Aug/Sept 2007 headlines "Wind expert quits thinktank"
Wind turbine noise expert Dick Bowdler has quit a government working party. He says the Noise Working Group has become “redundant” in the light of the Government’s endorsement of a Salford University report that claims that rhythmic noises from wind turbines are negligible and unlikely to be a nuisance. The government says Salford’s report “eases concerns over wind turbine noise”. Bowdler says it is misleading.

Even before it emerged that Bowdler had resigned in protest at the handling of the turbine noise issue, it was obvious that this report carried with it a ‘bad smell’.

“New report eases concerns over wind turbine noise” trumpets the Government press release, then saying aerodynamic modulation is “not an issue for the UK’s wind farm fleet”. This conclusion is not justified based on the report, and by halting further research work without transparently monitoring the wind farms subject to complaints will inflame, not ‘ease concern’ of objectors. 

While the Government would justify trampling over facts in order to encourage worthy wind generation, some aspects of Salford University’s report contribute to the bad feeling. To conclude that wind turbine disturbance is not significant by comparing numbers of turbine complaints against more general UK-wide complaints should never have been done. The overall basket of noise complaints is made up from a myriad of ‘insignificant’ sources such as wind turbines. Together, they become significant and are certainly significant if faced with a new wind farm on your doorstep.

Only when the public can trust the Government and wind farm developers on noise issues will there be a chance that the public will accept them without a fight. This report could have gone some way to build that trust, but has done the opposite.

There are real fears that a similar steamroller approach will be taken to boost micro turbines. Underestimation of noise impacts and overestimation of benefits will lead to a future backlash against domestic generation that will be hard to manage.

The latest Salford report NANR233 Research into aerodynamic modulation of wind turbine noise can be viewed on www.berr.gov.uk/files/file40570.pdf

News source: www.empublishing.org.uk. Noise Bulletin, serving the needs of noise professionals working in the field of environmental noise, environmental health, nuisance, acoustics and occupational noise.