U.S. and Chilean researchers join to study wind turbine vibration, dampen unwanted noise.
Virginia Tech — March 30, 2015
Newswise — Wind turbines provide clean, abundant energy and bolster America’s power grid. But across the world people are banding together to fight wind farms, blaming noise for interrupted sleep and a host of health problems.
Scientists lack sufficient understanding of wind turbines’ noise and best ways to mitigate the effects, says Jorge Arenas, a faculty member in the Universidad Austral de Chile’s College of Engineering Sciences and director of its Institute of Acoustics.
Noise is annoying and, worse, linked to health problems, many researchers say. A newspaper in the U.K. captures the sensation: “Residents near some wind farms have likened the noise to a cement-mixer or a shoe stuck in a tumble-dryer,” writes energy editor Emily Gosden in a story in The Telegraph.
“The noise from wind turbines is not very loud,” says Virginia Tech’s Richardo Burdisso, a professor of mechanical engineering and Arenas’ colleague in Blacksburg. “However, it is annoying because of its amplitude modulated characteristic. That is, the noise fluctuates in levels with a period of 0.7 to 1.5 seconds, depending on the size of the turbine. The fluctuation in levels can be as high as 10 to 12 decibels.”Arenas and Virginia Tech colleagues who are known for their wind tunnel research will study the vibrations of wind turbines at a large Chilean wind farm along with health impacts on nearby residents. The goal is to make wind turbines more acceptable.
Last year Ohio legislators passed a law requiring wind turbine blades to be at least a quarter-mile from the nearest property line. That’s because sounds in the low frequency range can travel great distances; they “are not well attenuated by air,” Arenas says. “Low frequency noise is hard to mitigate.” Continue reading here…..
Reblogged this on Global Wind Energy — The Human Impact.
Reblogged this on ajmarciniak.
“The goal is to make wind turbines more acceptable.”
This might be the goal on the part of researchers and engineers, but is not the goal of the wind consortium and all of the players within our governments who have made it so easy for them to industrialize rural neighbourhoods throughout the world. Their goal is to assist in the forced relocation of rural residents to ‘human settlements’-Agenda 21-using torture via infrasound.
The timeline of information regarding the evidence of adverse health impacts is available in both Australia and in Ontario. This information was ignored/denied by the wind companies.
The timeline information is groundwork for massive class action lawsuits.
My Community has formed an organization, “El Paso County Property Right Coalition” (Please find us on Facebook). People are chipping in to help us pay for extremely enormous attorney’s fees in an attempt to stop a Next Era Wind Farm which will ruin our property values and force many to abandon their homes. Our local corrupt Board of County Commissioners refused to consider the potential for numerous negative impacts to “Non-participating” home owners, took the Bribe money and approved this developer to start building the Wind Farm. Please help us pay the attorney fees by going on our Facebook and contacting us. We are not wealthy people but are people living from poverty level to middle class and none of us can afford to move away and buy another home.
Simultaneous, massive class action lawsuits, made public in the planning stages, will get the message out loudly and clearly to the wind companies that they cannot drive people out of their homes or deny the devaluing of nearby real estate of non lease holders. Save all records of negative impacts. Be diligent about this.