A Highland anti-windfarm campaigner has called for a moratorium on planning applications for new developments until the results of the two-year study are known.
Stuart Young, chairman of Caithness Wind Farm Information Forum, said the research project was going to take too long as it had already been discussed for about six months and the final report was not due until autumn 2014.
He said: “It doesn’t bear thinking about how many more windfarms will be approved before we see the outcome of this study. A much shorter study should have been carried out sooner.
“I don’t think anyone could have conceived just how bad it is to live near the 21-turbine Baillie windfarm near Thurso.
“No sensible person could go up to this windfarm when it’s operating and consider it to be a reasonable development.”
The developer is Baillie Wind Farm Ltd, a joint venture between European energy company Statkraft and local landowners Tom and Steve Pottinger.
Another campaigner and people living close to the 13-turbine SSE windfarm at Achany, near Lairg in Sutherland, welcomed the study, even though some felt it was “too little, too late”.
Crofter John White, who lives at Durcha, just over half a mile from Achany windfarm, said: “There has been a noise problem since the turbines started operating.
“We hear them every day unless there’s a very strong wind or no wind. Sometimes it’s a deep thumping sound, sometimes it’s a continuous whooshing sound and sometimes its more of a ‘whoosh, whoosh’.
“There’s definitely more noise than we thought there would be. They should never have allowed turbines so close to houses.”
He added that the study was “too little, too late” for him and his neighbours, but he hoped it would save other people from suffering the same plight.
And Colin Gilmour, of Altass, who lives just under two miles from the windfarm site, said he could hear the noise from his home and from the other side of the River Oykel, which is more than three miles from the development.
He said: “I think this study is a good thing. Noise is becoming more of an issue. As these developers run out of more remote spaces, they are getting closer to where people live now.”
Independent Highland anti-windfarm campaigner Lyndsey Ward said it was “an extremely important study” and should run its course. She said: “There are a number of independent anti-wind campaigners, who are not aligned to any group but who are represented by a professionally qualified and experienced planning consultant on the steering group.
“The Scottish Government appears to be listening to our very serious concerns and we would expect that this study will prove, beyond doubt, that there are unacceptable impacts for people living near windfarms.”