August 15, 2013
Massachusetts

Scituate wind turbine noise testing begins

By Lane Lambert | The Patriot Ledger | Posted Aug 15, 2013 | www.patriotledger.com

SHARON – Sound engineers hired in March by the owner of the Scituate wind turbine have started testing to determine whether the machine is too noisy.

Tech Environmental of Waltham, the company hired by the turbine’s owner at the behest of the town’s board of health, was scheduled to begin collecting data from 11 p.m. Wednesday until 5 a.m. today.

A group of residents have complained that their health is adversely affected by the noise and shadow flicker from the turbine, which is owned by Scituate Wind LLC, a partnership of Palmer Capital and Solaya Energy.

The neighborhood group hired its own engineer, E-Coustics, to test concurrently with Tech Environmental.

But Tom Thompson, a Gilson Road resident and executive director of a group called the Alliance for Responsible Siting of Alternative Energy Installations, said Tech Environmental did not provide enough notice for E-Coustics to test Wednesday into today.

“Less than 24 hours’ notice of your proposed scheduled test has provided us with insufficient time to allow E-Coustics to mobilize and conduct this simultaneous testing,” Thompson wrote in an email Wednesday to Tech Environmental. “Your rush to test this evening and tomorrow morning is extremely curious.”

Thompson said the high wind speeds and northwest wind direction expected during the testing period would create a biased background noise level that would “clearly impact the integrity of these test results.”

He requested that Tech Environmental provide the sound data “for a proper independent, peer review of the firm’s analysis and conclusions.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/08/15/scituate-wind-turbine-noise-testing-begins/