The aim of the ‘Wind Sense’ project is to generate WTN annoyance maps for Irish wind farms based on novel sound quality models of the prevalence of WTN features around candidate wind farms and the impact of these features on annoyance. Wind turbine noise annoyance maps will be generated for the candidate wind farms and will allow for the development of a national wind turbine noise annoyance map in Ireland, to inform turbine developers and policy makers. The project sees collaboration with IEA Task 39 Members, and activities are ongoing.

The project is funded under the 2022 Irish Research Council COALESCE (Collaborative Alliances for Societal Challenges) funding call. The COALESCE call was designed to support the development of interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration/capacity in the context of national or global challenges. It is hoped awardees would expand their research activities and build the sustainability of their research agenda through enhanced competitiveness for future success in European or international collaborative funding programmes. The Call supports researchers to form new connections and to consolidate existing national and international knowledge networks as part of a challenge-based approach. A challenge-based approach will bring together resources and knowledge across different fields, technologies, and disciplines, including social sciences and the humanities, and indeed beyond academia, into new sectors. A key component of the COALESCE grant is that it is led by a PI from AHSS, but includes a Co-PI from a STEM field. Given the interdisciplinary goals of the Wind Sense project, concerning the psychoacoustics of wind turbine noise, the project aligns with the strategy of the COALESCE call.