From the MailOnline:
When Stephen Munday spent £20,000 on a wind turbine to generate electricity for his home, he was proud to be doing his bit for the environment.
He got planning permission and put up the 40ft device two years ago, making sure he stuck to strict noise level limits.
But neighbours still complained that the sound was annoying - and now the local council has ordered him to switch it off.
Officials declared that the sound - which Mr Munday says is 'the same pitch as a dishwasher and quieter than birdsong' - constituted a nuisance, and issued a Noise Abatement Order...
The turbine generated five kilowatts of electricity a day - the equivalent of boiling 300 kettles - and provided two-thirds of the family's energy needs. It also saved them an average of £500 a year in electricity costs.
The wishful free-market economist in me asks: Where's Coase when we need him? Doesn't this seem like a perfect case where bargaining should work (and didn't)?
The practical (cheap?) home-improvement do-it-yourselfer in me asks: What is the useful life of a personal wind turbine? Saving 500 pounds a year, the turbine is going to have to have a useful life of over 40 years to recover the 20,000 pound investment.
The idiot in me asks: How do you get a pound symbol from a U.S. keyboard?
