The Miaoli Windmill Struggle
Demonstrations against windmills in Yuanli, Miaoli were an early incident of youth activists going back to their hometowns to take up local causes prior to the Sunflower Movement
Demonstrations against windmills in Yuanli (苑裡), Miaoli (苗栗) were an early incident of youth activists going back to their hometowns to take up local causes prior to the Sunflower Movement. Namely, while youth activists generally are in support of green energy, activists began demonstrating windmills in Yuanli arguing that they had been causing significant wind pollution and that the low-frequency noise from the windmills caused by the windmills was causing wind turbine syndrome, which leads to sleeping disorder, headaches and dizziness.
Advertising for a May 2013 demonstration. Photo credit: TEIA/Facebook
This was reportedly because the German energy company which built the windmills, IntraVest, had ignored international safety standards in building the windmills too close to inhabited residential areas in defiance. As such, 20 students chained themselves to the windmills in April 2013 to call for their removal in a high-profile incident. This would not be the only high-profile incident to take place in Miaoli in the years leading up to the Sunflower Movement.