Wisconsin Wind Information Center

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Mission Statement:

The Wisconsin Wind Information Center is the central resource devoted to informing the public and policy makers on wind projects over 100 kilowatts in Wisconsin.  The facts, policies, and histories of large scale wind projects will serve to describe the paths taken towards greater social acceptance of large-scale wind energy in the state.

This project is undertaken by RENEW Wisconsin and funded by a grant from the United States Department of Energy. 

Please follow the Small Wind Toolbox link below for a comprehensive guide to establishing small wind projects in Wisconsin.

 

Wind Information Studies

Wisconsin Resource Study Reports

• Harnessing Wisconsin's Energy Resources: An Initial Investigation Into Great Lakes Wind Development (January 2009)- A Report to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin DOCKET 5-EI-144
• Offshore Wind Study (July 2004)- author Robert Owen, Jr.

Supply & Transmission Studies

• Wind Energy Transmission Economics Assessment
  Prepared For WPPI Energy Sun Prairie, Wisconsin
  Project No. 55056 prepared byBurns & McDonnell Engineering Company, Inc., Kansas City, Missouri
  March 2010
  
• A GIS Method for Developing Wind Supply Curves
  by David Kline, Donna Heimiller, and Shannon Cowlin
  Prepared under Task No. WF1F.1020
  Technical Report NREL/TP-670-43053 June 2008
• The Cost of Transmission for Wind Energy: A Review of Transmission Planning Studies
  by Andrew Mills, Ryan Wiser, and Kevin Porter
  Environmental Energy Technologies Division-LBL
  February 2009

Environmental Studies

• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Land-Based Wind Energy Guidelines. Released March 23, 2012. Link to Guidelines website.
• 2 page FACT SHEET - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s final Voluntary Land-Based Wind Energy Guidelines
• Strategic Health Impact Assessment on Wind Energy Development in Oregon Public Comment Release: January 3rd, 2012. Link to Oregon Public Health Report site.
• Wind Turbine Health Impact Study: Report of Independent Expert Panel January 2012 Prepared for: Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Link to study website. Among conclusions:
  • There is no evidence for a set of health effects characterized as “wind turbine syndrome.” The evidence collected so far indicates that the sounds beyond the range of human hearing range cannot affect the human balance system.
    
  • The weight of the evidence suggests no association between noise from wind turbines and psychological distress or other mental health problems.
  • None of the epidemiological evidence reviewed points directly to an association between noise from wind turbines and pain and stiffness, diabetes, high blood pressure, tinnitus, other hearing impairments, cardiovascular disease or headache/migraine.
  • Scientific evidence suggests that the flickering shadows of the turbines do not pose a risk of causing seizures.
• Weller, Theodore J.; Baldwin, James A. 2011. Using echolocation monitoring to model bat occupancy and inform mitigations at wind energy facilities. Journal of Wildlife Management. 9999:1–13.
• An Assessment of Research on the Ecological Impacts of Wind Energy in the Great Lakes Region, Great Lakes Wind Collaborative, Great Lakes Commission, November 2011
  Report is also available from the Great Lakes Wind Collaborative web site. Contact: Becky Pearson, 734-971-9135, bpearson@glc.org
• Post‐Construction Bat and Bird Fatality Study at the Blue Sky Green Field Wind Energy Center, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin July 21, 2008 – October 31, 2008 and March 15, 2009 – June 4, 2009 (Related to CPCN# 6630-CE-294), Western EcoSystems Technology, Inc., December 2009
• A Landscape Scale Decision Support Tool for Monitoring Bird and Bat Migration Across Wisconsin Prepared by: Manuel Suarez, US Geological Survey Patricia Heglund – US Fish and Wildlife Service Robert Kratt, Media Specialist – US Geological Survey Eileen Kirsch, U.S. Geological Survey, July 2008
• Evaluating Bird and Bat Migration in the Upper Mississippi River Valley and Its Implications for Siting Wind Energy Facilities: A Workshop Series for Resource Agencies and Wind Developers
  Prepared by: Brian Bub and Jon Gumtow, Project Coordinators, Natural Resources Consulting, Inc. Barbara Behlke, Facilitator, Behlke Consulting, Inc. Richard Purdy, Ph.D., Administrator, River Country Resource Conservation and Development Council, Inc.

Property Value Studies

• The Impact of Wind Power Projects on Residential Property Values in the United States: A Multi-Site Hedonic Analysis
  by Ben Hoen, Ryan Wiser, Peter Cappers, Mark Thayer, and Gautam Sethi, Environmental Energy Technologies Division-LBL, December 2009
  
  
• Wind Farm Proximity and Property Values: A Pooled Hedonic Regression Analysis of Property Values in Central Illinois by Jennifer L. Hinman, Illinois State University, May 2010
  
  
• Impact on the Value of Surrounding Properties, Rosiere and Lincoln Wind Farms, Kewaunee County, Wisconsin (pages 16-27) -- from "A Real Estate Study of the Proposed Lee-DeKalb Wind Energy Center, Prepared for FPL Energy Illinois Wind, LLC" by Poletti and Associates, Inc., March 2009 (13MB)
  provided courtesy of NextEra Energy

UK Shadow Flicker Study

Update of UK Shadow Flicker Evidence Base. Reported for DECC prepared by Parsons Brinckerhoff.To enable the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change to advance current understanding of the shadow flicker effect, this report details the findings of an investigation into the phenomenon of shadow flicker.

The study concludes "On health effects and nuisance of the shadow flicker effect, it is considered that the frequency of the flickering caused by the wind turbine rotation is such that it should not cause a significant risk to health. Mitigation measures which have been employed to operational wind farms such as turbine shut down strategies, have proved very successful, to the extent that shadow flicker can not be considered to be a major issue in the UK." 

1. Section 1 is the introduction    
2. Section 2 provides a review of guidance on shadow flicker from countries across the world. 
3. Section 3 is an academic literature review, investigating the current understanding of the phenomenon.
4. Section 4 examines software models which are available to allow the assessment of shadow flicker on proposed developments.
5. Section 5 includes information from the respondents to the questionnaires which were sent to developers and planning authorities. 
6. Section 6 collates information from the preceding four sections and provides a discussion of ten key themes and issues that were identified during the study.
7. Section 7 provides conclusions. 

Update of UK Shadow Flicker Evidence Base (PDF, 1,626Kb) 

Full details, including a summary of the report are available on the Onshore wind: shadow flicker web page.