Going with the wind

By Terrie Lloyd

An article in the Nikkei recently may well spell trouble for the fledgling alternative energy industry—and particularly for the wind power generation sector, where most energy investment has taken place in Japan. Apparently residents in the town of Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, have petitioned a wind turbine farm operator (Nikkei doesn’t mention who) to close down their plant in the evening hours—on the basis that low frequency noise emanating from the wind farm is causing residents in the area serious health problems.

According to the formal complaint, the residents have said that in the 18 months since the plant went into operation, those people living withing 1-2-km of the wind farm have been suffering from a range of ailments including severe headaches, dizziness and buzzing in the ears. This is not the first time such complaints have been made by people living near wind farms, but it does appear to be the first time that such complaints will be formally investigated by the Environment Ministry.

This could become a serious issue, because Japan has become increasingly committed to wind power, installing thousands of wind farms around its coast line so as to reduce national dependence on foreign hydrocarbon energy sources. If it is found that low frequency sound is a genuine health hazard, then future farms will probably be subject to more restrictive legislation, which will at least require them to be located further away from inhabited locations—something hard to do in overpopulated Japan.

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 capacity is Eurus, which is a joint venture between TEPCO and Toyota Tsusho—two 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 range—well 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.

As might be expected, 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.

Pierpoint’s response to such statements is to point out that while these experts may well be experts in sound, that does not make them experts in human physiology, nor have they investigated actual sufferers at actual sites. She has been challenging the energy industry to err on the side of caution and to at least implement the 2-km buffer zone.

I think that her recommendations sound reasonable, and with the tobacco debacle (i.e., industry claims that tobacco is not proven to cause lung cancer) fresh in our minds, there is no doubt that her claims need proper investigation—as I hope will happen when the Environment Ministry gets involved.

My hope is that rather than stop the further installation of more wind farms, that adequate protective measures will be put in place to ensure nearby residents are not impacted health-wise. If separation distance requirements can’t be achieved on land, and certainly it’s not just the sounds but also the sight of wind turbine farms that turn people off, then perhaps over-the-horizon off-shore installations are the way to go. The Japanese already have good experience in creating artificial islands and floating platforms, and so this would be reasonably easy (although more expensive) for them to achieve.

Alternatively, they could start moving toward smaller, less noisy installations. Much the way that personal solar cell arrays are being promoted. In my mind, the government should offer incentives for land owners to build their own personal wind turbine installations, feeding power back to the grid.

Terrie Lloyd writes a weekly newsletter for entrepreneurs and business people about business and political opportunities in Japan.

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15 Comments

daoster at 08:59 AM JST - 23rd August

How dare these people! They must be getting paid off by special interests!! Wind energy is a poor energy substitute anyways. If Japan is so hell bent on going "green" there are better alternatives.
stirfry at 10:00 AM JST - 23rd August

just hook the ldp up to a machine, they provide all the wind any country would ever need
presto345 at 07:18 PM JST - 23rd August

If Japan is so hell bent on going "green" there are better alternatives.

Tell us about them. Please. The solution to the alleged ailments is however simple. Relocate the people or the machines. Wind turbine parks are constructed off shore in Europe, far from the coast. Example is a park with 60 turbines constructed 23 km off shore which opened last year in the Netherlands. It provides electricity to 125,000 families. Interesting point here is that this energy park was located so far from the coast in order not to spoil the view!
LIBERTAS at 08:07 PM JST - 23rd August

Let's look at this shall we? THE number one user of wind turbines in this area is the Toyota plant at Tahara. Last count as I drove by they have about 15 or 18 of the things, ranging in about 850kW to 1500kW sizes. The town of Kosai in Shiz. Pref. has a couple, as does the Suzuki plant in the town, all smaller 350kW or so output models. In the fall thru late spring the wind coming off the water down there has all of these turbines running full tilt, 16 rpm max-ing out their power generation. Almost all of these machines are fitted with vibration reduction systems, and run at EU standard noise permitted, 50dB/m sound levels, well below the sound that causes the symptoms "experienced" by the complainants. This, in my opinion, is psychosomatic. Just trying to sort out the facts from the easily whipped up baba and jiji hysteria. As for spoiling the view, Tahara is already an eyesore, these birds are poetry in motion set against a backdrop of hectares and hectares of grim corrugated asbestos buildings belching god-knows-what fumes and toxins. Disclaimer: I don't work for Toyota, nor do I work for Nordex (the manufacturer) or any installer.
presto345 at 08:51 PM JST - 23rd August

This, in my opinion, is psychosomatic

It remains to be seen whose opinion is going to count. Yours or the one of those who filed the complaints. Furthermore, it is not the decibel level causing the 'alleged' problems. It's the ultra low frequency, which is a sound you don't hear but feel. Psychosomatic disorders turning up with multiple families is something that doesn't look like a coincidence and warrants looking into.
pawatan at 09:08 PM JST - 23rd August

Tell us about them. Please.

Nuclear. Hydro. Thermal.

Wind farms cause massive visual pollution if nothing else. I sure wouldn't want to live near one.
presto345 at 09:49 PM JST - 23rd August

Well, I for one wouldn't want to live near a nuclear plant. Thermal plant? I saw the word pollution somewhere. Hydro? Limited. Give me poetry in motion any time. But not closer than 2 km :-)
sf2k at 06:00 AM JST - 24th August

I'd like to clear up a misnomer. It's not about a better sized buffer zone per se and as such this article misses the real issue.

As Denmark and other experts in wind have discovered, there's no point in making a buffer when the issue is noise frequency. The distance away from residence has to be MATH BASED to account for the technology used and the local geography.

Generally speaking better technology = lower noise = more turbines = company makes money. Worse technology = more noise = fewer turbines = company loses money. The frequency calculation is done at the point of the residence so that frequencies cannot be above the ambient sound of a given area. That's all math.

No point in a predefined set buffer area as the technology changes, the company thus cannot reap the benefits of newer quieter technology no matter what the company does.

Instead understanding a MATH BASED system, mindful of the ambient sound quality at a residence as a metric, the company is rewarded by investing in better and better systems, while the residents are not affected.

Hope that helps

Sources: For an astoundingly well researched topic please read Roger Watt, retired University of Waterloo professor here: http://retirees.uwaterloo.ca/~rwwatt/BadVibrations.html
sf2k at 06:12 AM JST - 24th August

Wind has it's place but is site specific. Thermal for the win though, because it is NOT site specific, everyone has land and land has ambient temperature lower than air, thus providing excellent cooling and base load heating in winter at 5m or greater (12 degrees C). 75% of a Canadian home's energy can be supplied this way according to company brochures in Saskatchewan.

Japan looks best for thermal systems. Even with the cramped conditions in Japan, geothermal, heliothermal and hydrothermal are far and away easier to accomplish at a cheaper price as well. With so much energy around it's a wonder why you'll need nuclear.

Oh, it would create jobs too just so you know. I wonder why no one wants those?
sf2k at 06:55 AM JST - 24th August

offshore wind is funny. It would be cheaper to put a water tube in the ocean to offset air conditioning in a city that is 100% reliable versus intermittent wind for the same energy and purpose.

Google photos for Enwave Deep Lake Water Cooling.
tigris at 10:49 AM JST - 24th August

Poorly researched article with some ludicrous comments thrown in at the end. The sampling of 10 families by Pierpoint - 38 persons, to be exact - is not near enough to draw any conclusive evidence of a specific problem with all wind farms. One would want to know if there are similar complains in countries where wind energy is most common and technology is most advanced - namely Denmark and Germany. To throw in the argument of the tobacco debacle is ridiculous. Apart from comparing energy issues with a bad habit there is the issue of respiratory problems caused by oil and coal based energy - worldwide. It is a difficult balance between benefits and risks. And throwing in the sights of wind turbines - poetry in motion for some - in a country like Japan where the landscape is covered with electrical overland power lines and masts and more masts and cables everywhere is laughable.

sf2k - excellent posts, interesting information.
apecNetworks at 04:55 PM JST - 24th August

Did develop "grunge rock" as a recording engineer and the US has been testing exotic wireless transmitters in my neighborhood - led to extensive research in to audio. Red flags popped up from this article, but the audio/seismic frequencies may be more exotic in nature. Frequencies such as Extremely Low Frequencies (ELF - sonar), infrasound (resonance of ground), Schumann resonance, etc.... The complaints from the local people MAY be valid, but someone w/ the sophisticated sensors would have to go out there. If I had the time, I could do it, but it would be a pain.
sf2k at 05:03 PM JST - 24th August

thanks. Note that from the link I posted, the dB rate in France is 3dB above ambient at night and 5dB above ambient during the day. In Ontario we have 31dB over ambient. Is it any wonder we have complaints?

I would imagine this is also the case here but would prefer the data set as noted by Roger Watt for comparison in Japan. Please watch out for it!

I'd like to add that I think in many cases wind is quite favourable as an energy source for electricity, but it's not the only one and it does have drawbacks in populated areas any more than regular power stations. I think if we respect those foibles we're all likely to have appropriately scaled wind energy in the mix with other renewable sources.

This however limits their usage and Japan may soon have problems with new locations as the easy ones are taken up.
pawatan at 06:40 PM JST - 24th August

And throwing in the sights of wind turbines - poetry in motion for some - in a country like Japan where the landscape is covered with electrical overland power lines and masts and more masts and cables everywhere is laughable.

Power lines are ugly but small. Going into inaka you see green, not power lines. A wind farm (if installed on land) is very large, and usually somewhere there weren't previously very large installations. Hence, visual pollution.

A nuclear plant is far more efficient. Lower physical footprint and generates vastly more energy, cheaply. One doesn't need vast swathes of land to be covered with wind farms when nuclear is already widely used here. Throw in some thermal into the mix and wind is totally unnecessary.
sf2k at 04:39 AM JST - 25th August

Yeah a mix will do it. I just don't see nuclear making an increase in Japan, or anywhere, when they have enough wind potential as this article alludes to as well as thermal options.

by definition nuclear is not a renewable resource, requiring fuel externally to itself in order to function, making countries dependent on export suppliers. Wind and Thermal however do not require fuel and work as long as the plant does since they work on LOCAL characteristics of air, land and water. Given the thermal potential of Japan it doesn't need nuclear at all, and as wind is limited, thermal I believe will be the new baseload generation.

As well, I like the ideas around biogas/biochar and Japan might consider it. The biochar (charcoal made from organic waste in a anoxic, non-oxygen environment) is used in farmland to secure the soil and acts as a carbon sink. The biogas is used to make electricity. With a Pyrolysis/Biochar reactor instead, it absorbs 25% of the carbon dioxide into a net negative system.

Considering that energy cannot be divorced from the Kyoto Agreement and its predecesors, pyrolysis looks far more promising with many positive side benefits compared to sad old nuclear. Nuclear had its day and now it's time for new ideas. The pyrolysis reactors can turn our waste into biogas/biochar, provide carbon dioxide sinks and be placed anywhere thus not be limited by geography.

In spite of the growth of wind in Japan right now, there are only so many places they can put up either a wind farm or a nuclear reactor. Energy will be a mix of systems and these will have to be more stringently invested and researched.

Sources: The Australian research is here: http://www.csiro.au/resources/Biochar-Factsheet.html . Check out the PDF and the carbon cycle diagram on page 2.