Draft National Wind Farm Development Guidelines - July 2010

More documents

Recommendations

Info

B.5.2 Assessment of staged and cumulative development Section 4.2 of AS4959–2010 requires assessment of cumulative impacts as follows: To provide a satisfactory level of protection of amenity against the potential adverse effects of wind farm noise, the cumulative impact of all wind farm development in an area should meet the noise limits derived from measurements of the background noise environment at relevant receivers prior to any wind farm development taking place. Where it is not possible to satisfactorily demonstrate that existing developments are not influencing measured background noise levels, predicted noise levels from the wind farm should not be permitted to exceed the minimum noise level limit. It is the recommendation of these Guidelines that noise level limits established for a receiver should follow this approach. The practical implication of this is that, where one wind farm is already in operation and its noise emission is near to the noise level limit, any subsequent developments will need to have significantly less noise emission at the same property, in the order of 10dB lower, so that the combined wind farm noise emission does not exceed criteria. It is recognised that such a requirement may render further wind farm development in the area impracticable. Therefore, where it is envisaged that an area may accommodate more than one wind farm, the noise criteria should be established as cumulative limits that include allowable contributions from individual wind farms. Any wind farm approved for development in the surrounding area, whether constructed or not, should be included as part of a staged or cumulative development assessment. In addition, some consideration may be given to other known proposed wind farm developments where practicable. B.5.3 Cumulative assessment scenarios While the philosophy of addressing cumulative and staged development is reasonably simple, there are undoubtedly many scenarios where the application of the key principles will not be straight-forward and the resulting situation will be very complex. Where there is a lack of clarity, further advice should be sought from the relevant authority to determine an arrangement that they consider to be suitable. Further, where a second wind farm is being considered in an area the assessment of noise impact will depend critically on the noise emission from the first wind farm. To facilitate this assessment it is suggested that the first wind farm make available sufficient information to allow noise emission from the first wind farm to be incorporated into the prediction model and other assessment requirements for the new wind farm. A number of possible cumulative development scenarios are discussed briefly below to provide additional guidance. A stakeholder agreement has been arranged with a receiver for a wind farm development including relaxed noise level limits. What limits should be applied to this receiver for a proposed new wind farm development The relaxed noise level limits that have been established for the first wind farm should not, as of right, apply for the second wind farm. Noise emission from the newer wind farm should comply with the conventional noise criteria at the property and also not increase the levels of wind farm noise emission that are being received from the first wind farm. The exception to this is where the second wind farm also agrees a stakeholder arrangement with the property, in which case relaxed noise level limits may be negotiated with the Stakeholder, provided that the combined emission from all wind farms at the property does not exceed the values recommended in Section B.4.1 Establish noise criteria (page 45). Page 62 Draft National Wind Farm Development Guidelines – 2 July 2010
If a significant amount of time has passed between the planning assessment for a wind farm development and the subsequent assessment for a second wind farm in the area, in the order of 5-10 years or more, and it is considered that the background noise in the area may have changed over this time, how are noise level limits to be established for the second wind farm If the background noise levels are expected to be lower than when the initial noise impact assessment occurred, they will be hard to measure in the presence of operational noise from the existing wind farm. In this case, the second wind farm should comply with the minimum noise level limit across the assessable wind speed range and not increase the combined level of wind farm noise emission above the established noise level limits. If background noise levels are expected to be higher, monitoring may be carried out where this is not influenced by emission from the original wind farm. If this is not possible, the second wind farm should comply with the minimum noise level limit across the assessable wind speed range and not increase the combined level of wind farm noise emission above the established noise level limits. How should cumulative noise limits be considered where other industrial activity such as mining, which changes the character of the background noise environment in the area, commences during the period between wind farm developments Issues such as this should be thoroughly examined on a case-by-case basis, in close liaison with the relevant authority. There are likely to be a range of noise emission controls which may be applicable to the various sound sources and consultation with the relevant authority will be critical in achieving a satisfactory outcome. Where another significant sound source commences in an area after the development of the first wind farm and prior to the second, and this sound source is expected to continue through the lifetime of both wind farms, it is generally expected that new background noise level monitoring would not be conducted. However, if new background noise monitoring was conducted it would be important to ensure that noise emission from the first wind farm does not significantly contribute to the background noise level at the monitoring location, and that the noise limits for the new wind farm do not permit ‘creeping noise’. Where the new sound source is not expected to carry on in the long term, beyond the lifetime of both wind farms, it is unlikely that any new noise level limits would be established at relevant receivers. How should cumulative noise limits be applied to a group of dwellings where the ‘worst case’ affected dwelling is different for each proposed wind farm The ‘worst case’ relevant receiver determined for the noise impact assessment of the first wind farm will likely be exposed to the greatest level of wind farm noise emission from the first wind farm as well as experiencing the largest change in the ambient noise environment. Where an alternative property from the same cluster of receivers is determined to be the ‘worst case’ receiver for the second wind farm the conservative approach, which is recommended here, is to assume that the second property is exposed to the same noise emission from the first wind farm as the first worst case receiver. The contribution from the second wind farm should comply with noise criteria as outlined in Section B.5.2. Draft National Wind Farm Development Guidelines – 2 July 2010 Page 63
Page 1:
EPHC National Wind Farm Development
Page 5:
Acknowledgements These Guidelines h
Page 8 and 9:
A.6.1 Site selection 28 A.6.2 Proje
Page 10 and 11:
E.7 Technical discussion of key con
Page 12 and 13:
The 20/20 target is challenging; ho
Page 14 and 15:
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 and 66: Prepare expert evidence (as require
Page 67 and 68: Undertake unattended monitoring to
Page 69 and 70: assessment of wind farm noise emiss
Page 71: B.4.5 Decommissioning Noise-related
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
Page 117 and 118: Table C-5 Mapping other wind farms
Page 119 and 120: C.7.9 Glossary & acronyms Australia
Page 121: Viewpoint The point from which a vi
Page 124 and 125:
D.1.2 Underlying approach The under
Page 126 and 127:
All of the above is generally appli
Page 128 and 129:
the operational wind farm is aimed
Page 130 and 131:
D.4 Task methodologies D.4.1 Site S
Page 132 and 133:
area as it was not collected accord
Page 134 and 135:
used throughout these Guidelines as
Page 136 and 137:
wind farms. Such data from existing
Page 138 and 139:
considered acceptable, undesirable,
Page 140 and 141:
construction phase are identified d
Page 142 and 143:
Searches for dead birds and bats ar
Page 144 and 145:
D.5 Cumulative impacts D.5.1 Defini
Page 146 and 147:
in the absence of any turbine colli
Page 148 and 149:
that it was first observed. Where m
Page 150 and 151:
e the case that assessment for bats
Page 152 and 153:
Department of Primary Industries, W
Page 154 and 155:
Percival, S.M. 2003, Birds and wind
Page 157 and 158:
E Shadow Flicker E.1 Introduction T
Page 159 and 160:
• The use of recreational facilit
Page 161 and 162:
• The method is inherently linked
Page 163 and 164:
Table E-1 Recommended exposure limi
Page 165 and 166:
E.4.4 Construction Assessment of th
Page 167 and 168:
E.7 Technical discussion of key con
Page 169 and 170:
Figure E-4 Variation in shading wit
Page 171 and 172:
common practice varies between one
Page 173:
as the actual limit, rather than th
Page 176 and 177:
likely to be obstructed. Radiocommu
Page 178 and 179:
Licensed radiocommunications servic
Page 180 and 181:
Figure F-1 EMI mitigation methodolo
Page 182 and 183:
F.4 Task methodologies F.4.1 Projec
Page 184 and 185:
Expected timeframe for evaluation r
Page 186 and 187:
The near field zone can be calculat
Page 188 and 189:
Develop mitigation strategy As a st
Page 190 and 191:
aseline RF survey which involves th
Page 193 and 194:
G Wind Farm Development Process G.1
Page 195 and 196:
Project Sub-stages Activities to be
Page 197 and 198:
Preliminary Technical Studies Issue
Page 199 and 200:
Planning application (PA2) The plan
Page 201 and 202:
Develop mitigation strategy Finalis
Page 203 and 204:
Environmental Management Plans Issu
Page 205 and 206:
Monitoring: confirmation (O3) Confi
Page 207 and 208:
Decommissioning (D2) Once a decisio
show all

Draft National Wind Farm Development Guidelines - July 2010

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?