Draft National Wind Farm Development Guidelines - July 2010

Establishing the minimum noise level limits for the various noise-sensitive receiver
locations outlined above consistent with limit-setting documents published by the
relevant authority;
How to address cumulative development;
Whether alternative noise criteria are permissible for stakeholders; and
What penalties may apply for noise characteristics, in particular tonality.
These issues are discussed below.
• Establishing noise level limits
The relevant authority will specify the noise level limits for the proposed development.
The developer should consult the relevant authority at an early stage to confirm how
the noise level limits will be set for the project.
As noted above, these Guidelines recommend that the noise level limit framework be
as defined in AS4959–2010 using A-weighted decibels, and include a minimum noise
level limit (that is, a lower bound) and variation of the minimum noise level limit during
periods of elevated background noise (a ‘background noise level +’ approach). At
this stage of the project, where the emphasis is on identifying ‘relevant receivers’, the
criteria of most interest are the minimum noise level limits.
A summary of minimum noise level limits that are commonly applied across the
different states and territories of Australia is provided in the following section.
• Existing state and territory noise level limits
A long term objective of these Guidelines is to provide explicit guidance on suitable
noise level limits for wind farm development. The development of such guidance
requires considerable coordination with existing state policies regarding noise emission
in general and wind farm noise emission in particular. Until such guidance has been
prepared, a summary of existing state and territory noise level limits is detailed in
Table B-2. This summary is accurate at the time of publication of these Guidelines.
It must be noted in reviewing the summary information that minimum noise level limits
and other summarised information depends critically on the method used to assess
compliance and this varies between jurisdictions and will also vary from these
Guidelines. The summary information may be used as a rough guide to how noise
criteria are currently set across states and territories. However, it may not be suitable
to directly compare information across different jurisdictions as the associated
assessment methods may vary.
Page 46 Draft National Wind Farm Development Guidelines – 2 July 2010