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New offshore wind turbine design: cheaper and easier to maintain

A radical new approach to offshore wind turbines is being developed by UK researchers could solve one of the major challenges of offshore wind development. The Novel Offshore Vertical Axis (NOVA) Demonstrator puts the moving parts at the bottom of the unit, greatly simplifying maintenance. (How they will deal with corrosive ...

Zion Nat’l Park begins soundscape planning process

Zion National Park is gearing up to begin incorporating soundscape planning into their management priorities. Park Superintendent Jock Whitworth has announced two open houses in March on the topic, and public comments are being accepted until April 9 as part of an initial information-gathering stage. This will inform the drafting ...

Hawaii humpback sanctuary management review beginning now: will noise be on the table?

The Hawaiian Islands Humback Whale National Marine Sanctuary is beginning a review of its management plan, and ocean noise activists are pushing for sanctuary managers to bring noise issues to the forefront. The Sanctuary was established in 1992 to help protect the humpback whale winter nursery grounds in shallow waters ...

UK: Noise complaints at 37 of 255 wind farms

Here's a bit of news that might be spun either way, depending on your predilection. Jane Davis, who was driven from her home by wind farm noise, has been compiling information on English wind farms and noise complaints; she has found that 37 wind farms have spurred some sort of ...

Cornell listening systems could reduce risk of bird deaths from wind farms

This one slipped past me when it happened last June, but it's well worth noting now. Complicating assessments of the risks of bird deaths at wind farms is the fact that two-thirds of migrating bird species migrate mainly at night; Cornell's Bioacoustics Research Program, which has already done groundbreaking work ...

New hospital noise guidelines will lead to quieter care

A topic that's been a recurring tangent for AEI over the years has been excessive noise in hospitals; it's always surprised us that places theoretically designed for healing and recuperation would be so full of noisy machines and reverberant hallways. Well, that is about to change: New design and construction ...

Bark beetle sounds can disrupt new beetles attacking pines

In the most promising development yet in using acoustics to deal with the spread of bark beetles in the American and Canadian west, researchers at Northern Arizona University have found that some beetles can be disrupted by playback of other beetle sounds. The tiny insects make squeaking noises as they tunnel ...

Ontario wind tech and health research chair named–background is solid in tech, weak on health

Electrical engineer Siva Sivoththaman has been named to the newly-created Ontario provincial Research Chair in Renewable Energy Technologies and Health. Local activist groups that have raised concerns about the effects of wind farm noise on neighbors had hoped that this position, created as part of Ontario's new Green Energy Act, would ...

New maps track ships drowning out whale communication

Ongoing research in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary is providing ever more compelling visualizations of shipping noise and the much quieter calls of whales in the area. Scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, NMFS, and Cornell have deployed networks of sound recorders, which allow them to track individual whales and ...

MEAM newsletter provides great status report on Marine Spatial Planning around the world

The most recent issue of the Marine Ecosystem and Management newsletter (download here) has several features that offer a good sense of current efforts to adopt Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and its related management principle, Ecosystem Based Management (ESB). The lead article centers on reports from Massachusetts, Norway, and Germany, ...