Photo credit: Tom Swinnen
by Arline L. Bronzaft, Ph.D., Board of Directors, GrowNYC, Co-founder, The Quiet Coalition, and Honorary Chair, Quiet American Skies
My introduction to noisy windmills, yes, windmills, not wind turbines, came over 40 years ago when I was asked to serve as an expert witness on windmill noise impacts in a case known as Rose v. Chaikin. This case involved impacts from windmill noise on next-door neighbors. The court ultimately ruled that the windmill was indeed a nuisance.
It’s now 2024 and wind turbines are being employed as a source of renewable energy worldwide. One of the criticisms of wind turbines is their noise impacts on nearby residents. Thus, it will be of great interest for both wind energy advocates and those who oppose wind turbine noise to learn of this “new generation wind energy innovation.” Dutch manufacturer Archimedes claims this new technology is “nearly noiseless.”
The turbine, called the Liam F1, is shaped differently from the traditional wind turbine and instead designed after a nautilus shell. Furthermore, the Liam F1 has a spiral rotor design which enables it to capture wind from a number of directions. This stands in contrast to the traditional wind turbines which can only capture wind from certain directions. This new turbine also does not need extra hardware to deal with different weather conditions.
Just how loud is this “less noisy” turbine? This article informs us that the Liam F1 generates about 45 dB when in operation. Yet, articles on traditional wind turbine sounds state they are about at this level or about 5 decibels louder. However, people who complain about wind turbine sounds also claim that the low-frequency sounds emitted by wind turbines are disturbing. But this article does not discuss low frequency sounds.
Whether or not the new Liam F1 will be perceived as less noisy to nearby residents remains to be seen. Furthermore, how will these new turbines fare regarding other identified wind turbine problems, e.g. reliability, appearance, the threat to birds and difficulties in storing the equipment?
