Day 1:Wind Turbine Week for Ellen
Posted by admin on 22 Nov 2009 at 10:27 pm | Tagged as: Uncategorized
Such a beautiful afternoon, so it was a lovely trip. Seeing so many big, beautiful evergreens surprised me. My favourite sign, spotted past Garnet: Radical Road – an apt theme for our energy policy needs.
Lakeshore Road is also aptly named. Today, Lake Erie was a hazy blur of no particular colour, but I’m told on some days, the U.S. is clearly visible. I also learned that it’s a very sharp drop down to the lake; descent on foot is possible, but only if one (goes with someone who) knows how.
My supper hostess – yummy cheese-fish chowder 
– spoke right away of the low frequencies Daryl cited in his comment on my previous entry here.
One personal negative experience she noted: this year, for the first time, the pond on her property did not host any bullfrogs. The 18 Vestas 1.65 megawatt turbines in the immediate area got going about 18 months ago, so they didn’t affect the frogs’ development last year. I wonder what info is available about frog populations in other areas where turbines have been installed.
I’m now settling in to the home where I’ll be a guest for the week. My hostess says if I’m lucky enough to have the full experience, my bed will shake in the night!
Interesting commentary. It might be useful for readers to know that the house, which is built on a bedrock called the Clear Creek Ridge that extends into Lake Erie almost to the Ohio shore, where Ellen is staying is surrounded by 18 Vestas 1.65 MW Industrial Wind Turbines erected in three groups of 6 IWT’s all within a 3 km radius around the house. The closest IWT is 526 m, the next is ~ 573 m.
An Acoustical Engineer measured vibrations which were below the audible sounds. Another A.E. found that the ambient vibrations in the basement were above the MoE regulations and when he touched the concrete base of the fireplace, the reading increased by 12 decibels.