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Wednesday, April 24, 2024

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Wednesday, April 24, 2024
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Macarthur wind farm operating ‘well within’ noise limits

Sophie Vorrath
45

On the same day that a powerful pro-wind alliance has petitioned Premier Denis Napthine to amend Victoria’s prohibitive wind farm planning laws, the owners of the state’s newest and largest wind farm have confirmed it has successfully passed strict noise compliance conditions since its opening on April 12.

AGL Energy and New Zealand’s Meridian announced today that the 420MW Macarthur wind farm – the largest in Australia and the southern hemisphere – was successfully operating within the noise limits set in its State Planning Permit, according to an independent assessment produced by AECOM.

The Macarthur Planning Permit, which is enforced by the Victorian government, required noise monitoring to be carried out at specified dwellings neighboring the 140-turbine wind farm. Noise loggers were installed between February and March 2013 to capture the noise data for the assessment.
AGL says that the results of the independent assessment taken at 13 neighbouring dwellings shows that the newly opened wind farm is operating “well within” the acoustic requirements of the Planning Permit – that is, the wind farm noise should not exceed the background noise level before the wind farm was operating by more than 5dB(A) or a level of 40dB(A), whichever is higher.

“We appreciate some community members have been concerned about wind farm noise levels so we wanted to make sure it was operating correctly from the start and give the community a greater level of comfort,” said AGL’s Group General Manager Power Development, Scott Thomas. “Over 40,000 hours of noise monitoring has been conducted at Macarthur, which is well beyond the amount of noise monitoring required in the Planning Permit.”

The testing also monitored for special audible characteristics (clearly audible tones, impulses, or modulation of sound levels), none of which were determined to be present at any of the noise monitoring locations.

The full report can be found here.

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Comments

45 responses to “Macarthur wind farm operating ‘well within’ noise limits”

  1. Geopap8 Avatar
    Geopap8

    Whilst is supposedly complies to noise guidelines, these guidelines are clearly inadequate to protect the health and wellbeing of local residents

    1. mocinoz Avatar
      mocinoz

      and you know this how?
      Care to cite any References?

      1. Geopap8 Avatar
        Geopap8

        Because wind turbines emit high levels of impulsive low frequency noise which is not appropriately reflected in dBA readings…

        1. Lurker Avatar
          Lurker

          … and coal fired power stations do not?

        2. mocinoz Avatar
          mocinoz

          do you have references or citations to support this view?

          1. Geopap8 Avatar
            Geopap8

            Sounds like you live in a very insular world…

          2. mocinoz Avatar
            mocinoz

            So does that mean the answer is no?

          3. Geopap8 Avatar
            Geopap8

            So you do live in an insular world! So here is one treat for you:

            Malcolm Swinbanks: Impulsive Noise peaking at 90dB: http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/infrasound-from-wind-turbines-letter-from-malcolm-swinbanks/

          4. mocinoz Avatar
            mocinoz

            I still do not understand the “insular” reference but, no matter. The link you provided was very interesting but it is expressed as an opinion in a letter by the author based on his own (unverified?) measurements. I have no doubt he is confident these measurements are correct, however, there is no corroborating evidence or verification. He does take the time and effort to provide references for the material he is commenting on and in this regard he is to be congratulated. None of his references, however, support your original assertion.

          5. Geopap8 Avatar
            Geopap8

            He has measures the noise and identified the issue: “I have myself analysed data from a windfarm in Michigan, which was generating unambiguous impulsive infrasound. It was possible to identify separate impulsive contributions from six different turbines at distances of 1500 feet to 1.2 miles.”

            If you doubt the opinion of Swinbanks based on measurements, then perhaps listen to the turbines in this video and note the impulsive characteristics: http://www.youtube.com/user/WaubraFoundation

          6. mocinoz Avatar
            mocinoz

            Yes, as I said he appears confident that he has measured something. But where is the data?

            A Youtube video is hardly evidence.

            In addition, the Waubra Foundation is a known anti-wind group that uses deception and pseudo science to push it’s narrow, largely hidden, agenda.

            If that is the only material you can offer to support your original assertions then it’s a bit pointless to continue this discussion.

          7. Geopap8 Avatar
            Geopap8

            Precisely Mocinoz, a You Tube video is hardly evidence of phenomena that aren’t readily perceptible to the viewer.

            However, for the very obvious phenomena such as thumping impulsive noise the burden of evidence rests with the doubter proving why their sensory faculties should still be considered competent by others In this case you can hear the higher the higher secondary frequencies produced by the 1 hertz thumps.

            By the way Mocinoz, I note your savvy taste for evidence, but are you the same person as that professor who can’t get the locations of wind farms correct?

          8. mocinoz Avatar
            mocinoz

            No, I am not that person.

            And, yes, I do have a strong preference for evidence based assertions

          9. mocinoz Avatar
            mocinoz

            And you still did not answer the questions.

            The end

    2. Blair Donaldson Avatar
      Blair Donaldson

      George, all your posts should be prefaced by the disclaimer that you actively promote and believe in pseudoscience and quackery?

      Readers can find many examples here:
      http://geovital.com.au/geovital_george_papadopoulos_nsw.html

      1. Geopap8 Avatar
        Geopap8

        Blair, like your choice of question mark! The methods of the Geovital Academy (its existence approved by the Austrian Health Ministry) are based on a doctoral thesis, and the finding of this thesis have been confirmed by subsequent studies.
        Blair, you are a malicious little man aren’t you?

        1. Simon Holmes a Court Avatar
          Simon Holmes a Court

          george, do you believe that the devices sold on your website actually work?

          1. Geopap8 Avatar
            Geopap8

            Simon, do you actually believe that wind turbines are making a meaningful reduction to CO2 emissions?

          2. Simon Holmes a Court Avatar
            Simon Holmes a Court

            Yes I do and I am standing on solid ground. Honest and straightforward answer to your question. How about an honest and straight forward answer to my question?

          3. Simon Holmes a Court Avatar
            Simon Holmes a Court

            george? simple question. not prepared to answer?

        2. Blair Donaldson Avatar
          Blair Donaldson

          I’m not really malicious George, I love just about everyone. I only have contempt for sprukers of woo and ignorance like yourself.

        3. Simon Holmes A Court Avatar
          Simon Holmes A Court

          george, not sure if you saw my quuestion below. do you believe the devices and products sold on your geovital website actually work?

          1. Geopap8 Avatar
            Geopap8

            Simon your critical thinking is totally absent: it is not my website (“your geovital website”), much like Blair in the past insinuated that a website set up by some lady in QLD was also “your [my] website”.
            Clearly you and Blair are just part of the Chapmanian bandwagon of trolls…

          2. Simon Holmes a Court Avatar
            Simon Holmes a Court

            george, it would be a mistake to confuse trolling with persistence when people dodge questions or accountability. i apologise for calling it ‘your website’ — my honest mistake. i see that you are reluctant to answer my simple question above, so i’ll reiterate: 1. what’s the nature of your relationship to geovital, 2. do you believe that the products sold on the geovital website have any therapeutic or protective value?

          3. Geopap8 Avatar
            Geopap8

            Simon,
            If you feel so sorry about the choice to call it my website when the obvious is that I am one of the many assessors listed, then it makes it clear that there is no way you able to comprehend my answers.
            I suggest you spend your Sunday morning before your Hepburn spinning monstrosity gods making atonement for your inability to provide evidence that wind turbines make a meaningful reduction to CO2 emissions. You have let them down my friend…

          4. Simon Holmes A Court Avatar
            Simon Holmes A Court

            i’m taking george’s response to mean that he genuinely believes that there’s therapeutic value in the products and services on geovital’s website (RF paint and the like). i’m sure he’ll correct me if i’m wrong.

          5. Geopap8 Avatar
            Geopap8

            Simon, again you are mocking me by attributing therapeutic value to RF paint!
            I don’t recommend that paint for therapeutic use. Unless perhaps your devious ways need some black graphite to protect them from the light of day, perhaps you should plaster some all over your face and existence!

          6. Simon Holmes A Court Avatar
            Simon Holmes A Court

            george, this discussion is not constructive. let’s take up this discussion offline sometime.

          7. Geopap8 Avatar
            Geopap8

            Simon, sorry if I have upset you, but here is something to cheer you up:

            A new word proposed for the Webster Dictionary: “fisching”

            Fisching is similar to phishing, but it’s devious design immerses
            the victim into a real life situation such as debate or defensive argument. The
            victim is lead to believe that if they follow the leading questions of the
            opponent, then they will win the confidence of the opponent and the audience.

            Typically, fisching targets the honesty of genuine, caring
            individuals, particularly medical practitioners, by sinister opponents, in the
            hope that the victim is led into a trap. The victim is led by the opponent to
            make statements which misrepresent what they really have done or believe. The
            process is repeated as often as possible so the victim inadvertently gives the
            opponent “evidence” of consistent patterns of behaviour.

            The opponent then opportunistically accuses them for
            unethical conduct, misconduct or fraudulently posing as something they aren’t.

            The mystery to fisching starts not with the “F” but with the
            not so obvious “SC” which hides within the letters. It is a process where the
            person at the forefront “F” works on behalf of “SC”. “F” doesn’t only represent
            the forefront of this ruthless cyber-battle, it also sometimes represents the
            “Fool” that works on behalf of “SC”.

            “SC” could mean a lot of things, but it also the initials of
            a crafty pro-wind activist Professor at Sydney University.

            So if you really hate someone who is genuine, honest and
            caring and wish for them to get buried alive because their virtues get in your
            way, you curse them to get “fisched”!

    3. Blair Donaldson Avatar
      Blair Donaldson

      Hey George, it’s a small world. It turns out I know somebody who used to attend some of your little film nights and lectures at Magpie House during your Mount Dandenong days.

      Seems you were a proponent of just about every sort of woo yet devised by mankind. And then you decided to sell up and move to New South Wales to build a little community away from the coastline so as to be safe from mega tsunamis you’re convinced will destroy much of the coast?

      According to my source you were well-meaning but extremely arrogant and never wrong which resulted in some of the would-have-been members of your New World order deserting the cause.

      My jaw nearly dropped to the floor as the various revelations about you were revealed.

      PS. How are your crop circles going?

      1. Geopap8 Avatar
        Geopap8

        Blair, I have never lived in Victoria, or been to a place at Magpie House…
        Sound like you are desperate to get any fairy tale against me.

        1. Blair Donaldson Avatar
          Blair Donaldson

          George, my apologies if you are not the same person my acquaintance described. You have to admit though, your identical names, mutual promotion of pseudoscience and conspiracy theories, promotion of guest speakers to help spread the word and workshops is uncanny.

          1. Geopap8 Avatar
            Geopap8

            How much more embarrassing Blair for you to have believed fairy tales about me being the same person. A lack of critical thinking perhaps?

          2. Blair Donaldson Avatar
            Blair Donaldson

            George, there is no need for you to be embarrassed about being caught out telling more porkies, unless you’re a slow learner. You should be used to it by now.

          3. Geopap8 Avatar
            Geopap8

            What are the porkies Blair?

          4. Blair Donaldson Avatar
            Blair Donaldson

            Come on George, we’ve been here before. Your little fibs about a mythical research paper? Your assorted claims about sound from turbines etc etc playing stupid doesn’t add to your already dubious integrity.

          5. Geopap8 Avatar
            Geopap8

            Blair your sounding more and more like one of the wild men of fanatical religious antiquity that just blurb out endless accusations and rant against others when they have nothing better to say: “pseudoscience”, “mythical paper”, “quackery” etc seem like bread and butter in your rant against anyone who threatens the glory of your lofty gods called wind turbines
            Clearly this discussion if futile!

          6. Blair Donaldson Avatar
            Blair Donaldson

            George, I have lots of discussions with rational people. If you were one of them, you’d know that’s true. Hell, I even chat with the occasional creationist in part for comic relief and also for updates on where the religious crazy is at these days. Compared to you, they seem positively sane.

            It’s not surprising you cannot distinguish the difference between real science and the pseudoscience you promote, you’re an ideal demonstration of someone suffering the Dunning Kruger effect.

            You and your various forms of hocus-pocus are about as credible as a cold fusion demonstration presided over by Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann or George Pell claiming his church cared about abused children.

            You aren’t fooling anybody except yourself.

  2. Blair Donaldson Avatar
    Blair Donaldson

    Well it didn’t take long for the anti-wind rabble to try and move the goalposts.

    1. Will Robertson Avatar
      Will Robertson

      Skull spasms!! Someone should hold up the printing of DSM-5 so this can be included – it seems George has uncovered a new illness and its biological underpinnings. I think they will have to put the goal posts on wheels to them moving this fast.

      1. Blair Donaldson Avatar
        Blair Donaldson

        Will, never underestimate the inventiveness of your average pseudoscientist and self appointed medical guru like our George. They are a canny lot. I wouldn’t be at all surprised that they are working on goalposts that can be moved by magnetic levitation to expedite sudden changes of position.

  3. Mike Barnard Avatar
    Mike Barnard

    Another nail in the framework of detailed, robust, repeatable, empirical evidence for wind farms being benign. Vast overkill, but the myths of anti-wind lobbyists die hard.

  4. Guest Avatar
    Guest

    Sure, it complies with the guidelines. Yet, the guidelines don’t take into account the possibility that wind turbines cause electromagnetic skull spasms:

    http://gizmodo.com/5824630/australian-farmers-claim-new-wind-farms-are-making-them-sick

    In fact, ‘skull spasms’ aren’t even mentioned in the report. Until planning guidelines incorporate every single possibility, regardless of likelihood, evidence, falsifiability, confirmation or investigation, I will not be satisfied.

    1. Blair Donaldson Avatar
      Blair Donaldson

      George knows a lot about skull spasms

      1. Geopap8 Avatar
        Geopap8

        Blair, I know certainly know about the “skull spasms” in Chapman’s recent “research” on nocebo and wind turbines.

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