"The U.S. Will Need Thousands of Wind Farms. Will Small Towns Go Along?" There are concerns within communities "that they are ugly, that they kill birds, or that the low frequency noise they emit can adversely affect human health." "“I moved here for nature, for trees, for crops,” said Sandy Coyle, who lives nearby and opposed the project. “I’m not interested in living near an industrial wind farm.” "The aerial seeding of cover crops will cost more with wind turbines nearby and make it harder for her to sustainably farm." ..."about 70 percent of the landowners who have agreed to let Apex put turbines on their property live outside Piatt County."

Effect of Wind Farm Noise on Local Residents’ Decision to Adopt Mitigation Measures

Studies have found that wind turbines (wind farms, windmills) "people living near wind farms complain of a variety of negative physiological and psychological symptoms [6]. In certain cases, these symptoms are sufficiently serious to force them to modify their homes (e.g., implementation of sound insulation measures) to reduce the intrusive noise or even, in the extreme, to abandon their residences."

"Estimates of up to a million or more birds a year are killed by turbines in the US but that is far exceeded by collisions with communications towers (6.5 million); power lines, (25 million); windows (up to 1 billion); and cats (1.3 to 4.0 billion) and those lost due to habitat loss, pollution and climate change." "Wind turbines can be removed when something better comes along. The habitat destruction and pollution from coal, oil and gas extraction and burning, building of pipelines and other infrastructure plus negligence and accidents is very difficult, even impossible in many cases, to undo." Then, there is the possibility of wind turbines with no blades. In development is "the Invelox, a next-generation wind harvester. A 90-foot-tall device could create the same amount of power as a 1.8-megawatt commercial wind tower, but at a third of the height, on a seventh of the land, and with a turbine more than eight times smaller in diameter."

Solar farms are popping up in the landscape. When driving on I-75 in South Georgia we encountered several huge solar farms.

"Silicon Ranch, one of the nation’s largest independent power producers, announced today that three new utility-scale solar facilities are now generating carbon-free renewable energy to help support Meta’s (formerly the Facebook company) operations in Georgia."

"The three projects total 287 megawatts (MWAC) of solar generation..."

"Walton EMC and Silicon Ranch have now completed the installation of six projects totaling 435 MWAC on behalf of Meta [Facebook]."

A new project in Lee County, GA, on 3,000 acres, will add another 125 megawatts for Meta (Facebook)

I was quite excited about the solar farms until I found out the majority, if not all, of the power was going towards Meta (Facebook) facilities. All this land, all this power, and it goes towards a company that produces what?

They are building a solar farm in Maryville, TN, for DENSO, "a leading mobility supplier". "DENSO ... has facilities to produce electrification system, powertrain system, thermal system, mobility electronics, & advanced devices, to create jobs that directly change how the world moves." Heh. Great description. They do, however, produce something that is used by nearly everyone.

I've been interested in wind power for quite some time. However, if it is being pushed on communities that don't want it, then I think they need to come up with standardized laws on where to install them. Not that the laws should allow governments to override citizens, but laws may better protect citizens when wind farms are approved.

Oh, and by the way, Phil Bredesen is the founding Chairman of Silicon Ranch. Not that there is anything wrong with that.