Letter: Report noise from turbine
Dereck Wade is not alone in reporting Glyndebourne turbine noise problems (‘Celebrity launch for wind turbine’, January 20). There are other unsolicited, independent, credible reports.
Some relate to Sunday, January 15, when people were in their gardens during the first period of reasonable weather since commissioning. However, problems are not associated with a single wind direction and seem to include all those from SE to SW.
On turbine ‘launch’ day Mr Christie, Glyndebourne’s chief executive, explained on Radio Sussex that ‘the locals’ (or was it yokels?) could be placated by stopping the turbine during south-easterly winds. Sadly it would need to be stopped over the arc SE to SW. We already know that the turbine is liable to fatigue damage when wind is from the NE quadrant. And ‘opera hampers on the lawn’ will be affected by winds from W to NW. There is little left!
The noise was reported to involve both a continual whirring (or mechanical) tone and a rapid ‘whump-whump’. These noises were heard within Ringmer at distances of up to 1,200 metres from the turbine, four times greater than the maximum range claimed by the developers, Glyndebourne Productions Ltd (GPL). It is therefore clear that thousands of villagers could be affected in due course. I made exactly this prediction during the public inquiry and on several occasions via this column.
Paradoxically, perceived turbine noise is higher at lower wind speeds, so problems are likely to worsen during spring and summer.
These may affect both the ‘garden experience’ and nighttime sleeping with open windows.
It is important that we now collate all reports of such incidents. The obvious recipients of such reports are Lewes District Council’s Planning Department and Ringmer Parish Council – hopefully both will rapidly initiate and publicise a coordinated reporting procedure.
It would also be most helpful if noise reports could be copied to me via glyndebourneturbinenoise@gmail.com. Please include details of date, time of day, location, approximate wind speed and direction, nature of noise (continuous and/or beating) and a subjective ‘annoyance factor’ from nought to ten.
Thus far Glyndebourne’s attitude to our village has been characterised by supreme indifference. Surely Ringmer residents now deserve the courtesy of a detailed, early statement from GPL’s chief executive?
Dr Tony Parker,
Ringmer
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Weather for Lewes
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 14 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
Comments
There are 8 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
roneoron
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 09:29 PMilpoppet. I'm not making any 'claims' about wind turbines. I'm stating facts. The German report is available to read in the form of a paper from The University of Bonn. Turbines are actually plagued by gearbox failures, as at North Kent Coast. All turbines have a device to regulate blade speed to efficient generation and prevent run-away. Remember the wind turbine that caught fire in the autumn gales last year? That was a classic example of gearbox failure. It's usually called a gearbox, but as an engineering expert who obviously knows better than those 101 MPs and a vast swathe of us ordinary run of the mill engineers, you may well have come up with a solution to a problem that has always plagued wind powered mills. I as a humble spanner wielder would be most interested in the details. Forget wind power. It's fickle, it's unreliable. Think about tides. We have a tidal range of from seven to up to thirty metres. The tide runs at around an average of three to four knots for twenty two out of twenty four hours. What an opportunity for tide mills and tide turbines. Why don't we have them? There's no insurmountable technical difficulty. It's just that wind was easier to develop and got a head start over tidal. Wind is well established, the government love it because it's a cheap answer to them, and the Green Wallies love it because they can see it. Notice how the Government backed out of the Severn Barrage when it was evident that they'd have to put money in. Notice how Norman Baker loves the idea of one hundred and ninety seven of these monsters blotting out the Brighton horizon. Why? Because EoN and the consumer get to pay for it. It doesn't come from his budget. Do think before you utter green idiocy ilpoppet!
ilpoppet
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 05:00 PMroneoron, you make many claims about wind turbines. If wind turbines are inefficient as you claim, what better use of the wind energy passing above us is there? Frankly if anyone claims wind turbines are inefficient, it is a clear sign that they do not know what they are talking about, and that goes for 101 tory backbenchers too. You then start banging on about gearboxes, when the Glyndbourne wind turbine has no gearbox. Bit of a pity you started off by saying another commenter was brainwashed and living in La La land!
roneoron
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 03:01 PMYour name tag Reality is obviously a misnomer as you seem to live in brainwashed La La Land! To the facts. Wind turbines and PV panels are hyped up to the nines, but never perform as forecast, or even pay back their vast cost. Germany has carried out a ten year study which has reached the conclusion that alternative power generation is only viable in the case of hydro electric installation. Wind turbines are very inefficient, totally reliant on our fickle winds, are very prone to gearbox failure and therefore require high levels of maintenance, are very, very ungreen in their manufacture, and above all any power generated is at 50% over the cost of conventional generation. The wind farm off the north Kent coast has never worked at capacity due to gearbox and wiring failures. Government of course love it. It's at no cost to them other than subsidies, which they are under pressure from their own members to drop, and it keeps the Green Wallies happy. It's we, the consumers, who have to pay for this folly and suffer the intrusion and noise while paying through the nose for public schemes. As for PV panels, again they never reach payback before needing to be replaced, will never perform as the slick salesmen promise, are full of deadly poisons which will need eventual disposal, have to be kept clean and are a total eyesore. Do a bit of research Reality. Don't believe the green guff. Wind turbines generate a lot of noise and vibration. Some people are obviously more sensitive to it than others, but it's undeniably there. I stayed in a B&B in France recently, about a mile away from five turbines. At night you had a choice of shutting the window (in30C!) to blot out the noise in which case the vibration took over shaking the air. Only one night luckily, but enough to make me fear for property values and people's sanity. Glyndebourne were always going to get permission for this monster as they have very influential friends in high places. I remember when I worked for a big international office equipment firm, Glyndebourne were the bane of my managers life. We had orders from Head Office to supply and maintain, free of charge, anything that Glyndebourne wanted. The only other time I knew that to happen was with The Vatican!
PBhangra
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 02:08 PMThanks for taking the time to perform some background research on the matter. The noise impact study and the engineers report which probably got completed before construction took place are incorrect. We know this because we have heard it, whoomp whoomp whoomp whoomp whoomp whoomp. A car passes the house and the noise is gone, this is a persistent nuisance. As we go into spring and summer this will become a problem for more & more people. The turbine should be removed and if the good folk of Glynde Productions wish to invest in an alternative energy source they should enquire about investing in a sea wind farm.
Reality2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 11:54 AMOK so you I’ve now read the Planning Inspectors Report and reviewed the noise impact study. Whoever you are you've got great hearing, maybe you should ban cars on roads as well because they're quite noisy and unsightly and while we're at let ban trains, planes, music, DIY and wind blowing in the trees because they are all terrible and far louder than the turbine your complaining about.
Reality2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 11:47 AMOK so you I’ve now read the Planning Inspectors Report and reviewed the noise impact study. Whoever you are you've got great hearing, maybe you should ban cars on roads as well because they're quite noisy and unsightly and while we're at let ban trains, planes, music, DIY and wind blowing in the trees because they are all terrible and far louder than the turbine your complaining about.
PBhangra
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 11:08 AMReality2012, you are wrong. And whilst I accept there are a lot of small minded people who scare monger I can not see how that relates to the article that you have chosen to comment on. The planning process was flawed as the data provide did not highlight the issue of noise pollution and we are in the process of calling for a review. This weekend the sound of the birds evening song was drowned out by the constant woomp woomp noise of the Glyndebourne turbine that now dominates Ringmer village We live in Ringmer on Lewes Road and enjoy sitting out in our garden even in the winter with a warm cup of tea. As I understand from speaking to fellow neighbours it takes the wind from a certain direction to carry the noise over the village. During planing the residents were assured that we would not be able to hear the turbine let alone the noise becoming an all consuming back drop to our daily lives.
Reality2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 09:19 AMDear Lord! Small mindedness knows no bounds apparently! So a "former" engineer whose mates with CPRE hates turbines shocker! Unbelievable, Glyndebourne have gone out of their way to explain what they've done and why and this guys comes up with some rubbish about being able to hear a turbine at 1200 meters! Thatâs like standing on the platform at Lewes station and saying you can hear the dishwasher in Lewes Prison. The guy is simply scaremongering because common sense, science and the legal planning process has won out against ill-informed prejudice. Someone has obviously sat them down and said "hey if you complain about noise after the turbine up you can still get it shut down". The turbine will have noise limits in place, which if breached will be assessed by the local Environmental Health Officer. Stop scaremongering and moaning about nothing, you get people more and more upset about something that simply isn't an issue.
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