Understanding noise impacts from industrial wind farms
Most communities doing their homework have concluded that in order to protect
residents from chronic noise pollution, sleeplessness, and the adverse health impacts
that result from excessive noise, setbacks from homes need to be about one mile.
SETBACKS
CRS Report for Congress: Wind Power in the United States, Technology,
Economic, and Policy Issues (see p. 34)
Jeffrey Logan and Stan Mark Kaplan, Specialists in Energy Policy
1 km (3,281 feet) setback
Ontario (Canada) Ministry of the Environment
1,000 meters (3,280 feet)
Rock County (Wisconsin)
Rock County Tax-Payers for a Better Renewable Energy Plan
2,640-foot setback
Union Township (Wisconsin)
2,640-foot setback
Union Township Final Report (see pp. 99ff.)
Blair County (Wisconsin)
2,500-foot setback
Potter County (Pennsylvania)
2,900-foot setback from residential property lines
Town of Allegany (New York)
2,500-foot setback from residential zone
Town of Lyme (New York)
4.500-foot setback from residential villages
George W. Kamperman, INCE Bd. Cert. Emeritus Kamperman Associates, Inc.
george@kamperman.com
Richard R. James, INCE E-Coustic Solutions rickjames@e-coustic.com
Simple guidelines for siting wind turbines to prevent health risks
1 km (3,280 feet) or more setback
French Academy of Medicine
1.5 km (.9-mile) setback
Trempealeau County (Wisconsin)
1-mile setback
National Wind Watch
1-mile setback
U.K. Noise Association (UKNA)
1-mile setback
U.K. Noise Association: 1 mile setback needed for wind turbines
Beech Ridge Wind Farm (West Virginia)
1 to 4 miles setback
Fayette County (Pennsylvania)
Deal reached in wind turbine dispute
6,000-foot (1.1 mile) setback
Noise Radiation from Wind Turbines Installed New Homes: Effects on Health
2 km (1.2 mile) setback
Location, Location, Location: An investigation into wind farms and noise by
the UK Noise Association (UKNA)
1 to 1.5 mile setback
summary
Are wind farm turbines making people sick? Some say yes.
1.5 mile setback
Dr. Nina Pierport
1.5 mile setback, more for mountainous geography
Health Effects of Wind Turbine Noise
Dr. Amanda Harry
1.5 mile setback
Riverside County (California)
2-mile setback
Welsh Select Affairs Committee (Wales)
Marjolaine Villey-Migraine
Docteur en sciences de l'information et de la communication, Université Paris II-
Panthéon-Assas, Sp. de l'Information Scientifique et Technique (IST)
5 km (3.1 miles)
Recommendations on the Siting of Windfarms in the Vicinity of Eskdalemuir,
Scotland (2005)
10 km (6.2-mile) setback (10.87 MB)
NUMERICAL NOISE STANDARDS
Ontario, Canada
Green Energy Act of 2009
noise levels at receptors can be no more than 40 dB(A)
World Health Organization
Guidelines for Community Noise (1999) (see Section 3.4)
night-time noise levels should be no more than 30 dB(A) in bedrooms
Minnesota Department of Health, Environmental Health Division
annoyance from non-tonal wind turbine noise should not be estimated from a dB(A) scale
because it includes a significant low frequency component; a 6 db "penalty" should be
added to dB(A) results
Ohio Department of Health, Bureau of Environmental Health
Literature Search on the Potential Health Impacts Associated with Wind-to-Energy Turbine Operations
noise levels should not exceed 35 dB(A) within one mile
Excerpts from the Final Report on the Township of Lincoln Wind Turbine Moratorium
Committee turbines add 5-20 dB(A) to the ambient sound; a 10 dB increase is perceived
as a doubling of noise level
Wind Farm Noise and Regulations in the Eastern United States
Second International Meeting on Wind Turbine Noise
USEPA, local noise ordinances, and noise standards various countries compared
Town of Allegany (New York)
no increase in noise from wind turbines more than 3 db(A) over background sound levels
within 2,500 feet of residences
Town of Ridgeville (Wisconsin)
no increase in noise from wind turbines more than 5 db(A) over background sound levels
NOISE AND HEALTH
American Wind Energy Association
Facts About Wind Energy and Noise
National Research Council, Environmental Effects of Wind Energy Projects (2007), ch. 4
World Health Organization
Fact Sheet No. 258, "Occupational and community noise"
World Health Organization
Community Noise (1995)
UKNA
Information Sheet
Low-Frequency Noise & Infrasound
UKNA Briefing Sheets
Alves-Pereira and Branco, Public health and noise exposure: the importance of
low frequency noise (2007)
Eja Pedersen, Human response to wind turbine noise – perception, annoyance and moderating factors (Ph.D. Thesis,
Univ. Goettingen 2007)
Eja Pedersen and Kerstin PerssonWaye, Wind turbines—low level noise sources
interfering with restoration [rest and recovery from mental fatigue]? (2008)
Barbara J. Frey and Peter J. Hadden, Noise Radiation from Wind Turbines Installed
Near Homes: Effects on Health with an annotated review of the research and
related issues (2007)
Erik Rudolphi, Wind turbine noise emission: Wind speed measurents below hub hight give
poor accuracy (2003)
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (UK), Low Frequency Noise (2001)
Dr. Nina Pierport
Noisy Wind and Hot Air
Dr. Nina Pierport
Wind Turbine Syndrome - testimony before the New York State Legislature Energy Committee
Dr. Nina Pierport
excerpt from rebuttal to Noble Environmental's Draft Environmental Impact Statement
regarding noise, shadow flicker, and health
Renewable Energy Research Laboratory, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering,
University of Massachusetts at Amherst, "Wind Turbine Acoustic Noise: A White Paper"
"Anti-noise" Silences Wind Turbines
New England Wind Forum: Wind Turbine Sound
U.S. Department of Energy
Noise Radiation from Wind Turbines Installed Near Homes: Effects on Health
with an annotated review of the research and related issues
by Barbara J Frey, BA, MA and Peter J Hadden, BSc, FRICS
Noise pollution from wind turbines
September 20, 2007 by Julian Davis and S. Jane Davis
Publications of the Acoustics Laboratory and the Department of Acoustics,1974-present
acoustics.aau.dk/publications/pubframe.html
A unique technology - Auralisation - lets you listen to the future sounds before making
important and costly decisions
Contact: Specialist Soren Vase Legarth
svg@delta.dk
Tel. +45 72 19 46 10
Simple guidelines for siting wind turbines to prevent health risks
George W. Kamperman, INCE Bd. Cert. Emeritus Kamperman Associates, Inc.
george@kamperman.com
Richard R. James, INCE E-Coustic Solutions rickjames@e-coustic.com
The "How To" Guide to Siting Wind Turbines to Prevent Health Risks from Sound
George W. Kamperman PE and Richard R. James INCE
Low Frequency Noise from Large Wind Turbines
Delta Project EFP-06. Client: Danish Energy Authority
Second International Meeting on Wind Turbine Noise (Abstracts)
Lyon, France. September 20-21, 2007
Acoustic Trauma: Bioeffects of Sound
Alex Davies BFS Honours
A Review of Published Resarch on Low Frequency Noise and its Effects
Report for Defra by Dr. Geoff Leventhall
Noise Background
DART (Dorest Against Rural Turbines)
Project WINDFARMperception
Visual and acoustic impact of wind turbine farms on residents
Wind turbines more annoying than expected
G.P. van den Berg
Wind turbines at night: acoustical practice and sound research
Science Shop for Physics, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
G. P. Van den Berg
Effects of the wind profile at night on wind turbine sound
Journal of Sound and Vibration, 277 (2004), 955–970
summary
G. P. Van den Berg
The Beat is Getting Stronger: The Effect of Atmospheric Stability on Low Frequency
Modulated Sound of Wind Turbines
Journal of Low Frequency Noise, Vibration and Active Control, 24:1 (2005), 1-24
Effects of the wind profile at night on wind turbine sound
Journal of Sound and Vibration
Vibroacoustic Disease
N.A.A. Castelo Branco and M. Alves-Pereira
Wind Turbine Acoustic Noise
Renewable Energy Research Laboratory
a distance of 200 meters (656 feet), a single 2.5 MW Nordex N80 wind turbine
generates 95 decibels of low frequency sound, G-weighted (10 Hz)
Nine-News (Australia), "Electric Nightmares" (unexpected noise levels cause headaches,
sleeplessness and result in people vacating their homes)
LOCAL BANS ON INDUSTRIAL WIND PROJECTS
More than twelve New York towns have banned industrial-sized wind power plants
(although allowing small turbines), based in part on finding unacceptable noise impacts:
Malone (Franklin Co.), Brandon (Franklin Co.), Italy (Yates Co.), Bovina (Delaware Co.),
Castile (Wyoming Co.) and Warsaw (Wyoming Co.).
Contact us if you'd like a copy of their local laws.
ANALYZING THE WIND ENERGY INDUSTRY
Stop Ill Wind
The Top Ten False and Misleading Claims the Windpower Industry Makes for Projects in the
Eastern United States
Misplaced State Government Faith in "Wind Energy"
An Analysis and Report by Glenn R. Schleede
Rural Power
Community-Sealed Renewable Energy and Rural Economic Development
John Farrell and David Morris
jfarrell@ilsr.org
dmorris@ilsr.org
Cellulose Prairie
Biomass Fuel Potential
By Brett Hulsey
Better Environmental Solutions
AUDIO-VISUAL RECORDINGS OF WIND FARM NOISE, SHADOW FLICKER AND
CONTROVERSY
