Makara residents fuming over noisy wind farm

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Makara residents fuming over noisy wind farm

3News NZ

Many residents are moving away to escape the noise of the wind farm

Many residents are moving away to escape the noise of the wind farm

West Wind, Meridian's wind farm near Wellington, was opened by the Prime Minister in April. Since then, the company's been dealing with complaints from people living in the Makara Valley.

Neighbours of the wind farm say they were told by Meridian that they wouldn't hear the turbines, but the locals say they hear them most days and most nights and it's constant torture.

Joiner Hans Renner says the turbines are severely affecting his sleep.

"I work with machinery and it's only a matter of time before I cut a finger off because I'm so tired.," Mr Renner says.

His wife Ingrid has trouble sleeping too. She gets up and writes in a log when she hears any turbine noise.

As a condition of its consent, Meridian has to comply with noise standards. And parts of the larger picture are factors like background noise and wind speed - a mind boggling amount of conditions.

Makara resident Maryanne Gill saved for 25 years to buy land to build the family's dream home. She says that she believed Meridian's assurances the turbines would have minimal impact and is upset with all the noise.

One resident has now spent $15,000 double glazing his windows, while others are now simply moving out to escape the noise.

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Comments

5/10/2009 8:42:16 p.m.

3MW wrote:

Why can't the developer be held accountable to the very people that they promised would not be affected by these adverse effects? Accountability is a very interesting concept!
Why aren't the so called "experts" ,who flatly denied that anyone would be subjected to extreme noise effects, dragged over the coals and asked to explain their dodgy , expensive noise reviews?
It is so easy to call the Makara people names when you are not living in their shoes.
Plain fact...they should implement decent setback distances from these enormous turbines...guess what..problem solved. And yes, it is as simple as that!

18/08/2009 1:17:17 p.m.

David t wrote:

NIMBY NIMBY please don't weep,
just because you cannot sleep,
those fans i'll keep the dinner cooking
even though they're not good looking
we pay the price for energy,
that's every one, yes , you and me,
those turbines are your cross to bear
and yes it is perhaps unfair
but with rivers raped and coal so dirty
do you have to get so shirty?
power solutions are just plain hard
when people scream NOT IN MY BACK YARD!





13/08/2009 7:56:04 p.m.

peter wrote:

Palmerston North is the next to be sacrificed. The poor residents there haven't got a clue about what will happen to them if the Turitea disaster is approved.

11/08/2009 11:20:58 p.m.

james wrote:

I say knock the turbines down and build a nuclear power station, much less noisy.

9/08/2009 10:13:42 a.m.

hans renner wrote:

Hi Tom , you were 100% correct in your perception of the turbines noise . There are a number of factors in the perception of noise , I suspect most of these ( and I know of 1 definitely ) that were absent in the USA In order for you to perceive the noise , you must hear it , and if you are directly below the machine , and the wind is travelling at 20km/hr the noise is in fact going away from you ( not to mention that its 25 metres above you .Another matter is topography ( the lay of the land so to speak ) The turbines I have seen in the US ( photos only ) have been on large plains as in Europe ( which I have seen first hand) . The ambient wind affects every object in its path . This is not so in Makara . The turbines are situated on the top of the PROMINENT ridgeline (our horizon) , the population is below them in a sheltered valley , where OFTEN there is NO WIND at all , but on the ridgeline it is still blowing @ 30 km/hr . This causes the problem ! We had Silent ( and I mean absolute) nights , now we still have these atmospheric conditions , but there is a VERY LARGE and very NOISY tumble dryer going in the paddock behind us . If this were a normal household situation , you ( and I have done ) would get up and turn it off , restarting it in the morning , when your mind is on other things besides sleep . This is the fundamental problem here . A couple of hundred local people would not have spent $200,000 odd on legal fees to try and fight it . Have you ever been on a fundraising committee , whats the response been like ? Makara had an average of $1000 per man , woman and child . And we are not wealthy people , but farmers and lifestylers

6/08/2009 1:12:46 p.m.

Colin wrote:

Of course the people who "whinge" are going to be locals. They are the only ones affected. Noise restrictions apply to most of us between 11pm and 6am or thereabouts. Why does this not apply to (Meridian) windfactorys?

6/08/2009 11:01:27 a.m.

tom wrote:

Are these badly designed wind turbines? I recently visited my old hometown in the USA and they have literally hundreds of wind turbines all over the countryside. My wife and I drove up to one, directly under it as it was running full speed. I had to ask my wife to turn off the very quiet car to actually hear the wind turbine running. This was from a distance of 1 meter. Perhaps someone needs to ask why noisy models are used here.

6/08/2009 10:59:02 a.m.

dusty wrote:

Tim, Yes it is an emotive issue, but also one of simple curtosy and respect for our neighbours, like many commentators you appear to have let your bias get in the way of the argument -
Again and lets be very clear its not about the need or non need of projects - its about the real cost to people to provide that project and the locality it is installed, In this case there is a overwhelming situation that residents have had forced upon them. They have spent huge quanities of money to defend their right to the basic amenities to live a peacefull life most other people enjoy. But against folk that still think like generations past its a tuff job !
If you think that defending and presenting a differing view makes them moaners .. it says more about your inabilty to understand the reality. If the cost is high it should be spread across all of society not a just the very few (Meridian have offered nothing in return) - I suspect you wont be 1st in the line to contribute financially to addressing the damage these people suffer ! ( if you do I appologise and look forward to your kind genourous offer) - no you will happly hid in your cave and turn on another light and heater - Unless you are preparred to share in the Financial & emotional pain and also play your part in energy conservation, you need to reflect upon your own inner being ! - Some of these folk already produce their own environmental sustainable electricity and many have their own Carbon Sinks sucking out your carbon deposits - along side turbines - do you see any irony in that ! Tim tell us what is your contribution ?

5/08/2009 10:46:00 p.m.

tim wrote:

Seems to be a strongly emotive issue! Maybe the commenters would prefer a nice smokey coal plant like Huntly in their neighbourhood? I think the RMA prevents so many essential projects going ahead that the Utility companies have become used to bulldozing their way through opposition. Maybe what we need is technology so that when powersupply becomes marginal, then only the whingers houses suffer brownout! The the moaners would have a taste of the reality of the alternative- No power at all...

5/08/2009 8:26:58 p.m.

Steve Russell wrote:

Istill cannot believe how ill informed some people are and how gullible they are when it comes to listening to the misinformation that comes from SOE's. For your information Taryn, there are over 40 turbine up and going at this minute, if it was daylight,I could see 12 of them. Personally I prefer the look of the natural ridgeline, but the view of the turbines is not, nor has it been our main concern, it has always been the noise, especially at night. Meridian forced through the court noise conditions they thought they might be able to get close to, if they were lucky. We knew from our research and overseas experts that these conditions were not going to be adequate to provide protection for residents. Remember we lived here first. If urban dwellers were exposed to this level of increased noise over background, they would have the noise control officer and the police around very quickly to confiscate the offending equipment, or at least turn it down. There is no other option for us, we chose to live in Makara, we did not choose Meridian as a neighbor. Meridian never consulted with its neighbors, it makes no attempt to mitigate the affects of its Turbines. No amount of insulation or double glazing will fix the problem, in some cases the reverberation is worse with double glazing. The Turbines could have been smaller, they could have been fewer in number and they could have been built further away from homes, but no, MERIDIAN a STATE OWNED ENTERPRISE bulldosed this through with political interferance. The local people wanted the land that Meridian aquired to be turned into a regional park for all Wellingtonians to enjoy,(Wellington at the moment does not have a regional park such as this could have been)Meridian could still have built a smaller wind farm away from homes on the Terawhiti land, and those people who enjoy looking at Industrial electricty generators in a rural setting wouldn't miss out then.MERIDIAN COULD HAVE HAD A SOLUTION IF THEY PLAYED HONEST & FAIR