Observation of underwater noise during the operation of wind turbine in the Korea Southwest offshore wind farm

Abstract

As the number of offshore wind power plants continues to increase worldwide, there is concern that underwater noise generated by offshore wind farms may have a negative impact on the marine ecosystem. Although there have been many efforts to measure and predict the impact pile driving noise that occurs during the construction of offshore wind power plants, the measurement and characteristic analysis of underwater noise during operation has hardly been carried out. In this study, the underwater noise generated during the operation of a wind turbine in the Korea southwest offshore wind farm was measured for 10 days using a moored acoustic recorder. Underwater noise caused by turbine operation was characterized by several tonal components of which the frequencies changed with the rotor speed of the turbine at frequencies below 200 Hz. In addition, a strong tonal component was observed at a frequency of 198 Hz when the rotor speed reached the rated speed. © ICA 2022.All rights reserved