HEALTH Annoyance
dB(A)
Denmark has played a pioneering role in the development of wind energy and it generates a large proportion of the country’s electricity, yet noise from turbines can cause controversy. Researchers in the Co-Green project are looking at the issues around wind farm noise and how local communities can be better included in project planning, as Dr Julia Kirch Kirkegaard and Daniel Frantzen explain.
TECHNICAL
Distance
SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE Acceptance
Learning from wind energy controversies: listening to the noise
dB(A)
Figure 1: Dynamics of technification and politicisation in wind energy.
Annoyance
Justice
Fairness Planning Proceedure
Regulatory Frame Noise from wind turbines must not be more than 44 dB for “ordinary” noise and 20 dB for “low frequency noise”
Technical Frame Sound is to be controlled: • Standards • Modelling • Wind tunnel tests • Manufacturing Techniques to ensure regulations are met
The wind energy sector accounts for the generation of over half of the total electricity consumed in Denmark, while the country is also an international leader in the development of turbine technologies, as well as in integrating wind power into the energy system. There is broad support for wind energy across the Danish population. “Most people in Denmark are pro-renewable energy and pro-wind, but they might argue that there are genuine issues with individual wind farms,” says Daniel Frantzen, a researcher at the Danish Technical University (DTU) working on the Co-Green project, an initiative backed by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF). The noise associated with wind turbines is a prominent concern, an issue at the heart of the project. “Why is it that we see a lot of controversy over wind turbine noise?” asks Julia Kirch Kirkegaard, Professor at the Department of Technology, Management and Economics at DTU. Co-Green project As head of the project, Professor Kirkegaard is looking into the root causes of increased
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Planning Frame Environmental Impact Study: Map with calculated noise contours and people’s houses
public resistance to wind farms, with the wider aim of improving communication between local communities and technical experts. Wind farm development, and wind energy generally, is often regarded as a highly expert and techno-scientific process, which is regulated through policies,
Community Responses • “What is a dB?” • “Why is noise calculated not measured?” • “I am different – I am sensitive to noise.”
Isolate the noise and simplify
Identify the noise and recognise other factors
Green Transition
Visual Impact
Many aspects to ‘acceptance’ that need to be understood together
• “Who set the regulations?” • “The standards don’t reflect what I hear.”
This can cause resentment and stimulate opposition to a development, which often centres around the issue of noise, the impact of which is difficult to measure objectively. While developers can take noise measurements and run models, this may not reflect the actual experiences of
“When developers think about noise only in very technical, physical terms, it doesn’t necessarily match the daily reality of people’s lives. Noise can disrupt people’s lives and activities, it has a cumulative impact.” regulations, and planning law. “We refer to this governance mode of the energy transition as ‘technification’”, explains Professor Kirkegaard. However, this technical information does not fully reflect the way that lay people and communities are affected by the presence of wind farms, who often respond by describing their everyday experiences. “There is a clash of values, a struggle we refer to as ‘politicisation’,” continues Professor Kirkegaard. (Figure 1)
Sound
Engagement
the people affected. “When developers think about noise only in very technical, physical terms, it doesn’t necessarily match the daily reality of people’s lives. Noise can disrupt people’s lives and activities, it has a cumulative impact,” points out Professor Kirkegaard. A wide variety of factors may affect the way people experience noise. “For example, it’s well-established in the literature that if you benefit economically from wind farms then you will be less
EU Research
Figure 2: Different understandings of noise – and how noise research looks at different things (illustrated through shifting dependent and independent variables).
bothered by the noise they generate,” says Frantzen. “It’s also been found that people who find wind turbines visually intrusive, who believe they don’t fit in the landscape, will perceive them as more noisy.” The project team has reviewed many strands of scientific literature and interviewed not only local community members, but also a number of experts, aiming to build a deeper picture of the issue. They found that the various scientific disciplines currently involved in noise research (technical, health and social acceptance) understand noise as something fundamentally different. (Figure 2) The efforts to address noise are thus different and sometimes contradictory. The isolation of the volume of a noise, as measured in dB(A), is a major factor in technical and health research. “Noise doesn’t have to be particularly loud to be disruptive,” says Frantzen. The characteristics of wind turbine noise are also an important consideration. “Wind turbine noise has a particular rhythm
that makes it more distinctive to some people, and that can make it more disruptive than other, more stable types of noise,” says Frantzen. “Things may also change in the surrounding landscape, so it adds up to a complex overall picture.” A second strand of investigation centres around case studies on Danish wind farm projects at various stages of the planning process, where researchers have interviewed the actors involved, including local politicians, planners, developers and concerned citizens. The latter group includes people who have become engaged in controversies about wind farms, and while some opponents may be motivated by narrow concerns, Professor Kirkegaard says it is misleading to characterise them all in this way. “We’re trying to show that it’s more complicated than that. Opponents of wind farms often have good ideas about how things could be done differently and how local people could be involved,” she
stresses. However, it is often relatively late in the planning process that these alternatives are heard, meaning they are often formally dismissed, leading citizens to search for new means to block projects. (Figure 3) Many municipalities do carry out early strategic planning processes for renewable energy before specific projects are considered, but Frantzen says people are often not aware that these processes are under way. “Often citizens only become aware of energy planning in their municipality when things become very concrete,” he says. “But once a very concrete project has been announced, you can’t change a lot due to the nature of planning law.”
Community engagement There is a high degree of consensus in the literature that community engagement should begin at an earlier stage than is currently the case, giving local people more time to make suggestions. However, there is
Figure 3: Citizens moving from attempts at participation to modes of resistance.
1. Citizens trying to participate in the formal planning process, but finding it hard to express their concerns.
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2. Citizens proposing alternative projects. However these alternatives tend to be dismissed in formal planning.
3. Frustrated by how little they can affect the planning process, citizens search for ways to cancel projects – e.g. by finding protected birds.
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