TNEI has been working closely with wind farm developers and operators, providing advice on appropriate turbine selection for their consented Wind Farms.
Once a wind farm is consented, developers typically enter into negotiations with a number of turbine manufacturers in order to find the most appropriate turbines for the site which offer the best financial return. Typically, a number of candidate turbines are evaluated but one of the factors to be considered is which turbine type can meet the conditioned noise limits whilst producing the highest power output.
For this type of noise assessment, initial noise predictions assuming standard operational modes and worst-case, downwind, noise propagation are considered. Where predicted noise levels exceed the relevant noise limits, additional calculations are undertaken to inform the design of an effective Mode Management Strategy.
The additional predictions take into account 12 wind sectors of 30 degrees each, directivity attenuation for each sector and the sound power data of available low noise modes. Outputs from these models are then fed into individual turbine matrices which specify the required operational mode per wind speed and per sector. These matrices are then used to assess the impact on energy yield prior to implementation of the sector management control protocols.
TNEI can undertake this type of work for all sizes of developments, from FIT schemes through to Section 36 developments. The process of detailed evaluation can also be undertaken during the site design stage when noise is a critical issue or to design mitigation strategies for operational schemes where required.
Moise Coulon, one of TNEI’s Senior Technical Consultants who leads our sector management work said:
“Over the last twelve months we have seen a real surge in sector management work as manufacturers offer more options and developers look to maximise generation whilst ensuring that noise levels are kept to an acceptable level. Last year we assessed multiple candidate turbines for more than 10 wind farms and this information was used to inform energy yield predictions and final choice of turbine.
We have liaised with various turbine manufacturers to determine exactly how flexible the individual turbine control systems are to ensure we can design realistic strategies which can be implemented in practice.”
For further information on our noise team’s capabilities, please click here. If you would like a quote or just an informal chat, please contact Moise Coulon on moise.coulon@tnei.co.uk or 0191 211 1408.
