A comparison between exposure-response relationships for wind turbine annoyance and annoyance due to other noise sources

Abstract

Surveys have shown that noise from wind turbines is perceived as annoying by a proportion of residents living in their vicinity, apparently at much lower noise levels than those inducing annoyance due to other environmental sources. The aim of the present study was to derive the exposure-response relationship between wind turbine noise exposure in L(den) and the expected percentage annoyed residents and to compare it to previously established relationships for industrial noise and transportation noise. In addition, the influence of several individual and situational factors was assessed. On the basis of available data from two surveys in Sweden (N=341, N=754) and one survey in the Netherlands (N=725), a relationship was derived for annoyance indoors and for annoyance outdoors at the dwelling. In comparison to other sources of environmental noise, annoyance due to wind turbine noise was found at relatively low noise exposure levels. Furthermore, annoyance was lower among residents who received economical benefit from wind turbines and higher among residents for whom the wind turbine was visible from the dwelling. Age and noise sensitivity had similar effects on annoyance to those found in research on annoyance by other sources.

Annoyance, detection and recognition of wind turbine noise

“…The fact that the annoyance level neither increased nor decreased when wind turbine noise was mixed with road traffic noise indicates the absence of masking or synergetic effects. At first sight, these findings seem to contradict earlier findings based on reported noise annoyance at home (Janssen et al, 2011;Pedersen and Persson-Waye, 2004;Pedersen et al, 2009) . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 31 However, in the case of noise annoyance at home, participants know that the wind turbine is present and might listen for its sound, potentially triggered by visual cues given by the moving blades.…”

“…Although road traffic noise is also a major source of noise annoyance, in general, the annoyance seems to be lower than for wind turbines (Janssen et al, 2011). In addition, highways are usually located in open terrain, making these locations often suited for placing wind turbines.…”

Reduction of Wind Turbine Noise Annoyance: An Operational Approach

“…In this regard, noise is most prominent in the closer vicinity of the turbines [2], making the issue especially important in densely populated areas. Moreover, wind turbine noise annoyance occurs to a higher degree than other sources of community noise at the same average noise exposure level [3][4][5][6][7] and complete energetic masking is difficult to obtain [6,8].…”

“…Annoyance assessment and management requires a valid exposure-effect relationship for which a classical exposure parameter is the A-weighted equivalent sound pressure level (L Aeq ) [3] or L den [7], but more exposure indicators might be needed. Laboratory listening tests for qualitatively different wind turbine noise fragments with equalized L Aeq give different annoyance ratings [9] and qualitative descriptions 'swishing', 'whistling', 'resounding' and 'pulsating/throbbing' appear to a very good extent correlated with annoyance by wind turbine noise [10].…”

Systematic Review 2013: Association between Wind Turbines and Human Distress

“…Economic benefit found in two of the studies [15,19] could be intuitively and prematurely viewed as a factor lowering the credibility of the complaint. However, in our opinion, compensation would have lowered the credibility of the complaint only if these people had no distress following compensation.…”