Wind turbine environmental noise certification: a comparison of one local regulatory/planning process in California and the European Union

John Bennett

The development of wind turbine noise standards in the County of San Diego represents a convergence of existing local regulations with the current imperative to develop alternative energy resources. A similar, but different process has been going on in Europe where national standards are being developed and implemented. A comparison of this California example with the evolving regulations in Europe is used to point out the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. One difference is how the state of California had encouraged the development of general noise regulations at the county level yielding unique results in each locality compared to Europe where a consistent set of regulations and development goals were considered a priority. Part of this comparison will include a short review of community planning in California during the 1970’s as well as the more current developments in noise planning in California and the European Union. The key underlying theme of this comparison will be to examine how governments rely on planning and technical expertise to achieve both economic success and sustainable quality of life for their communities.

Mots clés: Noise Planning; community noise

Domaines: Acoustique [physics.class-ph]

John Bennett. Wind turbine environmental noise certification: a comparison of one local regulatory/planning process in California and the European Union. Acoustics 2012, Apr 2012, Nantes, France. ⟨hal-00811073⟩