Ground Vibration, Infrasound and Low Frequency Noise Measurements from a Modern Wind Turbine

Potential ground vibration and infrasound are concerns often raised at wind farm consent hearings in New Zealand. These concerns are usually addressed using international studies that show the levels from wind turbines to be lower than the thresholds of audibility or perception. This, in turn, raises questions in relation to the age and size of the wind turbines used in those studies and whether they are representative. This paper summarises the results of both ground vibration and infrasound measurements undertaken at Meridian's West Wind wind farm near Wellington in New Zealand. The wind farm comprises 62 Siemens SWT2.3-82VS machines and the measurements were undertaken in 2010.