International Legislation for Wind Turbine Noise
Regular paper
ARCADIS
Monday 1 june, 2015, 11:40 - 12:00
0.6 Madrid (49)
Abstract:
The analysis of wind turbine noise is considered an important aspect during
the planning process of wind farms. When developing new policy or
regulations for wind turbine noise governing authorities are interested in
reliable references from other countries in order to gauge their own
specific needs. Where regulations are lacking developers look for references
how to avoid or judge noise complaints. The public often refers to legislation
in other countries, but misinterpretations are quite common.
The intent of our study is to provide a comparison of wind turbine noise
regulations in the countries of Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, France,
United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, United
States of America, and Canada. Research shows numerous European countries
have strict regulations for wind turbine noise.Other countries describe the
use of turbine set back distances or impose a penalty for tonal or impulse
noise characteristics where regulatory noise limits, and the parameters to
describe these specific metrics, differ per
country.
In converse to Europe, the United States and Canada do not include national
legislation whereby deferring to local province, state, and county. In
instances where there is no wind turbine noise legislation, the applicable
threshold limits are enforced by standardized noise ordinances of the
governing jurisdiction or simply rely on national environmental noise
guidelines. Overall, research indicates that noise regulations implemented
for limiting wind turbine noise is shown to widely vary between these
countries. No common influence or application of metrics can be identified
between sampled jurisdictions. Depending on the noise metric used, the range
in noise impact threshold limits could be a difference of 20 decibels or
greater.
The findings of this study are proposed to further educate the governing
authorities, the wind industry and the public and assist to improve the
quality of advice within industry and governing authorities.