NOISE

UK Noise association Calls for 1 Mile Separation distance

Within weeks of the Government’s Energy Review proposing that planning controls be relaxed to speed up the introduction of wind farms, a new report by the Noise Association reveals that badly-sited wind turbines can cause real noise problems for local communities. ¹

In compiling its report, the Noise Association carried out a comprehensive review of the research done into wind farm noise. The report states that wind turbine noise can be a particular problem in rural areas, where many of the wind farms are sited, because of low background noise levels.

John Stewart, the author of the report, said, “It would be a mistake to see this as an anti-wind farm report. But there is a real danger that, in the enthusiasm to embrace clean technology, legitimate concerns about noise are being brushed aside.”

The report recommends that:

• as a general rule turbines should not be sited within a mile of where people live

• the official government guidelines for the siting of wind farms be revised to take account of the more intrusive nature of the noise in areas where the overall background noise is low

• there is a clear and public recognition by the Wind Power Industry, which has tended to dismiss noise as an issue, that wind farms can cause real noise problems for some people. The report argues that this could open the door to “constructive discussion”

¹ The UK Noise Association, 'Location, Location, Location', 26 July 2006. (You can download the PDF file).

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Wind Farm Noise : A Call for revisions to ETSU-R-97

A report has been released by the DTI [now BERR] which addresses the issue of wind turbine noise. It wasn written by the Hayes McKenzie Partnership which frequently acts on behalf of wind farm developers and was involved in the writing of the current noise guidance for wind farms: 'ETSU-R-97, The Assessment and Rating of Noise from Wind Farms, 1996'.

The new report describes an investigation into low frequency noise at neighbouring properties to three different UK wind farms where noise complaints had been made. The authors discount low frequency noise as a significant problem. However, they do state that amplitude modulation, commonly know as ‘blade swish’ noise, can be a problem. Their report concludes that, on occasion, blade swish is disturbing enough to prevent occupants of nearby dwellings from going to sleep although not sufficiently disturbing to wake them if already asleep.

The report authors found that even when the overall noise level inside a bedroom was less than the sleep disturbance threshold proposed in the WHO guidelines, the distinctive noise signature of the wind turbine blade swish attracted the attention of the listener and caused difficulty in returning to sleep.

The report states that the blade swish noise is more extreme for some wind farms and at some properties and particularly at night time. Significantly, the report acknowledges that the magnitude of the ‘swish’ noise is greater than was anticipated in the ETSU-R-97 guidelines and recommends that the issue should be re-visited possibly with a view to including a penalty in any noise condition to take into account blade swish noise. This would effectively lower the permitted noise at neighbouring dwellings.

This report is available on the DTI website.
Click on the link on the right hand side of the page under the heading ‘Related Documents’, entitled ‘The measurement of low frequency noise at three UK wind farms’.

See the noise section on our Myths page for much more material on noise.

Postscript

The DTI convened a Noise Working Group (NWG) whose objective was, "to provide clear expert advice and guidance on the issue surrounding Amplitude Modulation of Aerodynamic Noise (AM) raised in the Hayes McKenzie report on Low Frequency Noise (The Measurement of Low Frequency Noise at Three UK Wind Farms, W/45/00656/00/00, URN No. 06/1412)."

'The NWG will address issues specifically relating to the Hayes McKenzie report:

• Consider and agree, if thought appropriate, the main conclusions of the report
• Consider the report’s findings relating to AM
• If appropriate, provide a means to assess and apply a correction where AM is predicted to be a clearly audible feature
• Make clear recommendations to advise Government'

(from 'Notes of Meeting of NWG', 2 August 2006).

Update

On 1 August 2007, the Energy Minister announced that the Government is parking the AM issue after initial research [our emphasis] by Salford University found that, “although the occurrence of AM cannot be fully predicted, the incidence of it from operational turbines is low.” The statement continued, “Government does not consider there to be a compelling case for more work into AM and will not carry out any further research at this time; however it will continue to keep the issue under review.”

Until very recently, very few turbine arrays had been built close to housing, so there is no great surprise that there are, so far, relataively few sites with reported noise problems. Anyway, government has washed its hands of the issue, which will no doubt re-surface when noise, and AM in particular, becomes a common issue with increasing numbers of lowland wind turbine intallations being built close to settlements.

(See Government News Network site for details and links).

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Barbara J Frey, BA, MA and Peter J Hadden, BSc, FRICS have published a paper on the subject: 'Noise radiation from wind turbines installed near homes: effects on health. With an annotated review of the research and related issues.' February, 2007. This presents an interesting survey of noise research and reports on the effects on health, wellbeing and property prices. (PDF download from website).

‘Windfarm ‘making my life a misery’

‘A West Cumbrian man claims his life has been made a total misery because of a windfarm just half a mile from his home.

‘Ron Williams, of The Swallows, Bothel, has revealed that he is taking sleeping pills and suffering mental anguish because of the Wharrels Hill turbines.

‘The 73-year-old is now urging people living near two proposed windfarm sites to do all they can to oppose the applications.

[...]

‘Mr Williams’s house is just 833 metres away from the Wharrels Hills windfarm.

‘He said that the low frequency noise had the worst impact. He said: “The swush, swush, swush as each blade breaks the flow of the wind past the tower, obviously three times per revolution is extremely debilitating. The affect is worse at nights when ambient noise level from traffic on the A595 is low.”

‘Mr Williams said his GP had prescribed him sleeping pills.

‘Mr Williams said: “In my diary I have recorded, since December 3 until February 26, that on 19 nights I have needed to resort to medication.”

‘“During that time we were away for five nights and the mills did not operate for seven days due to very high winds. That is an average of taking medication twice a week.”

‘Mr Williams said that windfarm operators claimed that turbine noise levels were within legal limits but he questioned whether the effects of this low frequency noise had been thoroughly investigated.

‘He added: “One must remember that such noise was used as a form of torture during the last war and is said to be currently used by the Americans.”

‘There has been a substantial visual impact, too. Because the entire living area of his house faces the wind turbines the visual background rotation is very distracting he said.

‘At certain angles sunlight hits the blades which reflects rays through his lounge.

‘Mr Williams said: “This very disturbing flickering stroboscopic effect is such that both blinds and curtain need to be drawn closed, even on a warm sunny day. And even then this flickering can be seen as dark shadows moving over the window area.”

‘Mr Williams said it was even worse on a sunny winter’s day when the sun was low in the sky and dark silhouettes flashed through the rooms.

‘He said that in the USA no windfarm could be built within a mile of a house. [This is incorrect, MAG] His house is 833m from the Wharrels Hill windfarm.

‘But British regulations didn’t even require that he be told that a windfarm was planned when he bought his house in 2002.

‘He claimed evidence indicated that houses in the vicinity of turbines lost 25 to 30 per cent of their value.

‘And he added: “The same reports suggests that properties close to a turbine could be unsaleable. I wonder what the definition of close is. Could it be 833m?”’

(See full article: Times & Star (Cumbria), 03 March 2008).

'Gone with the wind

'Sleepless nights: Windfarms are multiplying and the Davises say they're a nightmare

'On a sunny spring morning, Deeping St Nicholas provides a perfect snapshot of English country life. The only buildings that break the flat horizon of the Lincolnshire fens are silver-grey church spires and neat red-brick farmhouses, around which are clustered barns and silos. A covey of wood pigeons clap their wings as they take off from the black, loamy, fertile soil striped with green lines of oilseed rape. And then you hear it. "Whoompf ... whoompf ... whoompf ..."

Like the sound of an approaching train that never comes, the thumps that break the still air are not overpoweringly loud - at about 65 decibels, they're the level of a lorry going by at 30 miles an hour 100 yards away.

But what is so menacing is the regularity and the scope of the noise, which feels like a giant heartbeat shaking the earth.

When you see the culprits - the eight mammoth wind turbines installed just outside Deeping St Nicholas last May - you're actually surprised that the noise isn't louder.

These aren't the little propellers that David Cameron nails to his roof to warm his cocoa and heat his children's baths. They're veritable behemoths - 100 metres high, as tall as Big Ben's tower.

The turbines hove into view from the Peterborough to Deeping St Nicholas road several miles before you reach the little village, and they dominate the skies from here to the North Sea, 15 miles away.

Five of these monsters are set in a straight line heading away from Deeping St Nicholas. And if you trace that line onwards for half-a-mile on the map, your finger slams slap-bang into the middle of Grays Farm.

And there, in the farmhouse sitting room, with its wood-burning stove and its bookshelves jammed with family photos, are Julian and Jane Davis - wan, sleepless and very angry indeed.

Three generations of the Davis family have farmed these 300 acres of tenanted land for wheat, sugarbeet, beans, oilseed rape and - ironically, given the green glow of windpower - the new generation of biofuel crops. Mr Davis's elderly parents live in a bungalow a few yards away along a gravel track.

For the first time in a decade, agricultural prices are looking rosy - and so were the Davises' finances, until recently. But now their chances of enjoying a comfortable future are in jeopardy because of the whirring brutes next door, erected on land owned by two neighbouring farmers.

The Davises' three-bedroom house, valued at £170,000 before the turbines arrived, is now essentially worthless because no one will grant a mortgage on a house blighted by noise pollution.

[...]

For the past eight months, the Davises have lain awake at night, staring at the ceiling, driven to distraction by the thump of the blades and feeling the whole house resonating around them.

During the odd moment of silence when the wind is in the right direction, they lie awake, still, dreading the inevitable return of the whoompfs.

Ever since the Davises were first woken from their sleep three days after the turbines were installed, they have kept a log of the noise. Of those 243 days, 231 have been disturbed.

Sometimes, the noise has been so bad that they have fled the house for friends' sofas, and once for the comfort of the local Travelodge. It is on the busy Helpringham roundabout but, for the first time in weeks, they slept through until 7.20am.

Noise generated by a constant flow of traffic is easier to ignore than a repetitive thump that seems to go right through the body. "It's just that little bit faster than the noise of a heartbeat," says Mr Davis, aged 42. "So your body is constantly racing to catch up."

As well as the thump-thumpthump - which makes the television flicker - there is a low-level hum from the electric motor housed in the turbines' main shaft, which gets the blades going and controls the mechanism's air-conditioning.

This noise often mutates into what the Davises call the WD-40 noise - a grating sound similar to that produced by an engine that needs oiling.

"It drives you mad," says Mr Davis. "Your whole body becomes sensitive to it. It draws you to it. Your mind is constantly looking for the noise. I can be farming half-amile away or watching telly, and then suddenly you'll hear it. It's destroyed our lives."

Things have now become so bad that the Davises have been forced to rent out what they call a "sleeping house" in the village for £600 a month.

Now, every night at around 10pm, they take a look at the weather and decide if they should abandon ship for the evening. The noise is particularly irksome if the wind comes from the south along the line of the turbines, whipping them up in unison, so their individual noises are harmonised and amplified.

[...]

The list of disasters goes on and on, all recorded in the Davises' scrupulously kept logbook. Last July, reads the book, "we tried to have a BBQ and had to go inside due to noise and vibration - felt by guests also. Difficult to get to sleep. Wind SSE, SSW.

"Whoosh - yes. Pulse - yes. Hum - yes. We are so tired today that the simplest things - following a recipe, assembling a cupboard - seem impossible. Everyone very tired and totally exhausted. This is not living any more."

[...]

At the moment, there are more than 120 applications pending all over the country to erect windfarms close to houses - ranging from plans for just a pair of turbines to great clumps of 80 whirring away on the Humberhead Levels in Yorkshire.

If these applications go through, the number of windfarms in the country will double - even though the jury is still out on the effectiveness of windpower, which is completely dependent on the whim of the weather.

Meanwhile, the complaints keep pouring in, particularly from rural beauty spots: from Bears Down in North Cornwall to Askham in Cumbria, prospective neighbours of mega-turbines are up in arms.

Of the 126 windfarms erected in Britain so far - most of which are far from human habitation - 5 per cent have engendered complaints about the overwhelming noise.

The next tranche of building is likely to attract far more outrage because the power companies are simply running out of wilderness.

As for the Davises, they don't even have the consolation that the turbines are providing power for their own home.

"They're making electricity for other people," says Jane. "One night, our power was hit by a lightning strike. So we had the worst of both worlds - nothing working inside the house, and then that noise going on and on outside. Whoompf ... whoompf ... whoompf."'

(By Harry Mount, Daily Mail, 10th March 2007. See full article).

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'Family abandon their home near wind turbines.
(29 May, 2007).

'Jane and Julian Davis and daughter Emily had been moving between their home and a “safe house” in Spalding [Lincolnshire] on a daily basis whenever they found noise from the Deeping St Nicholas wind farm unbearable at night.

'Now they say they cannot go through another summer of interrupted sleep and are leaving the family home to live long term at a rented house until the situation improves.

'Mrs Davis said: “We have been living a transitory lifestyle, lugging bags backwards and forwards each day.

'“We can’t go back to that.

'“You just get to the point where you have to regain some control over your life.”

'At 10pm each night they would look out of the window to check on the wind direction.

'If it was directly behind the row of turbines then they say that a phenomenon known as aerodynamic modulation would take hold, amplifying the existing noise and low frequency vibration and causing sleepless nights.

'Now acoustic experts can move into the empty house to set up a laboratory to measure the noise as part of an ongoing investigation by DEFRA and the DTI.

'Since testing at the house last year acknowledged problems, the number of wind farms in the country affected by similar problems has risen from just five to 15.

[...]'

(See Lincolnshire Free Press, 29 May 2007, for full article).

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Will it happen here?

Very possibly.

Your Energy Ltd., the 'Moorsyde' developers, have only recently produced some information on noise outputs that relates to a turbine that is available for use.

According to their figures, the two candidate turbines now being specified will have a maximum sound power level of 105 dB and 105.5dB. This is approximately 5dB higher than the candidate turbine originally detailed in the Environmental Statement. This means the proposed new turbines are about 50% louder than the turbine specified in the original ES. It is therefore difficult to comprehend how the applicant can claim that the new candidate turbines will have no greater noise impact than the significantly quieter (albeit redundant) turbine that was previously specified.

An expert assessment of the'Moorsyde' noise assessment has been commissioned by some local residents and has now been submitted to the Planning Authority. This assessment is damning in its findings on the quality and reliability of the applicant's work to date

The noise nuisance in Lincolnshire is occurring with new turbines that are 930 metres from the affected house.

There are at least 15 properties within a kilometre of the proposed 'Moorsyde' turbines. Some houses would be at ;east 200 metres closer to turbines than the Davises' abandoned home.

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(See the Planning Response page for MAG's response to YEL's supplementary information).
The Moorsyde Noise Report by Dick Bowdler, New Acoustics Ltd, is available as a PDF download.)

'Living' with Wind Turbines

Streamed video testimony from local people living next to wind turbine installations in the United States:

Save Upstate New York website. Has short clips edited from Video 1 below.

Video 1 - Meyersdale, Pennsylvania.

Video 2 - Tug Hill, New York state.

There are other video files that can be accessed on the Wind Watch website.

We would particularly recommend the 'Wind turbines are coming' video that has interviews with people who have suffered from the effects of 40 m. turbines in this country, and the Australian 'Living next door to a wind farm' which says something about shadow flicker. The industry always claims that this only occurs within 4x the length of turbine blades or 4x the height of a turbine, depending on who is telling the tale (the writer has had experience of acute flicker effects at nearly 1 km from turbines at Crystal Rig).

(You will need a broadband connection to stream video 'live' without long holdups. Please be patient and allow your video player software to open and buffer the video stream.)

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TYPICAL PROBLEMS IN OTHER COUNTRIES:

'Italian wind farm diary'

This is a twelve-month diary (January 2007 through December 2007) meticulously kept by Gail Mair, who lives with her husband Walter in Tuscany, Italy. Gail (fluent in English, German, and Italian) and Walter (a native of Italy) bought this piece of property some years ago, and in October 2006 they moved into the modest house they had built. It was to be their retirement home.

As they were finishing construction of their new home, the Spanish wind company Gamesa was finishing up building its windfarm in their neighborhood. In November 2006, a month after Gail and Walter had their house-warming party, the turbines were turned on.

“The entries speak for themselves. On re-reading what we’ve been through this year it sounds like someone’s worst nightmare — and so it has been. The idea that someone, somewhere has made a lot of money by effectively dispossessing us, doesn’t bear thinking about, but it happens all the time, all over the world … ”

(Download from Wind watch website).

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'Noisy wind turbines stir up protests

(Ikata, Ehime Prefecture, Japan)

'Residents here have complained that noise from newly installed wind turbines perched atop a ridge of the Sadamisaki Peninsula has been rattling their homes and plaguing them with sleepless nights.

'Misaki Wind Power Co., which operates the Misaki Wind Park, has been forced to stop nighttime operations of four of its 20 wind turbines. Considering the business vantage, the company wants to keep all 20 turbines running 24/7.

'But residents living near the rackety turbines are demanding their dismantling or a relocation of operations.

[...]

'According to the residents, since the turbines began turning in December, they have been tormented by the booming sounds from the generator and the swooshing of the fan blades.

'The noise is enough to drown out the audio from their television sets.

'Some said they could not sleep at night while others complained of health problems due to the racket.

[...]

'According to a town official, nighttime operations for three of the four wind turbines were stopped from March 1, and the fourth stopped nighttime operations 10 days later.

'"When I checked the noise level with a sound measuring device, it recorded a high of 60 decibels. The average noise level exceeded 50 decibels. That's the noise level of an airport runway, or a Shinkansen bullet train," said Yasuhisa Oiwa, 44, whose home is near a wind turbine. "The company says it wants to go fully operational but we just can't allow that. We have asked that the wind turbine be relocated."

[...]

'Noise complaints related to wind farms are cropping up in other places, including wind turbines set up by another public-private joint venture company in Awajishima island in Hyogo Prefecture.

(May 15, 2007 in Asahi Shimbun)

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'Turbine noise has family considering move

(East Point, Prince Edward Island, Canada)

Noise from the new wind farm at East Point on P.E.I. is loud enough that some some residents of Elmira say it wakes them up in the middle of the night.

"It's something like a washing machine when the clothes get off to one side. It goes thump, thump, thump. It's similar to that. Some people say it's like a jet engine," said Elmira resident Dwayne Bailey, who lives about one kilometre away from the turbines.

The Island's newest wind farm began producing electricity late last year.

While there have been no previous complaints about turbine noise from other wind farms, the turbines at East Point are the largest yet installed for commercial purposes. The blades of the 10 turbines cover a 90-metre span, making each turbine the height of a 30-storey building. The 30-megawatt farm produces enough power for about 12,000 homes.

[...]

Wayne McQuarrie of the P.E.I. Energy Corporation wouldn't agree to a full interview, but did say he's aware of the issue and is looking into it.

But the people living nearby want more action.

"We can't get anybody to come up and help us," said Bailey.

"Do some tests or studies. Something. Anything. Just get somebody to get up to talk to us."

Bailey said if nothing's done, he and his family will move.

(April 2, 2007 in CBC News)

Postscript:

‘[...]

Low-frequency noise from the wind turbines at the Eastern Kings Wind Farm has forced two families to move. Kevin and Sheila Bailey, and their son and daughter-in-law Dwaine and Dodi Bailey, left Elmira seven months ago and moved to nearby communities.

Problems started a year ago when the turbines began operating. The family members had headaches and ringing in their ears.

“My idea of noise is a horn blowing or a tractor — it disappears,” Sheila Bailey told Janet MacLeod of the Eastern Graphic in Montague.

“This doesn’t disappear. Your ears ring. That goes on continuously.”

“People who came to our house would stand in the yard, and their ears would pop,” added Kevin Bailey.

For Dodi and Dwayne Bailey, the breaking point was when their son started waking up three and four times a night with night terrors.

The two families didn’t get any help from the provincial government so they borrowed money for the move.

“There are no rules and regulations on windmills,” Paul Cheverie, chairman of the Eastern Kings Community Council said. “The more we get into it, the more we realize we jumped the gun.”

He said when the wind farm was proposed, residents accepted information from government at face value.

“We were told the windmills are coming, and you don’t want to make too many waves.”

Now, he wishes the community had taken a more active role before the wind farm went up in the centre of four communities.

[...]’

(24 February, 2008 in Nova Scotia News).

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'New England’s largest wind farm is whipping up dissent

(Mars Hill, Maine, USA)

'Something has turned terribly sour for about 18 homeowners who live along the mountain roads where the state’s first and only wind farm has recently gone on line. To a man and to a woman, they feel betrayed, cheated, used, ignored, and dismissed. Put them in a room and they are spitting mad. Collectively, as they gather on a Saturday morning inside a home that sits in the shadow of the turbines, their anger is barely palatable. Since the turbines started up, they say, silence has become a luxury.'

(See full story: by Paul Lefebvre in The Barton Chronicle - 21 February, 2007.)

OBJECTION!