**7. Final remarks**

We presented an alternative proposal for predicting sound pressure levels from wind turbines. It is a simple method that has shown very good results, it is easy to build, and it does not need special hardware or software requirements.

The whole model was calibrated, validated, and verified, with field measurements made in different wind farms located in Uruguay. Field data for calibration and validation were taken at distances between 300 and 2000 m from the tower of the wind turbine.

Although this method can be used for different turbines, our results were obtained for 2 MW power rate turbines with between 80 and 90 m of hub height.

More, our prediction model seems to be a good one to be used in noise impact studies related to environmental impact assessments for getting the environmental license of wind farms before their construction.

We presented the accuracy of the predicted A-weighted sound pressure levels, which are good or very good in most of the cases; we also showed the obtained spectra fit accurately to the measured ones.

This fitting is more noticeable at low frequencies, the most problematic ones for noise phenomena in wind turbine, because the energetic content in those frequencies is potentially related to people's annoyance.

### **Acknowledgements**

This chapter is the result of many years of research. It has been supported by funds from cooperation with the National Program of Wind Energy (National Energy Directory of the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining of Uruguay, DNE – MIEM), by the Sectorial Energy Fund of the National Agency of Research and Innovation (Project ANII\_FSE\_1\_2013\_1\_10942) and the Research Commission of the Universidad de la República through their Fund for Research and Development Groups (CSIC I + D Groups 2014).

Many people have been involved in our team along the years. Here they are, in alphabetical order: Fabiana Bianchi Falco, Pablo Bonilla Medina (in memoriam), Nicolás Cunha Apatie, Matteo Deambrosi Papini, Pablo Gianoli Kovar, Matías Hernández Castellani, Marcos Raúl Lisboa, Joaquín Montero Croucciée, Luciana Olazábal Barrios, Juan Ignacio Pais, Martín Paz Urban, Nicolás Rezzano Tizze, Felipe Silva Rodríguez, and Guillermo Sugasti Sánchez. We thank all of them for taking part in this research.

*Prediction of Environmental Sound Pressure Levels from Wind Farms: A Simple but Accurate… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.103159*
