Multimedia > Noise, health > 200-metre high wind turbines as close as 700 metres from habitations

200-metre high wind turbines
as close as 700 metres from habitations

Estinnes, Hainaut, Belgium

The German company Enercon is supplying a windfarm with the biggest wind turbines in the world: they are 200 metres high.

At first the promoters Windvision had applied for a windfarm composed of 20 machines rating 2 or 3 MW each, but at the last moment they managed to impose wind turbines never used before, with a nameplate capacity of 6 MW, later increased to 7 MW without regard for existing legal requirements. The Walloon minister of energy and the European commissioner for energy inaugurated the windfarm in 2009. The European Commission effectively and directly supports this project.

The giant wind turbines are being erected as close as 700 metres from habitations. Six of them are already up and operating. There will be 11 in total. The neighbours are already complaining about the noise. Some of them were interviewed in their villages of Estinnes, Bray, and Vellereille: see the above video.