Over the past couple of years, I've spent a fair amount of time trying to understand the negative health aspects of wind generators in Germany. Ten years ago, it might have come up once or twice a year in the German news....today, I'd say that almost monthly, you get some report from commercial or public news over the health issue.
What this is mostly about? I would draw the line and say that some Germans (those who live in more rural areas) are now consumed about a decreasing quality of life.
You won't find the wind generators anywhere near major cities in Germany. They are typically found in flat rural areas with sloping hills. In the region driving from Kaiserslautern to Mainz (a normal 45 minute drive....less so if you drive like me)....you can count around eighty of them on both sides of the autobahn. Some are at least a mile from any village or farm. Some are within 500 ft of a village or farm house.
Germans who are distressed over their local wind generator....will mostly talk about stress, sleeping issues, migraine-type headaches, mental impairment (often using the word 'depression'), and inability to concentrate.
The reporter will arrive and this Q and A session will start up....with the German 'victim' showing anger and venting frustration that they can't get the state political folks to react to their problem. They want the local wind generator gone, and believe that unless you make a 'verboten' rule.....nothing will get fixed.
Some of the journalists have gone to the next step....asking actual scientists (usually with some university operation) to stand up and address the issues and health aspects.
The scientist/professor will go to one of four dialogs:
(1) Infrasound (a low frequency situation). They kinda admit that animals are usually the ones reacting (like cows or dogs), and not enough has been done with humans to say in a factual way that can stand up in a court. If you examine this problem, then you'd open the door over autobahn traffic near a village, and a hundred different things which generate infrasound in highly urbanized areas.
2. Static electricity. Factually, you can prove that the blades on a generator will interact with the air, and that more static exists around the generators. To be a factor from 500 meters away? Well, again, more tests would need to be accomplished, and the fact that some people might react more intensely to this? Yeah, that's also part of the view.
3. View 'flicker'. Some people believe (again, the testing is not there)....that the continual movement of the blades are a problem for people to continually view....almost like a hypnosis episode. You can imagine a gal on the balcony, with a cocktail in her hand and watching a full hour of rotation, and it having some type of dynamic effect upon her.
4. Finally, to the mental side of 'blame' assignment. One professor suggested that people have an abundance of personal issues, and that they routinely need to assign blame to someone or something....to make themselves feel better. If the blades were just removed, their problem would dissolve away (so they believe). I haven't heard this reasoning used often but it might go and explain why the numbers of frustrated people keep increasing.
All of this leading to some national political chaos one day, and mandating dozens of new rules on the placement of wind generators? I would speculate that we are entering a period over the next decade where tests will be conducted, and some of the issues will be proven....putting the whole wind generator industry into a difficult situation to survive.
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