A recent report by the Energy and Policy Institute documents the rejection of anti-wind health claims by 48 courts and tribunals in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the US. In one anomalous US case, two turbines which had had a known problem were ordered to be shut down 12 hours a day, four hours longer a day than the owner planned.
According to the report, wind opponents’ health claims have been rejected in almost all cases.
“Since 1998, 49 hearings have been held under rules of legal evidence in at least five English-speaking countries and four types of courts [and tribunals] regarding wind energy, noise, and health. Forty-eight assessed the evidence and found no potential for harm to human health. The sole outlier is an instructive but unique case….
Courts in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands have also found no connection between wind turbines and health issues per reports, but the records are not in English…
Canada is the center of wind farm health-related court challenges, with 17 separate hearings for its 7.8 GW of wind energy capacity and a population of 35 million. This is mostly due to Ontario, with 14 Environmental Review Tribunal (ERT) decisions and two higher court cases. …All Canadian courts found that wind farms would not and do not cause health impacts with proper setbacks in place. …
As of July 2014, there is roughly one court case per 10 million people and for every two GW of wind energy to date for English speaking countries:
An important conclusion can be reached in reviewing the various courts’ decisions – many people put forward as expert witnesses bring a great deal of passion against wind energy, but very little expertise. See the section on inexpert ‘experts’.