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Wind power protested by NIMBYists, but experts say little effect on health, property value

Wind turbine at Eastern Kings Wind Farm no longer working

Leaving aside the debate over the economics and reliability of wind power, it seems many Canadians don’t want giant propellers voom, voom, vooming anywhere near their homes.

Most of the opposition is centred in Ontario, where successive Liberal governments have committed the province to rapidly expanding wind-turbine electricity generation as part of its controversial green energy strategy.

While some of the criticism has focused on the high initial cost per kilowatt consumers will be paying – compared with conventional power sources – to help foster the industry, there’s been a growing outcry over perceived adverse effects of the massive turbines themselves.

Whether it’s aesthetics, health or environmental damage, dozens of opposition groups have sprung up in locations where projects are planned.

But proponents of wind power say local opposition groups don’t reflect broader public opinion. The Canadian Wind Energy Association commissioned a series of polls by Nanos Research that suggested support for wind power far outpaced opposition to it.

In Ontario, the Nanos survey last May found almost two thirds of those polled had a positive impression of wind power, especially over nuclear plants, and it was third only to hydroelectricity and solar as a source of safe, environmentally friendly power.

A separate poll in Alberta last summer found wind pipped hydro power in overall favourability, though home-grown natural gas topped them both. The province has been home to wind farms since the early 1990s with little outcry from their neighbours, though environmentalists have complained about harm to bird and bat populations.

“We know that the masses out there do support wind energy and they just don’t happen to be as vocal about it, I don’t think,” Brandy Giannetta, the association’s Ontario regional director, told Yahoo Canada News.

So, is there a disconnection between the perceptions of outspoken opponents of wind turbines and those of the general public?

Turbines could effect property value

Both sides will trot out studies to bolster their positions that wind turbines are either a blessing or a blight. But one interesting yardstick is a recent study from the University of Guelph’s Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics measuring the impact of one long-established southern Ontario wind farm on local property values.

The study, published last fall in the Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics, surveyed thousands of real estate transactions involving both rural residential and farm properties and concluded there was no significant effect on average.

However, study co-author Prof. Richard Vyn, cautioned not to extrapolate the results to the whole of Ontario without further study.

“The landscape around the issue is changing a little bit,” Vyn said in an interview. ”This particular wind farm was about the first major industrial wind farm put up in Ontario.

"It received some opposition but certainly nowhere near the kind of resistance that more recent proposals have received. So I think the issue is kind of building on itself. It’s becoming a lot more prominent in the public."

One real estate agent told The Canadian Press that properties in the region covered by the study sell for 10 per cent less on average because they’re close to wind turbines.

Still, Vyn’s research is bolstered by other studies in the United States and elsewhere. A University of Rhode Island study, which included not just wind-farms but stand-alone turbines in urban areas, found no effect on house prices. An even larger study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory across nine states found “no statistical evidence that home values near turbines were affected in the post-construction or post-announcement/pre-construction periods.”

Health concerns predominate opposition to turbines

Concerns about the health effects of wind turbines, their constant low-frequency thrumming, and fluttering shadows thrown by the revolving propellor blades dominate the debate.

Preliminary results of a Health Canada study released last month based on surveys of residents living near Ontario and P.E.I. wind turbines found they reported no real effect on sleep, illness or stress levels, though many apparently found the noise, flickering light, and shadow to be annoying.

Giannetta saw the Health Canada study as something of a vindication.

“Continually the research and the science shows us the health impacts do not exist as a result of wind turbines,” she said. “It’s something that we can rely on and take comfort in.”

But the document warns against applying the results too widely because the survey was based on self-reporting and not randomized.

Health Canada has commissioned an independent panel of experts through the Council of Canadian Academies to issue its own report on the causal association between wind turbine noise and adverse health effects after reviewing existing research.

Cate Meecham, the Ottawa-based council’s communications director, said the report, expected to be released next spring, will be addressing a very narrow question.

"The panel’s assessment provides background on wind turbine acoustics and design, as well as on auditory and non-auditory pathways," she said via email. "However, the majority of the report assesses evidence concerning adverse health outcomes [e.g. sleep disturbance, stress] as a result of wind turbine noise.

"It is important to note that the panel’s report [like all CCA reports] will address where knowledge gaps exist and where further research is needed. The report will also provide insights on promising practices used in other countries."

Whether this report or any other study will mitigate opposition to the growth of wind power, in Ontario or elsewhere, is an open question.

There’s a history of push-back against large-scale energy projects in Canada, whether it’s the NIMBYism that triggered the $1-billion cancellation of two natural gas-fired power plants in Ontario or growing criticism of plans of British Columbia’s massive Site C hydro-electric dam in the province’s northeast.

Vyn suggests the rapid growth of the wind sector in Ontario, with little apparent input from local residents, is behind the problem there.

“I think the way that this industry’s been developed has had an impact to maybe generate some complaints, the fact that municipalities in a lot of cases don’t have a say as to whether a wind farm proposal is accepted or not,” he said.

Giannetta said the wind sector is confident its growth will not be severely threatened. Today it produces about 8.5 megawatts of electricity daily, enough to power roughly 2.5 million homes. Almost every province and territory has some wind energy online.

Giannetta’s association said wind generation today accounts for about four per cent of Canada’s electricity output, with a goal of up to 20 per cent by 2025.

[ Related: Turtles vs. turbines: Ontario’s top court deciding on nine-turbine project ]

[ Related: Wind turbine noise not linked to perceived health effects: Health Canada study ]

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