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How noisy is a wind farm?

The TelegraphCited 6× on HN, 2019–2025
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news · general · 2019–2025 on HN

A two-minute Telegraph report that takes a decibel meter to a wind farm and nearby residential areas to measure how loud turbines are compared with everyday noise.

HN cites it in wind-power debates as measured evidence that turbine noise is low relative to ambient or road noise.

Renewables, batteries & storageEveryday physics & science demos#windfarm#noiselevels#decibelmeasurement#windpower

6 comments from Hacker News

@justin662025-10 · in “American solar farms”

This was interesting. ▶ this video The turbines I saw in Iowa weren't loud enough to drown out distance sounds of the highway. I didn't hear them at all, but I guess there's also tinnitus to be contended with...

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@maccard2023-10 · in “Most Americans comfortable with solar panels, turbines in their communities”

How close are you talking? Here's [0] a video where someone goes out and gets a decibel meter to show that living near a road is _way_ more disruptive than living near a wind turbine. This is from over a decade ago. Modern farms are being put 300+ metres away from the nearest houses, where they should be 30-40dB or so [1] [0] ▶ this video [1] link

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@Calvin022022-08 · in “More energy on less land: The drive to shrink solar’s footprint”

I was curious about the sound impact and found these two videos: 1) link , 2) ▶ this video . The first video has pretty sound (pardon the pun) methodology. Findings: Unless you're within 200m of a turbine, the background ambient sounds are louder than the sound of the turbine. Do you have evidence to the contrary?

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@8bitsrule2022-02 · in “Turbine “torture” for Greek islanders as wind farms proliferate”

Found that video working on Youtube using the same 'v=' code. At one point (2:50) the video (attributed to the 'Allegheny Highlands Alliance'[0]; executive producer an M.D.) plays a sound labelled 'turbine noise during winter'. It's very loud ... I wouldn't spend an hour in that noise. But was the noise recorded near the turbine(s)? And considering the turbine(s) are 530 yards (almost 1/3 mile) away from the home, those shadows falling on the building could only occur briefly near sunrise and sunset. Here are some decibel readings at an equivalent distance from a turbine site in England. 4 to 6 dB is a lot less noisy than the AHA video. ▶ this video [0] link

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@vcdimension2021-03 · in “An argument that nuclear power makes the climate crisis worse”

I cannot understand how anyone would prefer an enormous grey concrete building with a large exclusion zone and large cooling towers blocking the skyline, to otherwise untouched natural or agricultural landscape dotted with wind turbines. Wind turbines allow you to enjoy more of the countryside because they take up very little space (you can walk around them). Furthermore, they seem to be quieter: ▶ this video link

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