A review of the ground seismic vibrations induced by wind-turbines: controls, issues and opportunities

To meet our Net Zero commitments, the past decade has seen a dramatic increase in wind power, with hundreds of thousands of wind turbines already in place. Many studies have focused on the environmental impact of windfarms; however, wind turbine-induced ground seismic vibrations have received less attention. Prior seismic observations near wind turbines show apparently contradictory spatio-temporal noise patterns and complex relationships to operational parameters. Here, we investigate these contradictions, categorizing seismic observations from wind farms worldwide, and explain the causes for this variation. We link the ground seismic response to the fundamentals of wind, the structural response of wind turbines, and the interactions of their foundations with variable geology. We summarise these approaches and discuss potential implementation in noise management, alongside noise suppression technologies. We finally explore the use of wind turbine noise as a seismic source to potentially monitor the structural health of wind turbine structures, and the subsurface. The latter is highly relevant to measurement, monitoring and verification of CO₂ and H₂ storage, where cost-effective and long-term monitoring solutions are necessary.