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    • Wind Turbine Sound Setbacks: Ordinances (2024) and Extrapolated Trends, 115 Hub Height, 170 Rotor Diameter

    Metadata Updated: September 14, 2025

    This dataset provides a comprehensive assessment of wind turbine sound setbacks for all residential structures across the contiguous United States (CONUS). A sound setback is defined as the minimum distance required between a residential structure and a hypothetical turbine installation site such that modeled sound levels received at the residence do not exceed local sound ordinances, typically expressed in A-weighted decibels (dBA). In modeling sound pressure levels from each turbine location, the highest sound level at each distance step, regardless of directional variation, was applied, which aligns with current industry practice.

    The sound setback data are provided in GeoTIFF (TIF) format, with corresponding PNG files available for visualization. Raster data are presented at a spatial resolution of 90 meters. Each grid cell contains a value ranging from 0 to 1, indicating the proportion of developable land within that cell under applicable sound ordinance constraints. A value of 0 denotes complete development restriction, while a value of 1 indicates full permissibility. The wind turbine parameters used in the sound modeling were a hub-height of 115 meters and a rotor diameter of 170 meters, as obtained from the 2024 Annual Technology Baseline (ATB). Two siting scenarios are included: a reference scenario and a limited siting scenario.

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: Creative Commons Attribution

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date September 14, 2025

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from OpenEI data.json

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date September 14, 2025
    Publisher National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
    Maintainer
    Identifier https://data.openei.org/submissions/8499
    Data First Published 2025-09-09T06:00:00Z
    Data Last Modified 2025-09-12T16:09:11Z
    Public Access Level public
    Bureau Code 019:20
    Metadata Context https://openei.org/data.json
    Metadata Catalog ID https://openei.org/data.json
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Data Quality True
    Harvest Object Id 0a9ef688-95ba-4241-ac93-f5bdb0352f51
    Harvest Source Id 7cbf9085-0290-4e9f-bec1-91653baeddfd
    Harvest Source Title OpenEI data.json
    Homepage URL https://data.openei.org/submissions/8499
    License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
    Old Spatial {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":-125.4514,24.5873,-66.5318,24.5873,-66.5318,49.2637,-125.4514,49.2637,-125.4514,24.5873}
    Program Code 019:000, 019:010
    Projectnumber 34877
    Projecttitle Spatial Analysis for Wind Technology Development
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash 4b1aa11dc213066e297813c70bbf2b72a91d46690a70da727f7c59d209de3efe
    Source Schema Version 1.1
    Spatial {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":-125.4514,24.5873,-66.5318,24.5873,-66.5318,49.2637,-125.4514,49.2637,-125.4514,24.5873}

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