if the farm has line of site, is upwind, or is otherwise able to cause direct sound and sight disturbances to residents.
There has been substantial research done into wind turbines and health, and it seems that if there were any negative health influences, they would be from possible low frequency noise, not from visual or other effects. Research shows that most large turbines do generate noise, some of which is in the audible spectrum, but most of which occurs in the 10Hz to 50Hz rangewell outside the range of hearing.
However, Pierpoint says that while you may not be able to directly hear the beating of the air by the turbine blades, according to what she is seeing, people are still “feeling” the turbine vibrations. She thinks that the low frequency beats are resonating in the inner ear and disrupting the hearer’s sense of balance and spatial orientation. This is leading to headaches and disorientation, and thus to the less clearly defined symptoms of anxiety, nightmares, and cognitive development problems in small kids.
Noise experts have anticipated such claims and in 2005, a UK expert published a vigorous defense of wind turbines and the unlikeliness of their causing health problems. He went on record as saying that modern forward-facing turbine installations create very little noise and that which is created is attenuated over short distances. He is certain that no subsonic noise is heard or felt by human beings.
