Aesthetics & Visual

It’s one of the most visible sights in Madison County; one of the blades on the Fenner Wind Turbines broke in mid-November, and is still not fixed.

A representative for General Electric, who built the huge turbines, says the weather has been too snowy, too cold, and too windy to get up and fix the blade. As soon as they get a stretch of more-mild weather, they say they'll be up there as soon as possible to make the fix.

It is reported on a Buffalo TV station that some of the wind towers are up and getting ready to operate. Just for those who do not know, up close, what they are going to look like, here is your chance. At least you won't have to go to Lowville to see what they look like, now.

A law is on the table for our very rural town in the Finger Lakes region. The moratorium was extended another 90 days last week. I was the only one to speak to the town board re: concerns for size, set-back, and shadow flicker. No else spoke for or against except our local town officials who have nothing but nice things to say about them. It should also be noted that most of said officials live in the hamlet of Gorham or outside of the "preferred pink zone" on the wind speed map per windexplorer.com.

One Community’s Experience with Wind Development:
An Interview with Richard J. Graham, Esq.
Lewis County Attorney
Town Attorney, Town of Lowville
as told to Katherine Daniels of the
New York Planning Federation

[skipping Q1..Q16]

Q17: Did the developer offer any other inducements to the towns?
A17: In our case, we’ve had several positive experiences with the developer in what I call "good faith" issues. These are instances where the developer has agreed to extend its good faith towards the communities. For example, from the very outset, Flat Rock agreed to pay all legal fees incurred by the municipalities, not only in the review of permitting issues, but also in any of the contracting issues that arose. Flat Rock absorbed the entire cost of the special counsel hired to perform the Empire Zone work. The developer has also agreed to fund the cost of a financial advisor to assist the towns with managing the increased revenues, and has offered to construct a visitors’ center to attract tourism.

I have obtained a copy of Bethany's "final" wind report. You can download it at http://www.effierover.com/downloads/ReportFinal.pdf

Don't know at this time if the town will offer it on their website (they usually do) or what the general reaction is.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- For centuries, Dutch windmills have pumped water out of the low-lying country, and old-fashioned wooden mills are as closely linked with the Netherlands' international image as its dikes and bikes.

But in the face of a large and growing lobby against the windmill's modern electricity-generating counterpart -- the wind turbine -- the country has started moving them offshore and out of sight.

They introduced the world to "environmentally friendly" energy, but now some of Europe's "greenest" countries are under pressure to backtrack on wind farms as public anger grows over their impact on the countryside.

Voters are outraged by the unsightly turbines, the loud, low-frequency humming noise that they create and the stroboscopic effects of blades rotating in sunshine. Opponents are dismayed at the proliferation of the turbines in some of the most beautiful areas of the continent. Conservationists complain that hundreds of birds are killed each month by the rotating blades.

Seriously, this is not a doctored image. It was taken in Germany in 2003.

Or maybe smaller. I almost laughed when I saw this. They're very good at taking photos like this. What is not clear is that the turbine is quite a bit farther back from the house and the windmill.

Those boxes near the turbine are, I think, double-stacked shipping containers, which would reach the house roof if they sat right next to it. Imagine the house that small and you're getting closer...

A nacelle, which houses the generator at the top of the tower, and our car.

Credits: John Sweet, Mustoe VA
Backbone Mountain in Tucker County, WV
14 October 2002
Full photo set at http://johnrsweet.com/personal/wind/windpix2.html