This was in the 90s when they must have been relatively new.
Actually, davidm, many of them failed when they were relatively new, and were not repaired.
That would explain it.
I had the same experience. Stopped at one in Indiana (there’s a giant windfarm on I-65 north of Indianapolis). It hardly made a sound. Is there an older design that is more noisy?
Same here. On a road trip the wife and I stopped at a group of them out in the desert. A hundred feet away and we still couldn’t hear anything other than a vague rhythmic wind noise.
And, like others, I completely disagree with the OP on the aesthetics of windmills. I think they’re actually quite pretty. I’d certainly rather see a hundred windmills from my front door than one power plant, nuclear or otherwise.
Is there a type of wind turbine that attracts Canada geese? Because my cat ain’t doing shit about them.
The entire global economy is in danger
But somehow the governments can afford fans for cows
Say **no **to fans for cows
if they don’t need all of the capacity, they can stop unneeded turbines. When I was headed to Tilbury last weekend in the early morning, most of the turbines on the north side of 401 were stopped, while the ones on the south side were operating.
Farmer McDonald takes revenge on Farmer John by blowing cattle farts in his general direction.
Keep your pet cats inside. PROBLEM SOLVED.
It’s better for the cat’s lifespan too.
Those bastards! It’s not like the birds forced them to climb up those turbines! 
Thanks to all for bringing to light the awful social problem that dared not speak its name…Cats Up On Wind Turbines.
This is kinda what I was going to say. At least in the US, these wind farms are in mostly sparsely populated areas that have super long stretches of flat land where…it’s windy! So that alone kinda kills two birds with one stone (natch) as to the OP’s claim about “noise driving people away” and that they’re ugly and cluttering up the landscape.
I live in the Cincinnati area and am regularly in all three joined states (KY, OH, IN), where there’s some pretty rural areas and I have never seen one in real life.
See? Now I’m picturing lazy rural cats just hanging out under the wind turbines looking for dead birds. Why hunt when there’s (allegedly) an all you can eat buffet under every turbine?
At least it is not mustard on wind turbines.
I will note at this point that the OP has not posted in this thread since creating it.
Is the OP a cowardly little bitch who is unable to defend his/her position?
Or a troll?
Just wanted to note that it isn’t just being hit by turbines that kills flying animals. Bats can have their lungs explode or other barotrauma from the pressure changes alone.
I’m pro-turbine, I just like saying “barotrauma” 
Not having been through the northern great plains states, I can’t say how many wind farms are there, but at least half the wind farms I’ve seen have been atop hills, and the ones in Texas do uglify the mesas in my opinion. The others do as well but they aren’t in places I’d normally go for their beauty, and coal mines uglify the terrain as well.
Plus I’m a weirdo who generally likes the look of power plants. I think a wind farm in the same place as a power plant tends to be uglier in the balance. Now, how much should we be willing to spend to make sure they aren’t uglying up the terrain too much? This is one case in which the “starving children in Africa” argument is valid IMO: until we get rid of billboards, which are even uglier and more commonplace, we should be able to live with wind farms.
Oddly enough, noise-wise, I’ve never been close enough to a wind farm to hear it, so I think power plants are noisier than wind farms!
You say that as if they were mutually-exclusive clubs.
So everyone who doesn’t agree with you is either a troll or a whiny little bitch, eh?