There's a lot of misleading information about wind energy available on the web. Most of it is based on hearsay and misinformation, readily rebuked by scientific evidence. It is our goal to provide you with accurate information regarding the effects of wind energy. Here we have collected a series of thoroughly conducted studies of wind power's impacts to health, safety, environment and economics. We hope to present you with a full understanding of how wind energy does - or more often doesn't - impact the world around us.

Health Impacts

In 25 years of wind generation, with 68,000 turbines installed worldwide, no significant reports of health issues exist. This includes Denmark, whose turbine density is 30 times that of the UK.”

- The United Kingdom’s Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform

Various outlets have claimed that wind turbines cause adverse health effects. However, none of these claims stand up to the rigor of scientific evaluation. Studies that do meet the necessary scientific criteria have found that--at worst--wind turbines can cause irritation or annoyance to a small subset of the population. Neither annoyance nor irritation is a pathological condition. No credible scientific study has found that wind turbines cause negative health effects. This includes the Minnesota Department of Health, which does not recommend increasing setbacks from their current threshold.

• Carl Herbrandon, Ph.D, MN Department of Health, speaks at the Goodhue OES Scoping Hearing
• Sanne Magnan, M.D., Ph.D, Commissioner MN Department of Health, describes the evidence for wind turbine syndrome as “scant”
• Windustry Webinar: Wind Turbine Syndrome: Myths and Facts
• Wind Turbine Sound and Health Effects: An Expert Panel Review
• Read more about Health Impacts

Property Values

No evidence is found that home prices surrounding wind facilities are consistently, measurably, and significantly affected by either the view of wind facilities or the distance of the home to those facilities.”

- Berkeley National Laboratory

On a home by home basis, it is difficult to predict the effect that any nearby development--including a wind farm--will have on property values. Because of this, studies of home prices near wind turbines tend to focus on property values across an entire community. These studies survey hundreds and thousands of homes, and have shown that construction of a wind farm does not affect average property values positively or negatively. Studies that claim that wind farms lower property values typically only focus on the handful of homes that happened to be negatively affected, ignoring the properties that were unaffected, or affected positively.

• National Association of Realtors: "Field Guide to Wind Farms and their Effect on Property Values"
• Lawrence Berkeley Renewable Energy Laboratory: "The Impact of Wind Power Projects on Residential Property Values in the United States"
• Read more about Property Values

Noise Impacts

A modern wind farm at a distance of 1000 feet is roughly as loud as a quiet bedroom."

- British Wind Energy Association

As a wind turbine's blade pass through the air they make an audible swooshing noise. From safe setback distances--as established by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission--however, these sounds do not even approach harmful levels of noise. Likewise, the low frequency noise emitted by wind turbines is safe, and is not different than any other source of noise.

• Dr. Geoff Leventhall: "Wind Turbine Syndrome: an Appraisal"
• Dr. Geoff Leventhall: "Infrasound From Wind Turbines – Fact, Fiction, or Deception"
• Read more about Noise Impacts

Efficiency

The average Midwestern wind farm pays back between 17 and 39 times as much energy as it consumes, compared to payback of 16 times for nuclear power plants and 11 times for coal plants."

- University of Wisconsin – Madison

One item that is often overlooked in discussion of the subsidies that wind energy developments receive are the subsidies that other forms of energy production receive. Coal, for example, receives three times the subsidies that wind energy does. Wind energy is not a silver bullet for our energy needs. Instead, it is just a piece of the larger energy production puzzle.

• Dept. of Energy - Energy Subsidies Report-April 2008
• Read more about Efficiency

Stray Voltage

Modern electrical practices have virtually eliminated this problem and it poses no risk to livestock.
- AWES Truewind Consulting

• Read more about Stray Voltage

Shadow Flicker

Best practices from the available research, and usage history in Europe and the United States, have determined shadow flicker not to be a health concern when appropriate setbacks are enforced.
- Chatham-Kent Health & Family Services Public Health Unit

Wind Energy Videos

We encourage you to check out additional material that covers these topics in our videos section.

• View videos