Wind Turbine Syndrome -- September 17, 2015

MidwesternEnergyNews is reporting wind turbine syndrome (WTS):

A Wisconsin town of fewer than 1,200 stands on the verge of sending shock waves through the wind energy industry.

Late last year, Glenmore, a rural community just south of Green Bay, persuaded its county's board of health to declare that the sounds of an eight-turbine wind farm pose a "human health hazard."

It was the first time a health board has made such a determination. Wind energy opponents from across the country seized on the decision as proof of "wind turbine syndrome," a supposed illness caused by low-frequency noise and "infrasound" that is typically undetectable to the human ear.

Local activists have continued to press the issue in hopes of shutting down the turbines, pointing to families who complain of sleep deprivation, headaches, nausea and dizziness -- symptoms similar to sea sickness. Lawns display signs saying, "Turbines kill: Birds, Bats, Communities" and "Consider How Your Turbine May Harm Your Neighbor." More than one family has moved out of their home.

I've often wondered about that inaudible noise.

I'm waiting for all the lawsuits in which folks allege property values have plummeted because they live near an industrial park. It was incredible what they have done west of Hays, Kansas.

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BloombergBusinessWeek

This past week while I was traveling another complimentary issue of BloombergBusinessWeek showed up at my door, usually delivered on Sunday.

It's almost tempting to subscribe. Whatever.

This issue has a three page (four pages if you count a full page given over for the headline -- huge waste of space) article on 3D Touch for new Apple iPhone. In addition, last night on Stephen Colbert, or was it the night before, Tim Cook spent most of the interview talking about 3D Touch.

There is also a long article on "The Big Dry Spell" -- the drought in Australia, California, and now Brazil. Of course, folks are blaming it on global warming, which in fact, predicted more rain, hurricanes, and floods (remember "extreme weather") and regardless, there has been no evidence of global warming in 18.5 years, going on 19 years which is very close to twenty years which is almost two decades, and 2.5 decades makes a quarter century of no evidence of global warming. So this drought has nothing to do with global warming.

However, what this does point out is that while we're all focused on a one degree rise in temperature a hundred years from now and flooding of some islands in the South Pacific, we've taken our collective eyes off things that are going to kill us right now -- like ISIS, the Iranian nuclear industry, and, of course, "the big dry spell."

One wonders where California, Australia, and Brazil might be right now had we not spent $1 trillion on intermittent (wind, solar) energy and instead used that money to figure out and get desalinization right. Californians cut back on as much as 31% in water by simply conserving.

And finally this headline: Solar Suffers From Gas Pains in Israel. The story:

With more than 300 days of sunshine per year and a world-class tech sector, Israel should be a hotbed of solar, but it has lagged behind places such as cloudy Germany and the rainy Netherlands.

That’s because in recent years, geologists have discovered huge gas fields just off Israel’s coast, making the country a potential energy exporter and allowing its power plants to burn cheaper and cleaner gas instead of coal -- and shifting the government’s focus away from renewables. 

I still think that whether it was Saudi's plan or not, forcing oil back down to $30/bbl (in some places) did exactly what Saudi was hoping: a) get people hooked on oil (and natural gas) again; and, b) destroying the intermittent (solar, wind) energy industry. 

And, of course, Germany and the Netherlands are now paying outrageous amounts for their intermittent energy.