Technology

It does matter if the complaints are real or fabricated, turns out. Research on that topic confirmed that wind turbines generate very little infrasound, further reduced by their great distance from the ground. The amounts in question are less than that generated by other ubiquitous machines, so it is very safe to conclude that those complaints are phony, advanced by enemies of alternative energy.

I can't speak to the validity of these complaints, but there are a lot more motors running a lot faster in a data center than in a wind power generator, so it is at least plausible. The research will demonstrate if this complaint is valid or just more activism.

Just looked up, a windturbine has less infrasound then cars. (german Source) I would guess the datacenter could have more infrasound and thus be a bigger problem. They mention a study about windturbine infrasound and they point towards nocebo effect, but maybe windturbines are at a border where the health effects are very difficult to measure. So maybe studies about the infrasound of datacenters could find something. On the other hand, datacenters bring a lot more pollution factors, like light-, air- and waterpollution.

There's a wind farm near my house and I suppose they do make sound although the only time I was ever able to hear it was during the height of the lockdowns because there's a massive highway between me and them and that's definitely louder. They definitely don't produce infrared sound though, but way too big and the blades move way too slowly.

I dislike hypocrisy as much as the next person. So I feel where you're coming from. At the same time, the wind turbines are generating power that everyone benefits from, whereas these things are consuming power for a product that very few people actually like or even want to exist. So I think its fair to say that maybe the noise is tolerable when you're getting something you actually want out of it. Also, wind farms are usually built further away from large population centers, whereas data centers are because it's cheaper to build them in areas with lots of people around. So the concern does seem a little more irrelevant to wind farming as a whole than data centers.

Dude is just a wealth of interesting videos.

Edit and speaking of which.... He dropped this doozy today: https://youtu.be/lA8WuXDXfcI

they likely paid off the politicians before hand, remember janet mills in maine, she basically allowed one to be built and vetoed any measure to block it.

When they come up with it on their own, and push it relentlessly despite obvious and enormous resistance from the citizens, you know they been paid off handsomely.

aren't blind people more susceptible to auditory stimulus? wouldn't that skew the numbers?

/s

Yes, infrasound is a fairly well understood phenomenon. Loud noise at frequencies below 10 Hz isn't commonly picked up by recording equipment but can induce things like anxiety, nausea, and sleep problems. While recently wind power plants have sometimes been accused of generating it, it's also been caused by industrial fans and even resonance in a building's ductwork.

It wouldn't surprise me if a data center's AC caused enough noise at frequencies not normally monitored to become an issue.

Ultrasonic sounds (above 20 kHz) can cause physical symptoms in humans, particularly at high intensities ((>75\text{ dB})), including headaches, dizziness, nausea, ringing in the ears (tinnitus), and fatigue

Animal studies have demonstrated internal tissue alterations at specific frequencies and intensities

https://www.nature.com/nature-index/topics/l4/ultrasonic-exposure-effects-on-human-health

Ok technically it's energy not power, big deal. Sometimes electricity is colloquially called power.

You have to use the correct messaging - data centers are making kids gay and entitled! and are owned by progressive libs

/s

Make America Hard Again?