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Vinalhaven, Falmouth community wind noise issues remain contentious
November 30, 2010Two of the “hot button” wind farms of 2010 are headed into the new year with continuing local rancor, despite conciliatory talk from authorities in each town when neighbors began to raise noise issues a year ago. In Vinalhaven, Maine, where three turbines went online in October 2009, providing power for the local electric co-op, […]
VT study sheds light on how often wind farm noise reaches bothersome levels
November 6, 2015A sneakily fascinating legal response was recently released, in which the State of Vermont Department of Public Service (DPS) responds to request by wind farm neighbor Paul Brouha for relief from noise coming from the Sheffield Wind Farm. Most of the technical back-and-forth amounts to quibbling between sound experts about 1-3dB differences, caused by slightly different monitoring techniques. This […]
23 Texas wind farm hosts sue over noise, nuisance
January 29, 2014In what may be an unprecedented move, 23 Texans who host wind turbines on their property have filed suit against two different wind farm developers, claiming that companies “carelessly and negligently failed to adequately disclose the true nature and effects that the wind turbines would have on the community, including the plaintiffs’ homes.” The plaintiffs […]
Vermont DPS investigating wind farm noise complaints
May 17, 2013The three large wind farms currently operating in Vermont have spurred enough noise complaints to trigger an investigation by the state Department of Public Service. DPS Commissioner Chris Recchia said “I want to get to the bottom of this….It’s not what was expected.” Recchia suggested that he’s considering asking the Public Service Board to reconsider their […]
CBC documentary addresses wind farm noise in Ontario
February 20, 2013A new documentary from the CBC’s Doczone series, titled Windrush, takes a look at the widespread resistance to wind power in Ontario, which is largely based on noise and health impacts. While the CBC video is only viewable in Canada, a regional organization opposing industrial wind has posted a version on YouTube (it’s 42 minutes long and […]
Noise issues scuttle wind farm plans in WI, MA
February 15, 2013The Wisconsin Public Service Commission rejected the only large wind project currently in development in the state, citing noise concerns for homeowners in the vicinity. The Highland Wind project sound models suggested that turbine sound would not meet the 45dB night time noise standard at about 20 homes. Some of the acousticians who submitted testimony in […]
RI wind farm will avoid construction noise for right whale migration
February 5, 2013Deepwater Wind, developers of a proposed 5-turbine wind farm off Block Island, Rhode Island, has agreed to refrain from pile driving for one month a year in order to minimize impacts on critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. Pile driving, a key part of building the foundations for shallow-water offshore wind turbines, is the loudest […]
33dB town noise limits spur request for state approval of NH wind project
January 4, 2013Timbertop Wind has asked the New Hampshire state Site Evaluation Committee (SEC) to assume jurisdiction over a proposed 5-turbine wind farm that straddles the town line between Temple and New Ipswich. The SEC always has jurisdiction over projects of 30MW or more; the Timbertop project is only 15MW, so the SEC will decide later this […]
Vermont wind farm noise issues continue
December 23, 2012The Burlington Free Press ran an article this week that is perhaps the most comprehensive look at the emerging noise issues around Vermont’s two largest wind farms, in Sheffield and Lowell/Albany. The problems at the Sheffield Wind project, which began operations in October 2011, are interesting, in that some residents live within earshot of I-91, yet […]
Noise study shows Maine wind farm easily in compliance
December 6, 2012About a year ago, ten wind turbines began operation on Spruce Mountain in Woodstock, Maine, and as residents began arriving at summer camps at two ponds between three quarters of a mile and a mile and a half away, they found the turbine noise louder than they had been prepared for, as recounted in a […]
Australian Senate Committee rejects bill defining excessive wind farm noise
November 29, 2012An Australian Senate Committee has recommended against passage of a proposed bill that would define excessive noise for wind farms as 10dBA above ambient, and suspend operations of wind farms failing to meet that standard. In extensive submitted statements and published testimony, the Committee heard from a wide range of witnesses from Australia, the UK, […]
AEI’s 3rd annual wind farm noise report now available
November 17, 2012At long last, I’ve completed this year’s overview of science and policy developments on wind farm noise issues. It features over 50 pages of new material, along with about the same in Appendices consisting of three research summaries I wrote earlier in the year. You can download a pdf version of Wind Farm Noise 2012 […]
Kingston Board of Health faces packed house on wind farm noise
November 8, 2012Kingston, MA, is the fourth town in the area to experience widespread public complaints about noise from small wind farms. As in Falmouth, Fairhaven, and Scituate, town officials have begun holding hearings to hear from affected residents. On Monday, the Kingston Board of Health voted to consult with the town’s attorney, to explore what options may […]
32 neighbors file noise complaint at new VT wind farm
November 6, 2012The formal noise complaints have begun at Lowell Mountain, Vermont, even before the project is fully online. Thirty-two neighbors filed a complaint with the state Public Service Department after two days of troublesome noise this week from ten of the eventual 21 turbines. Low clouds may have contributed to the noise levels, which woke several people […]
German offshore wind construction aims to limit noise impact on porpoises
August 16, 2012Aggressive offshore wind energy plans in Germany are pioneering innovative new approaches to reducing the noise impacts of wind turbine construction, according to a recent Bloomberg News article. It’s a good, long piece, well worth a read. A few highlights: “Quite a large proportion of our sea area will probably be used for offshore wind […]
Michigan PSC disbands wind farm noise work group that was poised to recommend 40dB limit
July 9, 2012This is somewhat old news, but a recent article brought it to my attention. The Michigan Public Service Commission’s Wind Working Group, an advisory committee, appointed a Wind and Health Technical Work Group in 2010 to look at siting standards; they were charged with making recommendations regarding physical safety and noise limits. Dr. Jerry Punch, […]
Two dozen families struggling with noise at Pinnacle Wind Farm
June 29, 2012The State Journal, a West Virginia business magazine, recently published a comprehensive article updating the situation at the Pinnacle Wind Farm in Keyser, WV, where more than two dozen families continue to struggle with noise from 23 turbines atop a steep ridge line (see earlier AEI coverage). At the beginning of June, the state PSC […]
Another week, another wind farm noise and health report
January 24, 2012Driven by the rising public clamor about health effects reported by people living near wind farms, officials across the nation and around the world have been called on to assess the veracity of these claims. This week’s contribution to the rapidly expanding genre of “wind farms and health” literature comes from the Massachusetts Departments of […]
Oregon “Health Impact Assessment” addresses key indirect wind farm noise impacts
January 15, 2012The Oregon Health Authority has released a draft of its first “Strategic Health Impact Assessment on Wind Energy Development in Oregon.” The approach taken by Oregon health officials marks a subtle but significant departure from previous government reports on the topic. Most fundamentally, rather than being simply a literature review of past studies, this paper is […]
On quiet Maine lake, new wind farm over a mile away spurs noise issues
January 12, 2012This probably looked like a great place for a wind farm: only a handful of homes within a half mile, and nearly all the more densely-populated roads to the east and west well over a mile from the ridge on Flathead Mountain, where the Record Hill Windfarm was to be built. After the bad experiences at […]
Recent research on low frequency noise from wind turbines
December 31, 2011If AEI were a mass media outlet, publishing this on New Year’s Eve would be considered an attempt to “bury” the story on a weekend when few people are following the news. But since our readership works on a longer time scale and are likely to find their way here over the next couple of […]
Onshore wind farm raises ocean noise concerns in Chile
November 30, 2011For the first time, an onshore wind farm has triggered calls for caution from marine mammal protection organizations. The 2500-acre, 56-turbine wind farm will be built along a steep shoreline that funnels nutrient-rich waters from Antarctica to the surface, spawning a dense aggregation of phytoplankton and krill. Along the coast of Isla Grande de Chiloé, […]
Four UK wind farms change operations to reduce noise impacts
November 21, 2011An article in the Independent this week details the steps taken by four English wind farms to reduce noise experienced by neighbors. In each case, the wind farm operator made changes in at least some turbines’ operation, including slowing them down or shutting them off when the wind hit certain speeds or came from directions […]
Riga, Rumford adopt 40dB wind turbine night noise standards
November 9, 2011Town votes in Riga, Michigan, and Rumford, Maine have both adopted wind farm siting standards that are somewhat more cautionary than most. Riga township voted 440-236 to uphold an ordinance that establishes setbacks of 4x turbine height (1200 or so feet) from non-participating property lines, and sets a noise limit of 40dB at night and 45dB during […]
A typical week in wind farm noise
October 30, 2011I’m traveling this week, so not monitoring the news on a regular basis, but tonight I thought it would be useful to simply highlight a few news items that came through my custom Google News section on wind farm noise in the past few days. The mix of stories is pretty typical of what occurs […]