U.S. and Chilean researchers join to study wind turbine vibration, dampen unwanted noise.

Virginia Tech — March 30, 2015

Newswise — Wind turbines provide clean, abundant energy and bolster America’s power grid. But across the world people are banding together to fight wind farms, blaming noise for interrupted sleep and a host of health problems.

Scientists lack sufficient understanding of wind turbines’ noise and best ways to mitigate the effects, says Jorge Arenas, a faculty member in the Universidad Austral de Chile’s College of Engineering Sciences and director of its Institute of Acoustics.

Noise is annoying and, worse, linked to health problems, many researchers say. A newspaper in the U.K. captures the sensation: “Residents near some wind farms have likened the noise to a cement-mixer or a shoe stuck in a tumble-dryer,” writes energy editor Emily Gosden in a story in The Telegraph.
“The noise from wind turbines is not…