By: Diane Benjamin
The County Zoning Board of Appeals will continue the hearing on changes to the wind ordinance on November 1st. The hearing earlier this month allowed time for all to speak who signed up, but time ran out of rebuttal testimony.
This hearing is only for that rebuttal testimony. No one who didn’t speak at the last hearing will be allowed to speak at this hearing. I requested a clarification from the county, they sent this procedure document to me: zba-handout-brochure-4-10-16-1
This is the part applicable to the upcoming meeting:
Maybe the InvEnergy crew can explain this story: http://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2016/10/windfall-turns-into-wind-fail-for-champaign-county-taxpayers/
One of their other Illinois wind farms has chased people from their homes because of noise. Add that property taxes haven’t been paid. Maybe the guy who praised his wind turbines for saving his farm will actually admit he works for the company this time.
Should be interesting!
You know, I think wind farms can be done appropriately – when the home/landowner agrees. Those who bully their way in should probably search elsewhere. However, there are some good wind farms out there – with plenty in escrow to tear the things down should the entire works fail. ☺
I do own a small farm and have not been asked to allow one on it. But as someone that does believe in alternative and renewable energy I see “most” of these objections are based on ether cosmetic appearance or jealousy. Oh in this world there may very well be a small few that are negatively impacted by these. Sometimes life is not easy and we must make the best of it. Could longevity of these towers be improved? No doubt, yes, but how much longer? Most are located a safe distance from structures and if need to be taken down years from now, I’m sure scrape dealers will know a way to do it and may very well pay the landowner for it if abandoned. With Central Illinois being flat and windy it is one more natural renewable energy opportunity. One solution, form a small cooperative, buy land and try to take advantage of this opportunity.
Do you know the new ones they want to erect now are 50 feet short of being TWICE as tall as the ones by Dawson? The blades are so long they “flex” in the wind creating a lot more noise.
I have done some research and as they get taller the speed of revolutions slows down to cut down of noise. Now I’m not sure about the bending issue but it does make sense that they would bend much like a jet airplane wing does. But the wind speed is faster the higher up you go and they can increase production 14% by going higher. The wind towers have been going higher since they came into use. This is not new to the industry.
It’s new here! Denmark, Holland and Germany realize wind isn’t affordable. Ontario decided not to expand because wind is too expensive – – here we subsidize it. https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2016/09/27/ontario-liberals-scrap-plans-for-38-billion-in-renewable-energy-projects.html
Well yes it is subsidized here. So is big oil and farming for that matter. Are you wanting all subsidize stopped? I want to be fair with both sides but claiming subsidize as an issue has to work against all of subsidizes .
Europe was into wind long before us. They realized it’s costing jobs, raising electric rates, and bankrupting them with subsidies. They are backing off, can we learn nothing?
Explain this: http://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2016/10/invenergys-wind-farm-joins-wall-of-shame/
I sat on a Township Board of Trustees for a time in the Seventy’s. The Rail Roads protested their taxes every year and would delay in paying them until complaints were looked into. They were dead set against any taxing body having a surplus from one dollar on up. Now I do not know if the Company is protesting or not but it is legal to protest the taxes. Your wanting me to explain every little detail is flak to make your stance the only correct one. I go back to most complaints are from cosmetic appearance and jealousy. Have a nice day.
Looks like “Dawson Lake” and “Doug Kinzinger” have volunteered to purchase and live in the homes of the residents who experience sleep deprivation from wind turbine rumbling low-frequency noise. The bigger turbines are indeed noisier and cause more home abandonments than the smaller turbines. I should know…..I welcomed the InvEnergy wind farm and was supportive up until the time when we lost the use of our home. When the operation of a 495′ tall GE 1.6 mW wind turbine enters inside your daughter’s bedroom and keeps her up all night, your support of wind energy will disappear in that exact moment. I live in shame for ever supporting these Goddamn things. Your community is on the verge of approving the same sized turbines which drove us out of our home. People don’t abandon their homes because of jealousy or just decide these are ugly. I am only unlucky enough to have lived next to the tallest wind turbines in Illinois courtesy of InvEnergy. Imagine a man tapping on your wife’s leg and having this stranger touching your daughter…..in her own bed in her bedroom at night……..this should cause serious considerations for all husbands and fathers. I hope all men can please learn from my mistakes. I am ashamed and embarrassed. I also feel very sorry it appears there will be more victims at the hands of InvEnergy. Why would you take this “laying down?” One weirdo told me, “It bothers my wife, but it doesn’t bother me!!!” I was dumbfounded……if it bothered my wife, it would indeed bother me more.
While I fully understand your turmoil with these towers, I stand by my statement that some people will have a negative impact from them just as any other new environmental changes. I don’t know if, nor do I care if, you were compensated for this or not, but I imagine that Henry Ford must have gone through this same sorta thing over his invention that eventually changed the whole world too.
He wasn’t compensated. He built a house in the country and was forced to abandon it. I believe I heard the value was $300,000. It has been for sale for years without a buyer.
If I wanted to sell a house that had issues the last thing to do is run around telling the whole world how awful the home is. Makes me think he is being paid in some form. Hmmm.