Prevalence of Complaints Related to Wind Turbine Noise in Northern New England
As of September 2012, there were a dozen large operating wind projects with a total capacity of approximately 565 MW in northern New England, with more coming online by the end of the year. This paper evaluates the prevalence of noise complaints to regulatory authorities from those wind projects. Where possible, the exposure of residences to wind turbine sound is calculated. Exposure is estimated through standard ISO 9613-2 modeling procedures. A comparison of the exposure of complainants and non-complainants is made with the goal of assessing the prevalence of complaints at various modeled sound levels.