Huan Nguyen Quoc, Cuong Tran Thien, Cu Nguyen Xuan, T. V. Dinh, Minh Tran, Liem Ngo Van
{"title":"Investigation and prediction of noise pollution levels from wind turbines: A case study of Nexif Energy Ben Tre wind power plant, South Vietnam","authors":"Huan Nguyen Quoc, Cuong Tran Thien, Cu Nguyen Xuan, T. V. Dinh, Minh Tran, Liem Ngo Van","doi":"10.15625/2615-9783/16443","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, the demand for electric power in Vietnam has increased at annual growth rates of 10% to 12%, and the challenge is to promote renewable energy sector. One of these sustainable energy sources is to harness energy from the wind through wind turbines (WTs). In fact, more wind power plants in Vietnam are continuously to be built due to the rapidly growing demand of country's industrialization and modernization process. However, a significant hindrance preventing the widespread use of WTs in Vietnam is the noise they produce, which significantly contributes to the annoyance experienced by residents living near wind farms. The prediction of noise impacts for new wind farms is one of the many aspects of the environmental impact assessment process in Vietnam as well as in the world. In addition, the determination of the 45 dBA noise contour-line is very important because it is the basis for determining the scope of the project impact according to the IFC/WB performance standards and the number of households to be relocated from the project site. The article’s main focus is therefore on the estimation and simulation of the acoustical noise produced by 18 WTs during the operation phase of Nexif Energy Ben Tre wind power plant and the background noise levels at the project site have been performed by using a combination of specific study methods such as environmental modeling (iNoise Pro modeling software), mapping and geographic information systems. The obtained results show the importance of using modeling method in quantifying the noise levels generated from 18 wind turbines of the Nexif Energy Ben Tre wind power plant met IFC standard and Vietnamese regulation on noise during day-time, but did not meet IFC standard on noise during night-time. The level of background noise measured during night-time in the project area also did not meet IFC standard. Therefore, the overall cumulative noise level exceeds the IFC standard for residential area (45 dBA only). In addition, the appropriate solutions to reduce noise levels from WTs are also proposed.","PeriodicalId":23639,"journal":{"name":"VIETNAM JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2021-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"VIETNAM JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.15625/2615-9783/16443","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"GEOSCIENCES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
In recent years, the demand for electric power in Vietnam has increased at annual growth rates of 10% to 12%, and the challenge is to promote renewable energy sector. One of these sustainable energy sources is to harness energy from the wind through wind turbines (WTs). In fact, more wind power plants in Vietnam are continuously to be built due to the rapidly growing demand of country's industrialization and modernization process. However, a significant hindrance preventing the widespread use of WTs in Vietnam is the noise they produce, which significantly contributes to the annoyance experienced by residents living near wind farms. The prediction of noise impacts for new wind farms is one of the many aspects of the environmental impact assessment process in Vietnam as well as in the world. In addition, the determination of the 45 dBA noise contour-line is very important because it is the basis for determining the scope of the project impact according to the IFC/WB performance standards and the number of households to be relocated from the project site. The article’s main focus is therefore on the estimation and simulation of the acoustical noise produced by 18 WTs during the operation phase of Nexif Energy Ben Tre wind power plant and the background noise levels at the project site have been performed by using a combination of specific study methods such as environmental modeling (iNoise Pro modeling software), mapping and geographic information systems. The obtained results show the importance of using modeling method in quantifying the noise levels generated from 18 wind turbines of the Nexif Energy Ben Tre wind power plant met IFC standard and Vietnamese regulation on noise during day-time, but did not meet IFC standard on noise during night-time. The level of background noise measured during night-time in the project area also did not meet IFC standard. Therefore, the overall cumulative noise level exceeds the IFC standard for residential area (45 dBA only). In addition, the appropriate solutions to reduce noise levels from WTs are also proposed.
近年来,越南的电力需求以每年10%至12%的增长率增长,挑战在于促进可再生能源行业。这些可持续能源之一是通过风力涡轮机(WT)利用风能。事实上,由于越南工业化和现代化进程的快速增长需求,越南正在不断建设更多的风电场。然而,阻碍WT在越南广泛使用的一个重要障碍是其产生的噪音,这大大增加了居住在风电场附近的居民的烦恼。预测新风电场的噪声影响是越南和世界环境影响评估过程的许多方面之一。此外,45 dBA噪声等值线的确定非常重要,因为它是根据国际金融公司/世界银行绩效标准确定项目影响范围和从项目现场搬迁的家庭数量的基础。因此,本文的主要重点是对Nexif Energy Ben Tre风电场运行阶段18个WT产生的声学噪声进行估计和模拟,并通过使用特定研究方法的组合,如环境建模(iNoise Pro建模软件),地图和地理信息系统。所获得的结果表明,在量化Nexif Energy Ben Tre风力发电厂18台风力涡轮机产生的噪声水平时,使用建模方法的重要性符合国际金融公司的标准和越南关于白天噪声的法规,但不符合国际金融公司关于夜间噪声的标准。项目区域夜间测量的背景噪声水平也不符合IFC标准。因此,总体累积噪声水平超过了国际金融公司对住宅区的标准(仅45 dBA)。此外,还提出了降低WT噪声水平的适当解决方案。