terry wrote:
....
One of the objections to wind farms has apparently been noise?

To date I have, mentally pooh-pooed the idea that a gentle 'whooshing'
noise could be objectionable!

But maybe one will have to build to reduce the 'Wind noise'. This
house btw, being low to the ground, ain't too bad even in 66 mph
winter storm gusts.

Maybe not wrong? Maybe there are noise concerns? While not objecting
at all to 'alternative energy' in all it's forms, from photo voltaic,
heat pumps and wind energy, just curious.
....

Some early demonstration facilities were quite noisy and bothersome --
the one near Boone, NC, was particularly notable in that regard early
on. It had both an audible "whoosh" at 3X the rotor as each blade
passed the support tower plus a sub-audible reverberation that was felt
rather than heard. Owing to it's location, both echoed in the
surrounding mountain area if wind conditions were right (which was
frequent). I don't know status of that project any longer -- at one
time it was closed owing to the complaints; whether modifications were
made and it was ever operated any significant amount I've not investigated.

The larger current towers in the area (typical would be Gray County
http://www.kansastravel.org/graycountywindfarm.htm) are not particularly
noticeable for noise but they're built in the open. Standing at the
base of the tower nearest the kiosk, I've not felt any ground vibration
or the sub-audible shock wave mentioned about the NC demo facility. It
was on a much lower tower, however.

The biggest complaint I have w/ wind is the fickle nature of the power
source (even in W KS, notorious for being windy, the highest monthly
capacity factor attained in the seven years of operation has been barely
over 50% and there are months in midwinter and late summer the
seven-year monthly average has only been in the low-20% range) and
although they're not terribly ugly, it would be nice if we didn't have
stuff just built all over everywhere. The output of this facility is
only 112 MWe at 100% capacity and its spread out over 12,000 A (roughly
a 20-sq mile area) and can be seen from nearly 20 miles away. That
capacity is only a tenth of the output of a single large scale
generating station that would have a land footprint of perhaps 1/4-sq
mile and be visible from only a few miles at most even on the flat KS
prairie. Plus, it would have an average availability of something like
80% or so on demand.

Wind, solar, geothermal, tides, etc., have a place but they're not the
panacea many wish for.

--