May 16, 2013
Netherlands, Noise, Regulations

Impact of wind turbine noise in the Netherlands

Verheijen, Edwin; Jabben, Jan; Schreurs, Eric; and Smith, Kevin

The Dutch government aims at an increase of wind energy up to 6 000 MW in 2020 by placing new wind turbines on land or offshore. At the same time, the existing noise legislation for wind turbines is being reconsidered. For the purpose of establishing a new noise reception limit value expressed in Lden, the impact of wind turbine noise under the given policy targets needs to be explored. For this purpose, the consequences of different reception limit values for the new Dutch noise legislation have been studied, both in terms of effects on the population and regarding sustainable energy policy targets. On the basis of a nation-wide noise map containing all wind turbines in The Netherlands, it is calculated that 3% of the inhabitants of The Netherlands are currently exposed to noise from wind turbines above 28 dB(A) at the façade. Newly established dose-response relationships indicate that about 1500 of these inhabitants are likely to be severely annoyed inside their dwellings. The available space for new wind turbines strongly depends on the noise limit value that will be chosen. This study suggests an outdoor A-weighted reception limit of Lden = 45 dB as a trade-off between the need for protection against noise annoyance and the feasibility of national targets for renewable energy.

Noise Health. 2011 Nov-Dec;13(55):459-63
doi: 10.4103/1463-1741.90331 [1]

Edwin Verheijen, Jan Jabben, Eric Schreurs, Kevin B. Smith
National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Centre for Environmental Monitoring, Bilthoven, The Netherlands

Download original document: “Impact of wind turbine noise in the Netherlands [2]


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/impact-of-wind-turbine-noise-in-the-netherlands/


URLs in this post:

[1] 10.4103/1463-1741.90331: http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/1463-1741.90331

[2] Impact of wind turbine noise in the Netherlands: https://docs.wind-watch.org/verheijen2011.pdf