Abstract
The existing exposure-response relationships describing the association between wind turbine sound level and noise annoyance concern turbine sizes of 0.15-3.0 MW. The main purpose of this study was to determine a relationship concerning turbines with nominal power of 3-5 MW. A cross-sectional survey was conducted around three wind power areas in Finland. The survey involved all households within a 2 km distance from the nearest turbine. Altogether, 429 households out of 753 participated. The households were exposed to wind turbine noise having sound levels within 26.7-44.2 dB LAeq. Standard prediction methods were applied to determine the sound level, LAeq, in each participant's yard. The measured sound level agreed well with the predicted sound level. The exposure-response relationship was derived between LAeq outdoors and the indoor noise annoyance. The relationship was in rather good agreement with two previous studies involving much smaller turbines (0.15-1.5 MW) under 40 dB LAeq. The Community Tolerance Level (CTL), CTL20 = 50 dB, was 3 dB lower than for two previous studies. Above 40 dB, a small number of participants prevented a reliable comparison to previous studies.
Highlights
Wind turbine noise has become an important scientific and political issue, especially in countries where wind power is increasingly being used to replace conventional sources of electricity production
The spectral difference was not large but statistically significant. They made a reference to the night-time sound level regulations of the World Health Organization (WHO) (WHO, 1999), according to which environmental noise that includes a large proportion of low frequency noise might deserve tighter indoor noise limits than 30 dB LAeq
The first exposure–response relationship between outdoor sound level and indoor noise annoyance was derived for large wind turbines (3–5 MW) based on a sample of 429 participants around three wind power areas
Summary
Wind turbine noise has become an important scientific and political issue, especially in countries where wind power is increasingly being used to replace conventional sources of electricity production. A number of studies have presented exposure–response relationships describing the association between the sound level of wind turbine noise and the percentage of highly annoyed in residential environments (Table I). The spectral difference was not large but statistically significant They made a reference to the night-time sound level regulations of the World Health Organization (WHO) (WHO, 1999), according to which environmental noise that includes a large proportion of low frequency noise might deserve tighter indoor noise limits than 30 dB LAeq. They made a reference to the night-time sound level regulations of the World Health Organization (WHO) (WHO, 1999), according to which environmental noise that includes a large proportion of low frequency noise might deserve tighter indoor noise limits than 30 dB LAeq Their results have raised strong expectations among scientists, citizens, and authorities that large turbines might cause more annoyance than small turbines even if the A-weighted sound level, LAeq, is the same. Special regulations have been given for the low frequency noise, e.g., in Denmark (Jakobsen, 2012)
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