Renewable Energy Foundation

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Publications

IoA Wind Farm Noise Guidance will Lack Credibility unless Primary Data is Made Public

Friday, 19 April 2013

REF has today written to the president of the Institute of Acoustics, Professor Bridget Shield, with the warning that the forthcoming IOA Good Practice Guide on Wind Turbine Noise will be valueless and lack credibility unless the underlying primary data providing the evidence base for the recommended methodology and conclusions underpinning the guidance is also published to enable independent validation. 
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Attachments:
Download this file (REF to IoA 19.04.13.pdf)REF Letter to IoA President 19 April 2013

Analysis of Wind Farm Performance in UK and Denmark

Wednesday, 19 December 2012

REF publishes today a research paper by Dr Gordon Hughes, Professor of Economics at the University of Edinburgh, on the performance over time of wind farms in the United Kingdom and Denmark.  The paper can be downloaded by clicking on the link below.  The UK and Danish data used in the analysis is also available below. The following summarises the results of the research.


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Attachments:
Access this URL (/Files/Denmark_data_files.zip)Raw Data Denmark (18 MB)
Download this file (ref.hughes.19.12.12.pdf)Performance of Wind Farms in the UK and Denmark
Access this URL (/Files/UK_data_files.zip)Raw Data UK (3 MB)

Wiltshire Council Wind Turbine Separation Distances from Dwellings

Monday, 26 November 2012

REF has responded to the Wiltshire Council consultation on separation distances between houses and wind turbines in the proposed Amendment to the Council's Core Policy 42.
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Attachments:
Download this file (REF Wiltshire Consultation Oct 2012.pdf)REF Wiltshire Consultation Response Oct 2012

REF consultation response to IoA on ETSU-R-97

Monday, 08 October 2012

REF has responded to the Insitute of Acoustics' consultation on their discussion document entitled  “A Good Practice Guide to the Application of ETSU-R-97 for Wind Turbine Noise Assessment”.
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Attachments:
Download this file (REF IoA Consultation Response.pdf)REF IoA Consultation Response

REF correspondence re DECC's use of statistics

Friday, 14 September 2012

In the publication Shortfall, Rebound, Backfire REF raised the issue of misleading statistical information from the Department of Energy and Climate Change, specifically that the headline statements, including those of the then Secretary of State, Mr Huhne, to the House of Commons, were misleading. It was stated that the net effect of the UK's climate change policies would be to reduce the average household energy bill in 2020, whereas close reading of the Department's own models showed clearly that 65% of households were expected to see their bills increase. REF raised this issue in correspondence with the UK Statistics Authority. The correspondence is as follows.
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Attachments:
Download this file (REF UKSA Correspondence.pdf)REF correspondence with UKSA

REF Comments on the Economics of Wind Power

Wednesday, 27 June 2012

REF has responded to the call for evidence on the Economics of Wind Power from the Energy and Climate Change Committee.
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Attachments:
Download this file (ref.to.ecc.22.06.12.pdf)REF Evidence to ECC 22.06.12

A Critique of the IoA Treatment of Background Noise for Wind Farm Noise Assessments

Thursday, 12 April 2012

This information note examines the revision to the ETSU-R-97 method of deriving noise conditions for wind farm planning permissions from background noise measurements, as proposed in an article in the Acoustics Bulletin of the Institute of Acoustics (IoA).[1] We have used actual wind speed data to model the impact of the revision on noise conditions and likelihood of noise complaints from neighbours. 

The revision is designed to correct for site-specific wind shear that was erroneously assumed to be constant between two heights in the ETSU-R-97 guidance. The impact of this assumption is shown graphically in Appendix 1. However, in this note we show that the Acoustics Bulletin revision increases the uncertainty of the background noise curves and reduces confidence in the reliability of noise conditions based on them.
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Attachments:
Download this file (ref info note 120403 IoA Shear Methodology.pdf)REF Critique of IoA Noise Methodology

Energy Policy and Consumer Hardship

Saturday, 03 December 2011

REFs study of the likely impact of climate change policies on the affordability of energy concludes:

1.  Current renewable electricity policies intended to meet the EU Renewables Directive in 2020, will impose extra consumer costs of approximately £15bn per annum, which is roughly equivalent to 1% of current GDP. This annual total is comprised of approximately £8bn in subsidy, £5bn in grid integration, and a further £2bn in VAT charged on these extra costs.
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Attachments:
Access this URL (attachments/article/243/REF%20on%20Fuel%20Poverty.pdf)REF on Fuel Poverty

The Den Brook Amplitude Modulation Noise Condition

Tuesday, 01 November 2011

The noise most commonly associated with wind farms, and frequently complained of, is the repetitive swishing beat occurring at turbine blade rotation frequency, which is known as Amplitude Modulation (AM) of the aerodynamic turbine noise.
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Attachments:
Download this file (ref info note 111031 AM Noise.pdf)AM Noise Inf Note

Scottish Wind Power Constraint Payments Update

Thursday, 30 June 2011

Following work on the high constraint payments made to Scottish wind power in April, and subsequent coverage in the press,1 REF has continued to monitor the situation in May and June. The Department of Energy & Climate Change had described the events in early April as “unusual”,2 and we were interested to determine whether this was in fact the case.
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Attachments:
Download this file (re info note 110628.pdf)Constraint Update