Wind turbine sound limits: Current status and recommendations based on mitigating noise annoyance

Davy, John L.; Burgemeister, Kym; Hillman, David R.

doi:10.1016/j.apacoust.2018.06.009

Cited by 24 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…This conversion assumes that the distribution of wind turbine sound levels is the same during the day, evening and night [7]. This is close to the wind turbine noise limit of L Aeq of 37 dB(A) determined by the committee [3] using the same requirement of keeping the percentage of the exposed population who are highly annoyed with wind turbines to less than 10%. In fact, reading the L den to the nearest 0.1 dB from both the mean average European curve and the Japanese curve in the Fig.…”

Section: Wind Turbine Sound Limitsmentioning

confidence: 69%

“…Committee members recently undertook a detailed review of the existing wind turbine sound limits in Australian states and several other countries with similar constraints, how these were established and a method that could facilitate their harmonisation [3]. It was found that most existing wind farm sound limits appear to have been adopted to avoid sleep disturbance but were developed using data derived from sound sources other than wind turbines.…”

Section: Wind Turbine Sound Limitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The committee's analysis suggests that an appropriate noise limit to ensure that no more than 10% of the population are 'highly annoyed' when exposed to wind farm noise is between 34 and 40 dB L Aeq (10 min) outside the residence, with a mean value of 37 dB L Aeq (10 min) [3]. The cut-off of 10% is somewhat arbitrary and itself could be a subject of informed debate.…”

Section: Wind Turbine Sound Limitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Review of the Potential Impacts of Wind Turbine Noise in the Australian Context

Davy

Burgemeister²,

Hillman

et al. 2020

Acoust Aust

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This manuscript describes a range of technical deliberations undertaken by the authors during their work as members of the Australian Government’s Independent Scientific Committee on Wind Turbines. Central to these deliberations was the requirement upon the committee to improve understanding and monitoring of the potential impacts of sound from wind turbines (including low frequency and infrasound) on health and the environment. The paper examines existing wind turbine sound limits, possible perceptual and physiological effects of wind turbine noise, aspects of the effects of wind turbine sound on sleep health and quality of life, low-frequency noise limits, the concept of annoyance including alternative causes of it and the potential for it to be affected by low-frequency noise, the influence of amplitude modulation and tonality, sound measurement and analysis and management strategies. In so doing it provides an objective basis for harmonisation across Australia of provisions for siting and monitoring of wind turbines, which currently vary from state to state, contributing to contention and potential inequities between Australians, depending on their place of residence.

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Section: Wind Turbine Sound Limitsmentioning

confidence: 69%

Section: Wind Turbine Sound Limitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Wind Turbine Sound Limitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Review of the Potential Impacts of Wind Turbine Noise in the Australian Context

Davy

Burgemeister²,

Hillman

et al. 2020

Acoust Aust

Self Cite

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“…It would also be useful to have some international agreement regarding the acceptable percentage of people who are highly annoyed by wind farm noise. Is 10% appropriate, as suggested by Davy et al [166], or should it be smaller (or larger)?…”

Section: Regulation and Compliancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Guidelines for drafting local wind regulations do exist [164,165] and a brief review of a number of existing regulations was provided by van Treuren [2]. A more detailed review was provided by Davy et al [166] who reviewed various annoyance studies and concluded that the A-weighted noise level that would result in less than 10% of people being highly annoyed in the absence of noticeable AM would be an L A90(10min) of 35 dBA, which would translate to an allowed L Aeq of 37 dBA. It seems that complaints could be minimised provided that the wind farm noise level at dwellings does not exceed 35 dBA, although many jurisdictions believe that this value is too low.…”

Section: Regulation and Compliancementioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Advances in Wind Turbine Noise Research

Hansen

2020

Acoustics

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This review is focussed on large-scale, horizontal-axis upwind turbines. Vertical-axis turbines are not considered here as they are not sufficiently efficient to be deployed in the commercial generation of electricity. Recent developments in horizontal-axis wind turbine noise research are summarised and topics that are pertinent to the problem, but are yet to be investigated, are explored and suggestions for future research are offered. The major portion of recent and current research on wind turbine noise generation, propagation and its effects on people and animals is being undertaken by groups in Europe, UK, USA, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Considerable progress has been made in understanding wind turbine noise generation and propagation as well as the effect of wind farm noise on people, birds and animals. However, much remains to be done to answer many of the questions for which answers are still uncertain. In addition to community concerns about the effect of wind farm noise on people and how best to regulate wind farm noise and check installed wind farms for compliance, there is considerable interest from turbine manufacturers in developing quieter rotors, with the intention of allowing wind farm installations to be closer to populated areas. The purpose of this paper is to summarise recent and current wind farm noise research work and the research questions that remain to be addressed or are in the process of being addressed. Topics that are the subject of on-going research are discussed briefly and references to recent and current work are included.

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