Authors

George W. Kamperman
Kamperman Associates, Inc.
george@kamperman.com

Richard R. James
E-Coustic Solutions
rickjames@e-coustic.com

Tentative presentation day and time: July 29 at 4 pm. Full schedule can be downloaded at the link below.

Abstract

Industrial scale wind turbines are a familiar part of the landscape in Europe, U.K. and other parts of the world. In the U.S. similar wind energy developments are just beginning operation. This will increase given the push by the Federal and State Governments to promote renewable energy sources through tax incentives and other forms of economic and political support. States and local governments in the U.S. are promoting very lenient rules for how industrial wind farms can be located in communities which are predominantly quiet and rural. Studies already completed and currently in progress describe significant health effects associated with living in the vicinity of industrial grade wind turbines. This paper reviews a number of sites with known health problems and the sound studies conducted by consultants for governments, the wind turbine owner, or the local residents. The purpose is determine if a set of simple guidelines using dBA and dBC sound levels can serve as the ‘safe' siting guidelines. Findings of the review and recommendations for sound limits will be presented. A discussion of how the proposed limits would have affected the existing sites where people have demonstrated pathologies apparently related to wind turbine sound will also be presented.

BACKGROUND

A relatively new source of community noise is spreading rapidly across the rural U.S. countryside. Industrial grade wind turbines, a common sight in many European countries, are now being promoted by Federal and State governments as the way to minimize coal powered electrical energy and its effects on global warming. But, the initial developments using the newer 1.5 to 3 MWatt wind turbines here in the U.S. has also led to numerous complaints from residents who find themselves no longer in the quiet rural communities they were living in before the wind turbine developments went on-line. Questions have been raised about whether the current siting guidelines being used in the U.S. are sufficiently protective for the people living the closest to the developments. Research being conducted into the health issues using data from established wind turbine developments is beginning to appear that leaves open the possibility that there is a basis for the health concerns. Other research into the computer modeling and other methods used for determining the layout of the industrial wind turbine developments and the distances from residents in the adjacent communities are showing that the output of the models should not be considered accurate enough to be used as the sole basis for making the siting decisions.

The authors have reviewed a number of noise studies conducted in response to community complaints for wind energy systems sited in Europe, Canada, and the U.S. to determine if additional criteria are needed for establishing safe limits for industrial wind turbine sound immissions in rural communities. In several cases, the residents who filed the complaints have been included in studies by medical researchers who are investigating the potential health risks associated with living near industrial grade wind turbines 365 days a year. These studies were also reviewed by the authors to help in identifying what factors need to be considered in setting criteria for ‘safe' sound limits at receiving properties. Due to concerns about medical privacy, details of these studies are not discussed in this paper.

Current standards used in the U.S. and in most other parts of the world rely on not-to-exceed dBA sound levels, such as 50 dBA, or on not-to-exceed limits based on the pre-construction background sound level plus an adder (e.g. L90A + 5 dBA).