Wind farms are becoming a critical and significant alternative energy resource throughout the world, where wind turbine noise is at times considered an afterthought during the planning process. If a commercial wind energy project is not properly developed, the annoyance level of noise produced by operational turbines can become a nuisance to nearby communities. With this topic in mind, it is the intent of this study to provide a comparison of wind turbine noise regulations in the countries of Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Australia, United States of America, and Canada. Research shows numerous European countries have strict regulations for wind turbine compliance noise threshold limits. Other countries describe the use of turbine setback distances or impose a penalty for tonal or impulse noise characteristics where regulatory noise limits, and the parameters to describe these specific metrics, differ per country. In converse to Europe, the United States and Canada do not include national legislation whereby deferring to local province, state, and county. In instances where there is no wind turbine noise legislation, the applicable threshold limits are enforced by standardized noise ordinances of the governing jurisdiction or simply rely on national environmental noise guidelines, such as seen in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publications within the United States. Overall, research indicates that noise regulations implemented for limiting wind turbine noise is shown to widely vary between these countries. The findings of this study are proposed to further educate the noise consulting community and assist to improve the quality of advice within industry and governing authorities.
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