EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In late 2011 The Acoustic Group performed a desk-top review of the acoustic documents comprising the acoustic assessment for the Flyers Creek Wind Farm and conducted preliminary sound monitoring at an existing operational wind farm (the Capital Wind Farm) [1] which was approved in New South Wales on the basis of similar analyses, guidelines and reports to that provided for the Flyers Creek Wind Farm. The assessment found deficiencies and inadequate information in the acoustic assessment of the Flyers Creek proposal such that the true acoustic impact of the proposed wind farm had not been presented to the community.
In the intervening period a set of Draft Wind Farm Guidelines have been issued by the NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure (“the Department”) for public comment.
The Acoustic Group was requested by the Flyers Creek Wind Turbine Awareness Group to examine the Draft Wind Farm Guidelines with respect to acoustic issues. As there are no acoustic compliance reports for operational wind farms in NSW in the public domain, The Acoustic Group was also requested to conduct additional testing to assess the Draft Guidelines with respect to practical aspects of their application to operating wind farms.
The Draft Wind Farm Guidelines have identified that they closely follow the existing South Australian Guidelines in relation to the noise criteria. The problem for the broader community in comprehending the Guidelines is that from a noise perspective by definition, the Guidelines must be expressed in technical terms which are not readily understood by the community. The community therefore relies on the preparation by the Department of noise guidelines that set rigorous criteria and assessment procedures as well as a rigorous compliance regime. A reasonable person would expect that such Guidelines would be drawn from and based upon solid data and measurements. Despite the fact that the Department has had the opportunity to scrutinize data and undertake scientific investigations of operating wind farms for the purpose of the Draft Guidelines, it has not done so.
The Draft Wind Farm Guidelines set out measurement, assessment and compliance procedures which are likely to be unworkable in practice. This review highlights a number of outstanding issues in relation to noise impacts from wind farms that require the Draft Guidelines to be amended in order to safeguard the acoustic amenity of residents in areas where wind farms are proposed and where there has previously been no such noise source.
It is recommended that the proposed base criteria for wind farms be amended to 30 dB(A) when assessed under the worst case scenario. In particular, it is concluded:
Download original document: “Review of NSW Draft Wind Farm Guidelines [2]”
Download Appendices (CV and data) [3]
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/review-of-nsw-draft-wind-farm-guidelines/
URLs in this post:
[1] desk-top review of the acoustic documents comprising the acoustic assessment for the Flyers Creek Wind Farm and conducted preliminary sound monitoring at an existing operational wind farm (the Capital Wind Farm): http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/peer-review-of-acoustic-assessment-flyers-creek-wind-farm/
[2] Review of NSW Draft Wind Farm Guidelines: https://docs.wind-watch.org/Review-of-NSW-Draft-Wind-Farm-Guidelines.pdf
[3] Download Appendices (CV and data): https://docs.wind-watch.org/Acoustic-Group-Appendices.pdf