Differences in noise requirements for wind turbines in four European countries
Regular paper
M+P
Monday 1 june, 2015, 12:20 - 12:40
0.6 Madrid (49)
Abstract:
The wind power industry is internationally oriented. If rules and regulations were harmonized wind turbine manufacturers and operators would be able to operate in foreign countries more easily. A successful example of this is the IEC 61400 which features a set of diverse requirements to ensure that wind turbines are appropriately engineered and built. Part 11 of IEC-61400 presents measurement procedures in order to characterize noise emissions of a wind turbine. Emission measurements in conformity with this norm are being accepted by most countries.
Contrastingly, the requirements concerning determination and assessment of noise immission levels are not harmonized. Although a lot of European countries recently drafted new rules and regulations which are specific to wind turbines, a national approach was taken by every single one of these countries. This led to a proliferation of different noise indicators and sound propagation models, whilst still working with uniform emission data. There are also a number of different requirements for dealing with low-frequency noise and the tonal or impulsive noise character of wind turbine noise emissions. Furthermore EU member states use different norms to characterize types of environments like urban, rural and natural areas. The resulting fact is that noise levels allowed in these countries are all but comparable.
During the lecture we will address the rules and regulations in four different Western European countries: Germany, The Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium. Subsequently we will use calculations to show where and in what situation turbine operators encounter the least limitations when building wind turbines. In which country can wind turbines be built closest to dwellings?