Things go whump in night: turbines critics

Reports that a fledgling wind farm near Wellington generated 20 noise complaints last week comes as no surprise to opponents of the proposed Te Uku wind farm.

Meridian Energy's 62-turbine West Wind project southwest of Makara started operating in April, with 40 of the turbines now installed and turned on.

But noise from the wind farm has been described by nearby residents as a low frequency hum, with an occasional "whump".

One resident described it as "the plane that never arrives," while another said it was "like an airport" on a bad night.

The $200 million Te Uku Wind Farm is to be jointly built and operated by Wel Networks and Meridian, which is New Zealand's largest generator of renewable energy.

Meridian will build and operate the turbines, while Wel will manage the electrical lines and substation within the wind farm.

Te Uku wind farm opponent Sean Cox said the fact that a new wind farm had an awful noise impact on residents was simply not news.

"This is just the dog barking," the former wind farm designer said. "It is what happens.

"At wind farm hearings excessive promises are made and then the complaints come.

"You can fully expect to get the same complaints at Te Uku. Expect lots of grinding of teeth and gnashing and howling."

Raglan opponent Rodger Gallagher was slightly more positive.

"Yes, this is what you would expect wherever wind farms are built," he said.

"They do cause noise problems and some people's lives become intolerable.

"But the good thing about Te Uku is I still don't think it will go ahead, because it does not make economic sense."

West Wind is on track to be finished by the end of the year.

Meridian spokeswoman Claire Shaw said noise complaints were taken seriously and the company spent considerable time and energy ensuring wind farms complied with consent conditions.

If found to be breaching its resource consent, Meridian could be made to reduce the noise by temporarily decommissioning some turbines.

Under Te Uku's resource consent conditions of operation, the noise levels from turbines must be maintained so that it does not exceed 40 decibels at the notional boundary of any rural dwelling existing at the date of consent.

A letter from Meridian to a Makara resident said up to 46 decibels was recorded at their home in May, but background noise could not be separated from wind farm noise.

The Te Uku wind farm expert noise consultant, Nevil Hegley, also worked on design concepts for West Wind, and has provided acoustic justifications for 16 large wind power projects in New Zealand.

At the consent hearing Mr Hegley said acoustic design at Te Uku would put it well within the noise requirements of New Zealand standards.

But Mr Cox said those standards were under review, and should not be used as an objective measure of the negative effect of a wind turbine project.

- © Fairfax NZ News