After meaning to for some time, I finally took a walk up to the site to take a closer look at the turbines and see if they are as noisy as the ‘Stop the Wind Farm’ protestors would have us believe...
I’ve been up close and personal to one before (while in Cornwall a few years ago) and it was silent, but I wondered if that was just a one off perhaps, since others have been so vocal about the noise pollution factor.
It was a particularly breezy evening and the turbines were turning a quite a speed so I decided that this was as good a day as any to do my research!
One of the bizarre things about the turbines is perspective. It seems the further away you are the bigger they look. From some viewpoints the turbines tower over the village but from others they look tiny. They seem to shrink in size the closer you are to them. I’m sure that’s some kind of optical illusion that someone here can explain?
I can report though that no noise was heard at all until I got around 30 metres from the base of the closest turbine and even then it was just a very faint ‘whine’ from the generator just on the edge of your hearing. To hear any noise from the blades themselves you had to be almost underneath them.
I took two videos while I was there, an overall video of all 10 turbines showing the overall extent of the windfarm
and then one of Turbie 10 (we’re the best of buddies now
) where you can hear the swish of the blades…. from right underneath them….I also took a photo of where the electricity generated is connected into the main grid... GkF 5... according to my friends… ;o)
