The GED (section 25 of the Act) is the cornerstone of the Act. It requires people who are engaging in any activity that may give rise to risks of harm to human health or the environment from pollution or waste to minimise those risks, so far as reasonably practicable. This requires those risks to be eliminated so far as reasonably practicable, or if that is not possible, to be reduced so far as reasonably practicable.
The Act also prohibits the emission of unreasonable noise. Section 166 of the Act imposes an obligation on any individual not to emit unreasonable noise or permit an unreasonable noise to be emitted. This applies to the emission of noise from any place or premises that is not a residential premises.
Unreasonable noise has a specific definition in section 3(1) of the Act and includes prescribed unreasonable noise. In addition to prescribed unreasonable noise, noise is assessed as being unreasonable based on its characteristics and the circumstances in which it is emitted as set out in section 3(1)(a)(i)-(v) of the Act.
The obligations to comply with the GED and avoid unreasonable noise emissions apply to WEFs. To provide greater certainty to the industry, Division 5 of Part 5.3 of the Regulations was introduced to set out what WEF operators must do to demonstrate compliance with noise emission duties under the Act.
Regulation 131H prescribes wind turbine noise as unreasonable noise if it exceeds the noise limit for the WEF or, if the noise is assessed at an alternative monitoring point, the applicable alternative monitoring point criterion.
For greater clarity on how to comply with the GED, an Act compliance note3 was included in regulations 131C and 131CA(1). These regulations set out how operators of WEFs must comply with the GED under s.25(1) of the Act with respect to wind turbine noise. Specifically, to comply with the GED, operators of WEFs must ensure that wind turbine noise complies with the noise limits for that facility and must take all applicable actions set out in Division 5 of Part 5.3 of the Regulations to manage and review the wind turbine noise.
WEF noise - hazards and risks
Noise from the operation of WEFs can be a hazard. This includes noise from wind turbine operation and preventative maintenance activities, and noise that may result from equipment malfunction.
Any assessment of hazards and risks should focus on audible sound and consider – in addition to the usual operating wind turbine noise – any character that may increase its annoyance, and any noise emission that is unusual or out of the ordinary that might indicate a need for maintenance.
These hazards should be appropriately identified for each WEF and the risk of harm from noise must be minimised.
Individuals have different sensitivity to sound. Their personal experience is based on a range of factors, including:
- perception of their hearing
- their broader environment or context (including background noise)
- their tolerance or acceptance of sound in their environment.
The risk of harm from noise from wind turbine operation is similar to the risks from other types of audible noise – including annoyance. Annoyance is a broad term that encompasses the negative emotions and reactions that occur in response to the noise or its source. Non-routine operations at wind energy facilities may pose different risks.
Recent reviews on the health effects of wind turbine noise found there is evidence of an increased risk of annoyance (WHO 2018; Michaud, Keith, Feder and Voicescu 2016; Davy, Burgemeister and Hillman 2018), (Davy, Burgemeister, Hillman and Carlile 2020).
When reviewing the possible perceptual and physiological effects of wind turbine infrasound and low frequency noise, the Australian Government’s Independent Scientific Committee on Wind Turbines stated, ‘further scientific research is needed to discover why some people complain about being badly affected by wind turbine noise’. (Davy, Burgemeister, Hillman and Carlile 2020).
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