A seven-expert independent panel came out with a major study today that looks into the health impacts on people who live close to wind turbines, and they determined that what some call “wind turbine syndrome” does not exist and that, beyond annoyance, the swishing and low-frequency sounds that come from wind turbines don’t directly make people sick. But, of course, annoyance can lead to stress and stress can lead to loss of sleep, and … well you get the picture.

As the study concludes: “Annoyance is not a disease.”

The question then becomes: Do we outlaw annoying things that we can’t control? Well, we do have rules that keep airplanes from flying too close to residential areas, and which try to minimize street traffic and keep loud and obnoxious neighbours from disturbing the peace. Now, a neighbour who shares a wall with you and snores fiercely, well, can’t do much about that as annoying and stressful that can be for a light sleeper. Regarding wind turbines, we do have rules that require wind turbine noises to be within acceptable limits. Some may argue those acceptable limits aren’t acceptible at all, but clearly the line must be drawn somewhere after careful consideration of the evidence.

I have a story in the Toronto Star that hits on the key points of the study, which should be emphasized was funded by the American Wind Energy Association and Canadian Wind Energy Association. Two of the doctors/scientists who were part of the panel told me that the American wind association tried to get a government agency to sponsor the study but none felt obliged to do it, so the industry decided to be proactive and commissioned the study itself (at risk of the study’s independence being attacked). To add credibility to the study’s findings, the panel will be submitting it this year to several peer-reviewed journals for publication.

There is one portion of the study that, in my opinion, explains why some have become suspicious of wind turbines. It refers to symptoms like headaches, dizzyness, fatigue, sleeplessness, and ringing in the ears that those who complain of “wind turbine syndrome” say they have:

Yet these are all common symptoms in the general population and no evidence has been presented that such symptoms are more common in persons living near wind turbines. Nevertheless, the large volume of media coverage devoted to alleged adverse health effects of wind turbines understandably creates an anticipatory fear in some that they will experience adverse effects from wind turbines. Every person is suggestible to some degree. The resulting stress, fear and hypervigilance may exacerbate or even create problems which would not otherwise exist. In this way, anti-wind farm activists may be creating with their publiclity some of the problems that they describe.

Catch The Wind is making good on its Vindicator trial projects, including one wind-farm trial with the Nebraska Public Power District. The company said its laser wind sensor increased energy output on one turbine by an average of 12.3 per cent by allowing the blades and direction of the nacelle to be better aligned with oncoming wind and by being able to detect gusts in advance. You can read the full report here. Higher output means more revenues for the wind-farm operator. “We believe the incremental cash flows generated during the first 24 to 36 months are sufficient to payback the initial investment,” said president and CEO Phil Rogers. And that excludes any savings related to reduced maintenance over the life of the turbines.

The company has had some strong announcements recently, including a development partnership with Gamesa and a large trial with Canadian Hydro Developers, the largest wind operator in Canada.

I’ve always thought it was amusing how politicians in the U.S. and Canada talk about China as if it’s this backward nation that produces energy from nothing but coal, and how poor China needs help from the West to clean up its act. Uh, yeah, well, perhaps we’ll need help from China to clean up our act.

The Wall Street Journal has a good story here that puts the whole issue into perspective. It’s not that China doesn’t have its problems, and it could certainly benefit from some homegrown innovation, but there’s no question that China’s manufacturing might is beginning to expand into cleantech and the country is taking the economic opportunity — against the backdrop of climate change — very seriously. It should not be underestimated. Solar. Wind. Electric bikes. Electric cars. Batteries. Carbon capture. Watch out…

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, has released the results of a comprehensive analysis on the impact of wind turbines on property values. The conclusion: no widespread impact. See Toronto Star story here, and see full study here.

This government-funded study, the most comprehensive and scientifically conducted yet, would appear to undermine competing claims. Would be nice to see a similarly comprehensive study conducted in Canada, with a focus on key markets across the country. Enough said.

While travelling in New Mexico earlier this month I got a chance to spend the day at Sandia National Laboratories, which kindly made several of its scientists available to talk about the latest developments around solar, wind, battery, water, and fossil fuel technologies. During a walk of the lab’s solar test facility, I saw several Stirling Energy System heliostats, which concentrate solar heat onto a Stirling engine to generate electricity. I learned the engine is manufactured by Ontario-based Linamar Corp., and upon returning to Toronto also learned that Linamar had just signed a 10-year, $3.6 billion deal to manufacture the first made-in-Ontario wind turbine nacelles based on a unique design by startup CWind. Here’s a story on Linamar’s latest green manufacturing activities that appeared Saturday in the Toronto Star.

Also, here’s a story I wrote in MIT Technology Review updating Sandia’s very cool “Sun-to-Petrol” project.