Consultation on the Assessment and rating of wind turbine noise guidance: proposed updates

The deadline for responses to the Consultation on the Assessment and rating of wind turbine noise guidance: proposed updates, is 29 August.  The Consultation can be found here

You can respond via the online platform Citizen’s Space.   You don’t have to answer all the questions if you don’t want to and can go straight to the final question and fill in the box which allows you to give any information that you believe should be considered.

Alternatively, you can put your thoughts into an email but you must make contact first of all via this email address to let them know that this is your preferred method of response. onshorewind@energysecurity.gov.uk 

We advise you to read both the Consultation Document and the Draft updated guidance: Assessment and rating of wind turbine noise before you start

In all honesty there really isn’t going to be much change in the revised Guidance but you may wish to respond to some of the main points below.

• Infrasound, ground borne vibration, and low frequency sound will not be assessed as their effects are considered negligible or suitably controlled by the proposed criteria.
• A single limit for both day and night time is proposed with day and night being calculated separately and the lower of the two at each wind speed taken as the limit at all times.  As before, it is a fixed limit or 5dB above background whichever is the greater but the day time fixed limit rises to 37-40dB.  The effect is that the night time fixed limit will be brought down to the day time limit so that’s a significant relaxation.
• The proposed Condition incorporates Amplitude Modulation (AM) and tones and seems reasonable.  It was suggested at the Conference in Copenhagen that tones might become more important with larger turbines.
• Turbines of different heights and blade length have varying noise characteristics (a small turbine sounds like a helicopter whereas a large turbine can sound like a plane circling overhead) due to the difference in rotation speeds. No consideration has been given to the extreme effect this can cause and the impact it can have on people who have to live surrounded by turbines of different sizes.

• Single properties will not get the same level of protection as multiple properties (within settlements.) The more dwellings that are in the vicinity of a wind farm, the lower the limits will be, as the total environmental impact will be greater.  Conversely when located near a low number of properties, they will increase or remain towards the upper end of the range.

We hope that is of some help and encourages you to respond.  It is always important to have your say.