The sounds of high winds

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legitimate problems [Wolsink 1990]. It is sad that most of the proponents still emanate a WARYDU attitude (We Are Right but You Don’t Understand). When real complaints are not addressed seriously, the “new Dutch disease” may well become an Australian, British, Chinese or any nation’s disease. In the Netherlands assessment of wind turbine noise still is according to the old standard procedure (with one exception, see chapter VII), assuming a neutral atmosphere at all times, even though this has been admitted to be wrong for more than a year now. 1 Consultants apparently are afraid to be critical, perhaps because they don’t want to jeopardize new assignments or because a change in assessment implies they were not correct before (they were not correct, but we were wrong collectively). Though most consultants claim to be impartial, the problem of ‘not biting the hand that feeds’ is more subtle, as I concluded in an earlier desk study on the quality of acoustic reports [Van den Berg 2000]. E.g., it involves authorities who do not question the position of paid experts, and a society hiding political decisions behind the demand for more research. I hope other countries do not to follow the Dutch way: first denying the consistency and legitimacy of the complaints, then being late in addressing them and in the end finding this has created more opposition. It is evident that also in the UK there are (a few?) serious complaints from honest people that are not dealt with adequately. In at least some cases atmospheric stability again seems to offer an explanation for observations of unpleasant wind turbine noise by residents (see example in box on next page), but the matter has not been investigated correctly. 1 In March 2004 I showed in an article in ‘Geluid’, a Dutch professional journal, how to deal with non-neutral atmospheric conditions within the existing legal procedures [Van den Berg 2004c]; in July 2004 the Ministry of Housing, Environment and Spatial Planning advised to investigate the ‘wind climate’ at new wind farm locations (letter on “Beoordeling geluidmetingen Natuurkundewinkel RUG bij De Lethe, gem. Bellingwedde” to Parliament by State Secretary van Geel, June 21, 2004); in the 2005 Annual report of BLOW, a union of local, provincial and national authorities to promote wind energy development, it is recognized that the effect of wind shear still should be addressed, but no action is announced (Annual report BLOW 2005, January 2006). 7
NOISE FROM WINDFARM MAKING LIFE A MISERY A recent settler in Caithness claimed yesterday his life is being blighted by ghostly noises from his new neighbours, the county's first large-scale windfarm. (…..) Mr Bellamy said: "The problem is particularly bad at night when I try to get to sleep and there's a strong wind coming from the direction of the turbines. "They just keep on droning on. It's a wooh wooh type of sound, a ghostly sort of noise. It's like torture and would drive anyone mad." Mr Bellamy believes the noise is being transmitted through the ground since it seems to intensify when he lies down. He said he has got nowhere with complaints to the wind company and environmental health officers. "I feel I'm just getting fobbed off and can't get anyone to treat me seriously," he said. Mr Bellamy has been asked to take noise readings every 10 minutes during problem times, something he claims is unrealistic to expect him to do. He said the company's project manager Stuart Quinton-Tulloch said they could not act until it had proof of unacceptable noise levels. Mr Bellamy said: "I'm not the moaning type and I have no problem with the look of the windmills. I'm not anti-windfarm. It's just the noise which is obviously not going to go away." (…..) Highland Council's principal environment officer Tom Foy who has been dealing with Mr Bellamy's complaint was unavailable for comment. His colleague David Proudfoot said he was aware of noise complaints about the Causewaymire turbines being lodged by two other residents, but said he had gone out several times and found no evidence to support the concerns. Part of an article in Press and Journal of Aberdeen, 25 May 2005 8
Page 1 and 2: The sounds of high winds the effect
Page 3 and 4: Promotores: prof dr ir H. Duifhuis
Page 5 and 6: Contents I WIND POWER, SOCIETY, THI
Page 7 and 8: VII THINKING OF SOLUTIONS: measures
Page 10 and 11: I WIND POWER, SOCIETY, THIS BOOK: a
Page 12 and 13: esidents) noticed the discrepancy b
Page 14 and 15: that even though wind turbines did
Page 18 and 19: Thinking that this could perhaps be
Page 20 and 21: gas must keep flowing” . 1 I do n
Page 22 and 23: sound and the noise that wind produ
Page 24: combined with the corresponding sec
Page 27 and 28: calculated one and whether sound ch
Page 29 and 30: annoying turbine sound at distances
Page 31 and 32: was 57.9 dB, with a maximum deviati
Page 33 and 34: not correct at night, although the
Page 36 and 37: III BASIC FACTS: wind power and the
Page 38 and 39: 0.1. In a stable atmosphere vertica
Page 40 and 41: With regard to wind power some atte
Page 42 and 43: III.4 Main sources of wind turbine
Page 44 and 45: High frequency: trailing edge (TE)
Page 46: So, what's the sound like...? (....
Page 49 and 50: Figure IV.2: turbines (dots W1….W
Page 51 and 52: L Wj , assumed identical for all k
Page 53 and 54: IV.1. As explained above, the wind
Page 55 and 56: sound level in the measurement inte
Page 57 and 58: Leq,5 min in dB(A) 50 45 40 35 30 A
Page 59 and 60: The same lines as in figure IV.5B,
Page 61 and 62: at hub height, not to a variation i
Page 63 and 64: IV.10.1 Measured and calculated imm
Page 65 and 66: wind farm to the measurement locati
Page 67 and 68:
spherical divergence, that is: prop
Page 69 and 70:
Thus, the logarithmic wind profile,
Page 71 and 72:
There are now three factors influen
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direction may change significantly.
Page 75 and 76:
V.2 Measurement results V.2.1 Locat
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P48 microphone. The sound was then
Page 79 and 80:
1/3 octave band Lp in dB 1/3 octave
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1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 A B 8
Page 83 and 84:
same magnitude as close to the turb
Page 85 and 86:
In figure V.5 the equivalent 1/3 oc
Page 87 and 88:
Also plotted in figure V.7 is the v
Page 89 and 90:
V.3 Perception of wind turbine soun
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kHz. For wind turbines we found tha
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V.4 Conclusion Atmospheric stabilit
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VI STRONG WINDS BLOW UPON TALL TURB
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(hub height) wind velocity is 4 m/s
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For the hourly progress of wind vel
Page 102 and 103:
In figure VI.5 the frequency distri
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when V 80 was over 4 m/s. Such a de
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dunes on the North Sea coast, Vliss
Page 108 and 109:
when based on extrapolated wind vel
Page 110 and 111:
The differences between actual and
Page 112 and 113:
hours. This corresponds to an avara
Page 114 and 115:
VII THINKING OF SOLUTIONS: measures
Page 116 and 117:
stability. The turbine thus operate
Page 118 and 119:
sound level was measured close to a
Page 120 and 121:
This type of control can also be ac
Page 122 and 123:
consecutive periods of 15 minutes i
Page 124 and 125:
increase of blade pitch with tilt (
Page 126 and 127:
elatively quiet areas as it control
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VIII RUMBLING WIND: wind induced so
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Finally, in this overview, Boersma
Page 132 and 133:
The friction created by wind shear
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the eddy relative to the screen sur
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(L at,1/3 ~ -26.7·logf), but press
Page 138 and 139:
VIII.3 Comparison with experimental
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the small size of the unscreened mi
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A B reduced pressure level Lred (dB
Page 144 and 145:
microphone, in a 9 cm foam cylinder
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plotted is the calculated screening
Page 148 and 149:
VIII.5 Applications As microphone w
Page 150 and 151:
IX GENERAL CONCLUSIONS The research
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modulation frequencies close to 4 H
Page 154 and 155:
Results from various onshore, relat
Page 156 and 157:
limits, but nighttime immission lev
Page 158 and 159:
X EPILOGUE This is the end of my to
Page 160 and 161:
“….. about 80 per cent of the p
Page 162 and 163:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to express m
Page 164 and 165:
SUMMARY Ch. III Ch. II Ch. I This s
Page 166 and 167:
and as a result layers of air are l
Page 168 and 169:
500 kW. However, based on the real,
Page 170 and 171:
well known for an unobstructed wind
Page 172 and 173:
SAMENVATTING Bobby vraagt: 'Hoort u
Page 174 and 175:
Vaak wordt aangenomen dat er een va
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gebleken dat de menselijke gevoelig
Page 178 and 179:
Bij een windpark kunnen de fluctuat
Page 180 and 181:
REFERENCES Archer C.L. and Jacobson
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Kerkers A.J. (1999): “Windpark Rh
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Petersen E.L., Mortensen N.G., Land
Page 186 and 187:
Van Ulden, A.P. and Wieringa J. (19
Page 188 and 189:
APPENDICES 179
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dB(G): unit of level after G-weight
Page 192 and 193:
u f : rms longitudinal component of
Page 194 and 195:
downwind turbine with an 80 m tubul
Page 196 and 197:
and total trailing edge immission s
Page 198 and 199:
So for a modern turbine at high spe
Page 200 and 201:
45 wind E (100 gr) 20 Leq (A) Leq,5
Page 202 and 203:
Wiens brood men eet, ….. Een plei
Page 204 and 205:
Vochtproblemen in woningen Venuslaa
Page 206 and 207:
Geluidsbelasting van een windturbin
Page 208 and 209:
Metingen van laagfrequent geluid in
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