Strongly expanding wind power requires better regulation

From the reader. Energia-Alan The actors wroteTo consider unnecessary and harmful obstacles to wind power in the Regional Use Act, and a fixed distance requirement for residential buildings would ruin the permit system based on the effects (KL 18.2).

Rather, a strong extension of wind power would require further and better regulation to control increasing harm. The current design system is unable to prevent the harm of the settlement. Wind power investment decisions take place in the municipalities at a time, and no one in Finland is responsible for the joint and overall impact. As the number of projects increases, the disadvantages are increasingly cumulative.

The guidance is outdated

The most significant disadvantage to the settlement is noise. The distance between the wind turbines and the settlement is determined by the noise modeling of the project designer. The distance is deemed to be sufficient if the adjusted 40 dB noise limit was not exceeded in the yard of residential buildings, according to noise modeling.

However, noise modeling involves significant uncertainty. Noise modeling guidance is from 2014, when there was no information about current giant power plants, and the guide would definitely require updating. In addition, the guidelines do not take into account the pulsating nature of wind noise, or amplitude modulation, which is known to be the most important factor in the interference of wind noise.

The current noise limits are not sufficient to prevent noise from wind power. Studies have shown that the number of disturbed wind noise is starting to rise sharply as the noise level outside the dwellings exceeds 35 dB. Our association has suggested that to prevent noise nuisance, the night -time noise limit should be lowered to 35 db. It would ensure that the night -time internal noise limit for sleeping areas was not exceeded.

All projects under environmental permit regulation

However, setting noise limits alone is not enough, and they should also be monitored. There is no control now, as wind power is not covered by general environmental permit regulation, and it is extremely difficult to obtain the effect of a case -by -case environmental permit. Therefore, only a few wind power projects have an environmental permit.

All industrial wind power projects should therefore be adjusted to environmental permits. The noise modeling instructions should also be updated and the deficiencies that have been left to it.

Finland is concerned about the decline in the social acceptability of wind power, and the ways in which people can accept wind farms can be accepted. However, the only sustainable way would be to recognize and take the effects of wind power and take effective measures to prevent them. It would be easy to prevent noise nuisance with the actions we have proposed.