Don’t let industrial wind and solar ruin our views
SAVE OUR COUNTRYSIDES
The goal
Wind turbines and solar panels are quickly spreading across the country, ruining peaceful rural views and turning scenic farms and woodlands into an industrial patchwork of commercialized greed that benefits absentee, corporate, and often foreign interests at the expense of local residents.
Our goal is to raise awareness of this issue by providing information and resources about the true nature of the wind and solar industries, and to help community members understand how they can get involved in opposing the industrialization of our treasured countrysides.
The stakes
What we want isn’t complicated
We want to sit on the porch, enjoying the sunset and our beautiful views. We want some peace and quiet. We want a good night’s sleep.
You’d think these simple country pleasures—that don’t cost a penny—would be easy to keep, easy to protect. But we’re learning, the hard way, that’s not true.
Because right now politicians and foreign energy companies want to force the industrialization of our beautiful Fayette County countrysides by installing thousands of acres of solar panels and colossal 650-foot wind turbines. And they’re using manipulative politics and deceptive business practices to make that happen. This includes exaggerating benefits, trivializing noise pollution concerns, telling just one side of the story, peer pressure, high-pressure sales tactics like false deadlines, and secretly pitting neighbors against each other.
You have to protect the things you love
Help us Save Our Countrysides.
Watch & listen
Forest sounds before/after 21 wind turbines installed, Lowell Mountain, Vermont, 2013
Industrial noise and shadow flicker in the woods, Hoosac Wind Power Project, Forida, Massachusetts, 2022
The scale
Map of industrial wind and solar installations planned in NW Fayette County
SEE THE FULL MAP HERE: Fayette County Assessor - ARC-GIS - Interactive Parcel Map
BLUE PARCELS
Signed wind contracts
Plan is for 650-foot turbines, taller than the St. Louis Gateway Arch
GREEN PARCELS
Signed solar contracts
To fully comprehend what this plan will mean for our countrysides, take a Sunday drive past the huge industrial solar installation already built Northeast of Ramsey.
It will blow your mind.
Property devaluation
Projects similar to Fayette Wind
Total estimated devaluation for residential properties within 2 mile of wind turbines in Adams County, IL
-$6.5 million
[ -$9.5 million in today’s dollars ]
“Real estate sale data typically reveals a range of 25% to approximately 40% of value loss, with some instances of total loss as measured by abandonment and demolition of homes, some bought out by wind energy developers and others exhibiting nearly complete loss of marketability.”
—Michael McCann, Licensed Illinois Appraiser Sworn affidavit (testimony report) to Adams County Board, Quincy, IL, regarding wind turbine setbacks. 2010. p6. SEE ALSO p5–8, 13–16, 62–63
“…the land sales with an electric transmission line sold for 23% less than comparable land sales without a transmission line.”
— Kurt C. Kielisch, Appraisal Group One, Inc. “Valuation Guidelines for Properties with Electric Transmission Lines,” p3. 2013
“One realtor told me it wasn’t worth her marketing dollars to even list [our house] because if it was in the wind farm, she knew she couldn’t sell it. I mean have you ever heard of a real estate agent turning down a chance to sell a house?”
—Ann Wirtz, Oakfield, WI
Honestly
On top of having our sleep, peace, and quiet disrupted—and our views ruined—are we supposed to eat the cost of 35% property devaluation while an energy conglomerate in Poland makes millions of dollars off our land?
How bad could it be?
Farmer stories
Cedar Co. Family in turmoil after explosive turbine demolition scatters debris across farm (2024, Cedar County, Iowa)
Wind turbine fire in Mechanicsville could cost farmer millions (Mechanicsville, Iowa, 2024)
Fibreglass from shredded wind turbine blades renders farming land useless (Iowa, 2024)
Texas wind turbine caught fire after being struck by lightning (Crowell, Texas, 2022)
Iowa wind turbines engulfed in flames after tornado (Prescott, Iowa, 2024)
An open letter from a Wisconsin farmer who regrets signing a wind contract (Cambria, Wisconsin, 2011)
Four months later, New York hay farm is still unusable (Greenwood, New York, 2023)
Quality of life
Testimony to Public Service Commission (PSC) of Wisconsin
Noise from 400-foot turbines forced family to leave home and sell for $100,000 below appraised value
McCann Appraisal report
Appendix E: Wind farm noise - p 64 - 82 (see text in red)
Wind turbine noise log
Meyer Family - early days, Brownsville, WI
Life with the Dekalb Wind Turbines
“Like the sound of a jet plane overhead”
One that never lands, and you can’t turn off
Industrial wind turbine noise in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Be sure to read the caption on the video (especially if you’re a skeptic about wind turbine noise).
Here’s the sound of a single 250-foot turbine in Wales. Fayette Wind turbines will be 650-feet tall.
Watch this video
Then imagine your kid trying to focus on math homework.
Watch this video
Then imagine how much you’ll enjoy deer or mushroom hunting.
Watch this video
Then imagine trying to sleep through that infernal racket.
Noise pollution
Industrial noise
So much worse than expected, this family had to leave their home to be able to sleep
Dec 9, 2024. Ted Hartke talks through his personal account of a industrial wind complex built around him in rural Illinois.
[12:14] I would say this is about 10 or 10:30 p.m. or so, and it was noisy in the kids' bedrooms [from wind turbine noise].
My daughter…we'd already done the bedtime routine — bath, read a book, cuddle, and get her all relaxed and rub her back and all those things that parents do with little babies — and she was still agitated. It was noisy. It was noisy.
And she said, "I have an idea."
She jumped out of bed, ran to a toy box that we had upstairs, and she pulled out these Hello Kitty headphones. And she said, "Can I wear these to bed?"
I want to tell you, when that happened, I thought, “This is my house. This is not a tractor pull or a demolition derby. My kid shouldn't have to wear headphones to bed.”
And this was her doing this, not me.
This was a serious thing. I was almost too sad to take a photo, but I did. And months and months later, I finally showed this for the first time to people. This is a tough thing to show people.
“I want to tell you, I'm embarrassed and I'm ashamed. A wind farm was coming to my community, and I thought the stuff that you guys are hearing tonight was bullsh*t. I didn’t take it seriously. I had the attitude that “This isn’t something that’s going to happen to me. I’m really tough, I’m really professional, and I’m not weak. I’m going to be just fine.” So what I tell you, I want you to take to heart. It still hurts pretty bad, what we went through.”
—Ted Hartke
“The Result of Indifference to Wind Turbines - Ted Hartke and No to Peoria County Windmills" [2:22]
Who do you trust?
According to FireTrace International, “Wind turbine fires account for 10–30% of all catastrophic wind turbine accidents,” yet “91% of incidents are never reported.”
How can you trust companies that fail to report 91% of wind turbine incidents? These are not trivial risks.
Illinois has 50–54 tornadoes each year, and an average annual lightning count over 7 million (that’s 130 per square mile).
Rural, volunteer fire departments are unequipped to deal with a Combined Materials + Chemical fire burning 450 feet overhead. Additionally, they’re not allowed within the fall radius of the turbine, for safety reasons. Therefore, the standard protocol is to wait for the turbine fire to burn out.
So if a tornado or lightning causes a turbine fire (which happened to three (3) different turbines on one (1) Iowa farmer’s land, in less that a year and a half) expect to watch flaming debris rain down on your land from 450 up in the air—and pray it isn’t windy.
Get involved
Please send a message to our Fayette County Board members to let them know your thoughts on this issue. Encourage them to consider the significant and enduring impacts of wind turbines and solar panels on our lovely rural landscapes, and express your opposition to the further industrialization and commercialization of our peaceful countryside at the hands of absentee, corporate, and foreign interests.
Join us on Facebook
Contact us
For questions or more information, or to suggest ideas for how to help save our treasured landscapes, horizons, and views from becoming ugly industrial patchworks of wind and solar installations, please feel free to contact us.