The Department for Buisness, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) commissioned a report to review current guidance for assessing the noise impact of onshore wind turbines, which is now available. This comes as government consider the capacity of the UK to deliver renewable electricity. The potential noise impact of onshore commercial wind turbines is curently assessed by guidance published in 1996 – known as ETSU-R-97. Since the 1996 technology has advanced, new research has been undertaken and understanding of wind turbine sound has progressed. The need for more renewable energy to meet the government's net zero targets is also more urgent.
The report recommends areas of the ETSU-R-97 guidance that would benefit from being updated, and provides recommendations for further evidence needed to support those updates. These include revisiting the framework of noise limits, and establishing new guidance to support assessment and control of the potential impact of amplitude modulation (amplitude modulation (AM) is a regular fluctuation of the sound level associated with the passage of turbine blades. It is often described by people who hear it as a ‘swish’ or ‘whoomph’ sound.).
The full document here: https://www.wsp.com/en-gb/insights/wind-turbine-noise-report
