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Viewshed & Human

Will I hear the project from shore or my house? Foghorns or helicopters?

From a distance of 750 to 1000 feet, a modern wind turbine is no noisier than a small refrigerator.  The turbines with our project will be miles away from the shore, and thus will not be audible to residents. Here is a demonstration of decibel comparison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKgN2G9d0dc

AWEA_Decibels

The wind farms in Lake Erie will not routinely utilize helicopters for maintenance, but rather small vessels or tugs.  While wind turbines do not typically have foghorns, even if they did, they would not be audible on shore. The Cleveland Crib has a foghorn that is operating 24 x 7 and, at 3.5 miles from shore, it is never audible onshore.
 

Are there visual renderings of how the project will look from my community?

At this time there are no official renderings of the project. However, as part of the Feasibility Study released in 2009 as conducted on behalf of the Great Lakes Energy Development Task Force, visual renderings were developed from a number of vantage points along the lakefront for a couple of alternative hypothetical projects.
 

Will the project employ lighting fixtures that will mark the nighttime horizon?

The wind industry is working with the FAA to test safe and non-intrusive lighting plans for wind farms. There is currently a product (www.ocasinc.com) approved by the FAA that turns on based on the proximity of a plane and then turns off.  At this time, the U.S. Ninth District Coast Guard does not require navigational lights on any wind turbines that would be located in Lake Erie.
 

Will the project affect my property values?

Property values are determined by many factors, most of which are wholly unrelated to an offshore wind project that may or may not be present in the area.  Furthermore, when wind turbines are sited more than a few miles offshore – as our planned project will be – their presence is hardly noticeable during most weather and visibility conditions. Here is a study from New Jersey suggesting negligible impact of offshore wind projects on property values. Source: http://www.bpu.state.nj.us/bpu/pdf/announcements/njoswt.pdf