Wind turbine selection

Wind farms

The study focused on large modern wind farms. Smaller wind turbines produce less noise and are less affected by changes in the atmosphere than large modern wind turbines (more information can be found in the page on wind turbine sound). More details can be found in de Sound article. Smaller wind turbines have a maximum electric power of 500 kW or less. Residents surrounding smaller wind farms were not selected for this research.

We also did not select addresses near wind turbines that were situated over 500 meters of nearest other wind turbine.

In case of a new wind farm, the surrounding residents perception to these farms might be influenced by short term transitory effects. This might influence their general perception to the wind farm and with that the results of our study. Therefore wind turbines built or replaced less than one year before the start of the research, in march 2007, were excluded from this research.