Noise
Environmental Noise
We have assessed the potential noise impacts from all types of projects in from small residential developments to some of the largest industrial developments in Northern Ireland.
We have particular expertise in wind farm assessment where current staff have co-authored the Institute of Acoustics Good Practice Guide as well as advising the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) in relation to the updates to the Wind Energy Development Guideline in the Republic of Ireland.
Our work with many planning consultants or architects ensures we are fully aware with of the pressures to satisfy statutory consultees and third parties through the planning process. We have significant experience providing expert witness at various planning appeals, court hearings and tribunals.
Environmental Noise Projects 
In addition to being authors of the Institute of Acoustics Good Practice Guide on Wind Turbine Assessment and advising the Department of Housing, Community and Local Government in the Republic of Ireland in relation to the updates to the Wind Energy Guidelines, current staff in Irwin Carr have provided numerous training sessions and presented paper in relation to the noise assessment of wind turbines.
We have carried out noise assessments under the ETSU-R-97 Guidelines within the UK and Wind Energy Development Guidelines in the Republic of Ireland.
We have been involved in the assessments of some of the largest wind farms on the Island of Ireland at various stages from site selection, through the planning stages and are currently assessing the compliance of numerous site with the conditions on their planning consents.
We are currently carrying out a noise assessment for a number of Centralised Anaerobic Digestion plant to be fuelled by poultry litter and pig slurry. These sites will be some of the largest in Northern Ireland and our scope is to assess the site for the planning process including the detailed design of the site to ensure the facility can operate within the required standards.
We have carried out detailed noise modelling using SoundPLAN, which allows us to assess the impact of the mitigation on the overall noise level and feeding into the design process to value engineer the mitigations required.
We were commissioned by the construction led design team to assess the noise from a proposed 45MW renewable energy plant on the Port Clarence area of Teeside. The proposal had already achieved planning permission when we became involved, but there were a number of amendments to the detailed design of the site which required assessment to ensure the noise conditions were complied with.
We visited the site carried out background noise measurements to be compared to our detailed model which incorporated the detailed design. We were able to advise the run noise models within SoundPLAN to assess the impact of changes in layout of construction material to be included on the site.
Wind Farms
Across UK and ROI
Anaerobic Digesters
Across UK and ROI
Waste Facilities
Across UK and ROI