Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 January 2025
This chapter contains a broad overview of the technical and environmental issues to be addressed in the contruction of onshore wind energy projects. The former include ecological considerations, including birds and mammals; the requirements of typical pre-construction ornithological surveys are described with an example. Public safety and acceptance is discussed in the context of catastrophic damage to wind turbines, visual impact, shadow flicker, and noise nuisance. In the last case equations and simple rules for noise assessment are given in the context of typical planning guidelines. Sound power levels for a range of commercial wind turbines are compared, and empirical relationships given relating noise to rated output, and rotor size and tip speed. Risks to aviation are discussed, covering aircraft collision and interference to radar systems, including both primary and secondary surveillance radars. The concept of ‘stealthy’ wind turbine blades is discussed, and described in outline. Other siting criteria include avoidance of RF and microwave communications beams and television interference. Rules are given to avoid interference, while minimising required separation distances.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.