‘I measure noise from heat pumps, solar farms and wind turbines’

Energy transition tech keeps getting quieter.

Photo by RSK Acoustics.

Daniel Clare has heard the hum of the energy transition. Whooshing turbine and fan blades. The gentle drone of transformers. He knows that these sounds don’t always sit well with people. Sometimes they provoke. Or even enrage.

Clare has been measuring sound professionally for around 20 years. He is managing director of RSK Acoustics, a consultancy that provides expert assessment of sound and vibration in various locations around the world. Not just at renewable energy sites but also at housing developments, or in venues such as concert halls and cinemas.

A few years ago, Clare gave evidence to Isle of Wight Council about a 30 megawatt tidal energy scheme. Among residents’ concerns, he says, was a worry that noise levels from an onshore substation could be excessive. But Clare’s analysis showed that the system, as proposed at the time, would have “no real noise issues”. (Although the scheme subsequently received planning approval, it is yet to be built.)

“Historically, noise in a lot of locations is used as a means to say, ‘We don’t want that there’,” says Clare.

Disagreements over what counts as acceptable can scupper people’s plans to install an air source heat pump, for example. In February, it emerged that British MPs rejected heat pumps for Portcullis House, a building used by MPs and their staff, because of concerns over noise. Air source heat pumps, however, are not typically louder than a refrigerator.