Psycho-Acoustic Survey on Wind Turbine Noise and Its Environmental Impact

Abstract

India holds the fourth position in terms of installed wind power with an installed capacity of 40.788GW in July 2022. The country has set itself a national target of 60 GW by 2022. Wind energy still leaves small-scale impacts on the environment and human health. Advanced technologies emerged to make quitter turbines, still, the noise emitted is a cause of concern, especially in the habitats close to the installations. The present study aimed to assess the sensation of annoyance due to the wind turbine’s (WT) noise. in the adjoining inhabited area. An interactive questionnaire survey is conducted in six villages from the three districts in the state of Tamil Nadu. The study group comprised 47 subjects belonging to different age groups profession. The basic objective of conducting the health survey is to understand the influence of wind turbine noise (WTN) on the lifestyle of the common masses residing in the surrounding wind farms. While framing the legislation, noise annoyance due to WTN should be considered with utmost importance, since WTN is more distressing than common sources of noise. From the social and psycho-acoustical survey, it was found that sleep disturbance due to ambient noise is more concern, and also the adult population who participated in the survey attributed the loss of rainfall as the main problem faced due to the advent of the WTs and the Noise from the WTs