Comparison between exposure-response relationships for wind turbine annoyance and annoyance due to other noise sources 

Surveys have shown that noise from wind turbines is perceived as annoying by a proportion of residents living in their vicinity, apparently at much lower noise levels than those inducing annoyance due to other environmental sources. The aim of the present study was to derive the exposure-response relationship between wind turbine noise exposure in L(den) and the expected percentage annoyed residents and to compare it to previously established relationships for industrial noise and transportation noise. In addition, the influence of several individual and situational factors was assessed. On the basis of available data from two surveys in Sweden (N=341, N=754) and one survey in the Netherlands (N=725), a relationship was derived for annoyance indoors and for annoyance outdoors at the dwelling. In comparison to other sources of environmental noise, annoyance due to wind turbine noise was found at relatively low noise exposure levels. Furthermore, annoyance was lower among residents who received economical benefit from wind turbines and higher among residents for whom the wind turbine was visible from the dwelling. Age and noise sensitivity had similar effects on annoyance to those found in research on annoyance by other sources.

J Acoust Soc Am. 2011 Dec;130(6):3746-53
doi: 10.1121/1.3653984

Sabine A. Janssen
Henk Vos
Department of Urban Environment and Safety, Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, Delft, The Netherlands
Arno R. Eisses
Department of Acoustics and Sonar, Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, The Hague, The Netherlands
Eja Pedersen
Ecology and Environmental Science, Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden

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PREDICTING ANNOYANCE BY WIND TURBINE NOISE (download)
Sabine A. Janssen, Henk Vos, Arno R. Eisses, Eja Pedersen
Presented at Internoise 2010, Lisbon, Portugal, 13-16 June 2010
Abstract:  While wind turbines have beneficial effects for the environment, they inevitably generate environmental noise. In order to protect residents against unacceptable levels of noise, exposure-response relationships are needed to predict the expected percentage of people annoyed or highly annoyed at a given level of wind turbine noise. Exposure-response relationships for wind turbine noise were derived on the basis of available data, using the same method that was previously used to derive relationships for transportation noise and industrial noise. Data from surveys in Sweden and the Netherlands were used to achieve relationships between L_den and annoyance, both indoors and outdoors at the dwelling. It is shown that a given percentage of annoyance by wind turbine noise is expected at much lower levels of L_den than the same percentage of annoyance by for instance road traffic noise. Results were used to guide new noise regulation for wind turbines in the Netherlands.

EXPOSURE-RESPONSE RELATIONSHIPS FOR ANNOYANCE BY WIND TURBINE NOISE: A COMPARISON WITH OTHER STATIONARY SOURCES (download)
Sabine A. Janssen, Henk Vos, Arno R. Eisses, Eja Pedersen
Presented at Euronoise 2009, Edinburgh, Scotland, 26-28 October 2009
Abstract:  There are indications that, given a certain level of noise exposure, the expected annoyance by wind turbine noise is higher than that by noise from other sources such as industrial noise or transportation noise. The aim of the present study was to establish the exposure-response relationship between wind turbine noise exposure and the expected percentage annoyed residents on the basis of available data. Data from two surveys in Sweden (N=341, N=754) and one survey in the Netherlands (N=725) were combined to achieve relationships between L_den and annoyance indoors as well as annoyance outdoors at the dwelling. In addition, the influence of several individual and situational factors was assessed. In particular, annoyance was lower in residents who received economical benefit from wind turbines, and higher in residents for whom the wind turbine was visible from the dwelling. Age and noise sensitivity had similar effects on annoyance to those found in research on annoyance by other sources. The exposure-response relationship for wind turbine noise is compared to previously established relationships for industrial noise.