protectai.com - Visual Impacts

Visual and Noise Pollution

The proposed wind plant would virtually fill the island’s 66 square kilometers. The plant would consist of at least 80 wind turbines, each approximately 125 meters (405 feet) tall, or the size of one and a half football fields. The nose on each would be as large as a school bus, and the rotor sweep would be bigger than a Boeing 747. Towers would also have red flashing lights visible at night, and during sunny days would create strobe-like effects as the turbine blades pass the sun. The proposal would turn serene Amherst Island into an industrial park.

The accompanying diagrams here and below (click to enlarge) show the relative size of wind turbines to other features of the landscape and to buildings in Kingston. Scores of large wind turbines (wind-energy companies seek the maximum number possible in order to meet their energy targets and minimize infrastructure costs) would have a dramatic impact on the landscape of Amherst Island for what in the end would be a minimal contribution to the energy needs of this province. (According to Jesse Ausubel, Sr. Research Associate at Rockefeller University, N.Y., in his article "Renewable Energy Wrecks Environment" one hundred windy square metres "could power an electric lamp or two" for a Manhattan apartment.)

There is currently no legislation to regulate set-backs from dwellings. Set-backs are decided by the local Council, which has little experience with the effects on people or on the natural environment of installations like these. For landowners who have signed, there is no significant protection from how near turbines can be to their homes. Risking the quality and beauty of our landscapes in general, and of Amherst Island in particular, for a technology that is uncompetitive and very likely has no long-term future because of its gross inefficiencies, is at the very least short-sighted, and quite possibly tragic.

See also Mark Duchamp, "An Ill Wind ... Wind Farms as a Blight on the Landscape."

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