Draft National Wind Farm Development Guidelines - July 2010

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time after planning permission is granted and prior to construction and operation of the wind farm when no visual cues of the development may be easily observed on site. Moreover, the relevant authority should consider restricting future noise-sensitive development in areas which are within the minimum noise level limit contour. Community consultation Consultation with the community should be on-going during this phase. Final wind farm noise emission contours should be made available at relevant authority offices and, if practicable, on their website. Prepare complaints handling procedures A procedure should be developed, prior to construction activities commencing, to handle any complaints of construction noise. Similar procedures should concurrently be developed for implementation during operations and decommissioning stages. Complainants should be requested to keep a diary or sound log where they can note times of day and associated weather conditions when they consider wind farm noise emission to be particularly annoying. The sound log can include a description of the type of sound heard. This information can be used by the investigating group to help try and identify meteorological conditions, particularly wind speed and direction, where the wind farm noise emission is most problematic. The complaints procedures should detail how to lodge complaints and the type of response to be expected. Undertake construction noise monitoring (as required) Construction noise monitoring should be carried out, as required, in accordance with either specified planning permit conditions or construction noise regulations applicable in the jurisdiction where the wind farm development is occurring. Address incoming complaints (as required) Complaints should be addressed according to the complaints handling procedures as well as any requirements of state/territory guidance for complaints about construction noise. B.4.4 Operations The Operations stage of the wind farm should include unattended post-construction noise monitoring for a sufficient period of time to demonstrate compliance with the noise criteria under expected worst-case conditions. Additional attended monitoring, assessment of noise characteristics or Sound Power Level (LW) testing may also be required in particular cases as identified below. The tasks to be carried out during this phase are detailed below. Community consultation Community consultation should be on-going with specific attention to operational noise issues and assessment against noise criteria and any additional planning permit criteria. Page 56 Draft National Wind Farm Development Guidelines – 2 July 2010
Undertake unattended monitoring to assess compliance with noise level limits • Approach to sound indices Establishing noise level limits requires review of measured LA90,T noise levels, a process which may be repeated during the post-construction noise monitoring phase to demonstrate actual compliance with noise level limits. Concurrently, noise emission predictions are carried out typically using sound power level data described in terms of LAeq. This may have caused some confusion in previous noise impact assessments. These Guidelines recommend an approach as follows. The direct measurement of LAeq from the wind farm, which is outlined in Methodology 2 in Section 7.4 of AS4959–2010, may be a difficult and time consuming process due to the varied amount of extraneous noise. For this reason the method discussed below in Monitoring at the background noise level monitoring location, which is comparable to Methodology 1 in Section 7.3 of AS4959–2010, is intended to be a simple method and is likely to be conservative. A minimum of 1.5dB needs to be added to the LA90 noise levels to obtain the LAeq noise levels. • Monitoring at the background noise level monitoring location Unattended monitoring should be carried out as detailed in Section 7.3 of AS4959– 2010. While the Standard does not consider this monitoring to be required in every circumstance it is the recommendation of these Guidelines that, in most cases, unattended monitoring should be carried out for a sufficient period to demonstrate compliance with noise level limits across a range of weather conditions which, in the least, includes the worst case conditions where the margin between wind farm noise emission and noise level limits is at a minimum. If not specified, for example, in planning permit conditions, the proposed length of post-construction noise monitoring should be agreed with the relevant authority prior to commencement of monitoring. Indicatively, at least several months of monitoring may be required to clearly demonstrate compliance with noise level limits. The costs of monitoring should be borne by the operator. Monitoring data should be used for analysis and assessment according to Sections 7.3.4 and 7.3.5 of AS4959–2010. Where compliance with the noise level limits is demonstrated through the proposed monitoring period without significant issue, further unattended monitoring is unlikely to be required. With unattended measurements it is generally only ever possible to demonstrate compliance with assessment criteria. In the case that measurements suggest noncompliance there will be doubt as to whether the measured levels are dominated by wind farm noise emission or some other source. One particular scenario when this is likely is where the background noise environment at the monitoring location, in the absence of wind farm noise emission, has become louder. This may be a result of new trees having been planted around the monitoring location, or an increase in foliage on trees relative to when the original background noise monitoring was carried out. Where results of unattended monitoring are unclear and it is suspected that the background noise environment at the monitoring location, in the absence of wind farm noise emission, may have become louder unattended monitoring at a secondary location is recommended, as discussed below. In other cases where results of unattended monitoring are unclear, particularly if they indicate non-compliance with noise level limits, attended monitoring will be required, Draft National Wind Farm Development Guidelines – 2 July 2010 Page 57
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EPHC National Wind Farm Development
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Acknowledgements These Guidelines h
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A.6.1 Site selection 28 A.6.2 Proje
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E.7 Technical discussion of key con
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The 20/20 target is challenging; ho
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Table 1-1 Elements of a ‘wind far
Page 16 and 17: 2 Principles for responsible wind f
Page 18 and 19: 3 Wind Farm Specific Issues The spe
Page 20 and 21: Specific noise limits are not provi
Page 22 and 23: 3.5 Shadow flicker The issue Shadow
Page 24 and 25: Guidance notes Heritage issues are
Page 26 and 27: Table 4-1 Typical decision process
Page 28 and 29: The studies and community consultat
Page 31 and 32: A Community and Stakeholder Consult
Page 33 and 34: • Responsive There is a comm
Page 35 and 36: Figure A-1 IAP2 Public Participatio
Page 37 and 38: Specific components which should be
Page 39 and 40: Figure A-2 Example of Good Practice
Page 41 and 42: Recording the occurrence and outcom
Page 43 and 44: A.6.6 Decommissioning Planning & Co
Page 45 and 46: Potential Stakeholders Consultation
Page 47 and 48: B Noise B.1 Introduction This Appen
Page 49 and 50: the converse. These Guidelines reco
Page 51 and 52: The Standard should form the basis
Page 53 and 54: Stage and methodology Construction
Page 55 and 56: Other noise-sensitive uses such as
Page 57 and 58: Table B-2 Existing state and territ
Page 59 and 60: Establish background noise monitori
Page 61 and 62: As noted in Section 6.3.1 of AS4959
Page 63 and 64: predicted levels are significantly
Page 65: Prepare expert evidence (as require
Page 69 and 70: assessment of wind farm noise emiss
Page 71 and 72: B.4.5 Decommissioning Noise-related
Page 73 and 74: If a significant amount of time has
Page 75 and 76: B.7 Technical discussion of key con
Page 77 and 78: The HGC Engineering report 10 also
Page 79 and 80: C Landscape C.1 Introduction This A
Page 81 and 82: • Cumulative impacts “Cumulativ
Page 83 and 84: C.2 Overview of Methodologies Figur
Page 85 and 86: C.3 Task Methodologies C.3.1 Projec
Page 87 and 88: • State Relevant State herita
Page 89 and 90: The preliminary landscape character
Page 91 and 92: • Identifying and describing (in
Page 93 and 94: Advanced photomontages should also
Page 95 and 96: C.4.2 Visual Impact Assessment The
Page 97 and 98: C.4.2.4 Assessment of cumulative im
Page 99 and 100: the implementation of agreed change
Page 101 and 102: Figure C-2 IBRA mapping of Australi
Page 103 and 104: Table C-4 Mapping of landscape char
Page 105 and 106: C.7.2 Levels of significance What a
Page 107 and 108: Consider ‘Supporting Evidence’
Page 109 and 110: information available for other sit
Page 111 and 112: Figure C-4 Example of viewshed mapp
Page 113 and 114: Figure C-6 Example of photomontages
Page 115 and 116: communicate broad-scale ideas and p
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Table C-5 Mapping other wind farms
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C.7.9 Glossary & acronyms Australia
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Viewpoint The point from which a vi
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D.1.2 Underlying approach The under
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All of the above is generally appli
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the operational wind farm is aimed
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D.4 Task methodologies D.4.1 Site S
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area as it was not collected accord
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used throughout these Guidelines as
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wind farms. Such data from existing
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considered acceptable, undesirable,
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construction phase are identified d
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Searches for dead birds and bats ar
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D.5 Cumulative impacts D.5.1 Defini
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in the absence of any turbine colli
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that it was first observed. Where m
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e the case that assessment for bats
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Department of Primary Industries, W
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Percival, S.M. 2003, Birds and wind
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E Shadow Flicker E.1 Introduction T
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• The use of recreational facilit
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• The method is inherently linked
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Table E-1 Recommended exposure limi
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E.4.4 Construction Assessment of th
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E.7 Technical discussion of key con
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Figure E-4 Variation in shading wit
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common practice varies between one
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as the actual limit, rather than th
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likely to be obstructed. Radiocommu
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Licensed radiocommunications servic
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Figure F-1 EMI mitigation methodolo
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F.4 Task methodologies F.4.1 Projec
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Expected timeframe for evaluation r
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The near field zone can be calculat
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Develop mitigation strategy As a st
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aseline RF survey which involves th
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G Wind Farm Development Process G.1
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Project Sub-stages Activities to be
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Preliminary Technical Studies Issue
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Planning application (PA2) The plan
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Develop mitigation strategy Finalis
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Environmental Management Plans Issu
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Monitoring: confirmation (O3) Confi
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Decommissioning (D2) Once a decisio
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Draft National Wind Farm Development Guidelines - July 2010

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