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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

A “‘big year’ is an attempt to see as many species of bird as possible in the UK in a calendar year, with the winner being the one who sees the most species of birds during that year. Most birds beyond the 250 mark are either rare or very rare species that are blown off their normal migration route, and it is impossible to tell where and when they may turn up. Doing a “‘big year’ demands most of an individual’s free time, with Andrew spending most of his weekends and holidays birding throughout the UK, from Cornwall to Shetland. The final end of the year declared totals, under British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) guidelines are as follows; 1st place) Andrew Kinghorn ““ Total: 342. 2nd place) Lee Evans ““ Total: 335. 3rd place) Andrew Emery ““ Total: 317. The list can be viewed here. If you click on Andrews name

Moise Coulon and James Mackay will be presenting papers at the 6th International Wind Turbine Noise conference which is being held in Glasgow on 20th – 23rd April. The papers will draw on TNEI’s considerable wind farm noise experience and will focus on cumulative noise assessment and control; a topic which is increasingly important for proposed and operational sites all over the UK. Moise is presenting a paper entitled “‘Directivity attenuation coefficients – research based on long term measurements’ where he will explore how measurements of turbine noise in the field compare to the commonly used assumptions about the directivity of wind turbine noise. The impact of directivity in simple terms means that wind turbine noise levels measured 600m downwind of a wind turbine is expected to be less than the noise levels measured 600m upwind. Being able to accurately determine the directivity of wind turbine noise for a range

“Merry Christmas from TNEI.” ………. ChristmasCrowd.JPG ………. We look forward to a bright and prosperous 2015.

The Planning & Environmental Group at TNEI has ended 2014 on a high, with the completion of their 6th onshore wind farm Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the year. During the course of the year, the team ““ based in Newcastle upon Tyne and Glasgow – has acted as lead consultant, core author and coordinator for wind farm EIAs in East Ayrshire (Lethans ““ Banks Renewables), Dorset (Slyer’s Lane ““ Broadview Energy), Scottish Borders (Birneyknowe ““ Banks Renewables; Whitelaw Brae ““ 2020 Renewables), South Lanarkshire (Kype Muir Wind Farm Extension ““ Banks Renewables) and Redcar & Cleveland (Kilton Thorpe Lane – GHF Energy). This work has culminated in the submission of Planning/Section 36 consent applications for a potential total of 300 megawatts of generating capacity. As well as acting as project managers for each client in coordinating the Environmental Statements across a team of specialist sub-consultants, TNEI provided planning consultancy

TNEI Services has successfully discharged all of the required planning conditions and completed the Ecological Clerk of Works (ECoW) role at EDF-ER’s 6 turbine Barmoor Wind Farm in Northumberland. The planning permission included a number of pre-commencement conditions covering a range of topic areas relating to construction traffic, shadow flicker, television interference, archaeology, and ecology and ornithology. TNEI were appointed to undertake pre-application consultation with relevant departments of the Council, prepare documentation sufficient to discharge the conditions, and to manage the process through to determination. TNEI were also appointed to undertake the ECoW role during the construction phase of the wind farm development. Construction commenced on site at a particularly sensitive time of year (bird breeding season) and TNEI were responsible for monitoring construction works, particularly ground and hedgerow clearance, to ensure that protected species were not disturbed by the works. The role included providing a contractor induction in advance