Economics on wind farm noise mitigation by power limitation

Noise is the main factor which contributes to environmental pressure produced by wind farms. People living nearby wind farm often complain annoyance which is proven to be given both by noise and visual impact. In the hypothesis that annoyance is tolerable when law limits are respected, noise levels may be kept under such a limits by a changing the configuration of fan parameters with respect to wind velocity and direction. However changing on fan parameters determines a reduction on the produced electrical power. In this paper a wind farm managing plan has been proposed which allows to respect noise limits in any nearby human settlement; the plan has been determined by correlating: wind speed statistics, fan noise emission characteristics and fan configuration parameters. Adoption of the proposed managing plan determines a reduction on the produced electricity and on earnings; thus a comparison between environmental benefits and economical losses is finally proposed.