Health Effects of Noise from Large Wind Turbines: Difference between revisions

It has been known since the early 1980s that noise from large wind turbines can adversely affect human health. In 1981, physicist Neil Kelley and colleagues reported their investigation of complaints from residents living within 3 kilometers of an experimental 2-megawatt downwind two-blade wind turbine in Boone, North Carolina, which had begun operation in the fall of 1979.<ref name=Kelley81>Kelley ND, McKenna HE, Hemphill RR. 1981. A methodology for assessment of wind turbine noise generation. Journal of Solar Energy Engineering 21:341-356.</ref><ref name=Kelley82>Kelley ND, Hemphill RR, McKenna HE. 1982. A methodology for assessment of wind turbine noise generation. Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME): Journal of Solar Energy Engineering – Including Wind Energy and Building Energy Conservation 104:112-120. https://docs.wind-watch.org/kelley_ASME_1982.pdf</ref> Considering that people reported “feeling” the sounds more than hearing them, that the noise was more annoying indoors, that small objects near walls and the glass in picture frames often rattled, and that apparent noise levels were only moderately increased, it seemed to the researchers that infrasound (below the threshold of hearing, or <20 Hz) and low-frequency (<100 Hz) noise (ILFN) was resonating with the building structures as well as with the subjects’ bodies to create the feelings of pressure, uneasiness, and vibration. And indeed, their measurements showed that ILFN pulses dominated the sound energy from the turbine.