Olen (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – A wind turbine at Umicore in Olen caused 280 noise complaints in one month. Mayor Kris Gebruers (CD&V) halted it in February 2025. A new damping system will be tested on April 22, 2025.
The wind turbine in Olen, a municipality in the province of Antwerp, Belgium, is getting ready to start up again. They put a new system in it to stop it from making noise. The turbine will start running on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, but it will only run during the day for a month.
“In one month, we received around 280 complaints,”
Says Mayor Gebruers.
“As soon as the wind turbine also turned at night, the complaints also increased sharply. We now have to wait and see whether the new damping system will also work effectively.
Is Olen’s new damping system enough to silence turbine noise?
The wind turbine in Olen was supposed to be a good thing, but it started making a lot of noise soon after it was turned on. People who lived nearby complained about the noise for a whole year. They tried to fix the problem, but it didn’t get any better.
Because the noise was so bad, the turbine had to be shut down in February 2025. They figured out that the turbine was shaking, and that was what was making the noise. To fix it, they put a special system in the turbine to stop it from shaking so much.
In 2024, Olen, Belgium, put a wind turbine into operation at the Umicore site. This was supposed to be a big step toward using renewable energy. But soon after the turbine started running, people living nearby started complaining about a constant sound.
They mentioned that the noise was especially bad at night, making it hard to sleep. The sound was low and rhythmic, and it seemed like it was everywhere. People felt tired and frustrated. Some even went to local officials asking for help. They couldn’t ignore the sound, and it was affecting their lives.
The mayor of Olen, Kris Gebruers, who is from the CD&V party, took the complaints about the wind turbine noise seriously. He visited homes near the turbine and listened to what the residents were saying. He even heard the humming sound himself inside the houses.
The mayor understood that the noise was bothering people and said something needed to be done about it. The controversy about the turbine noise made people start talking about where wind turbines should be built and if they should be checked carefully for noise before they are built.
“Once you start paying attention to that humming sound, you can’t sleep anymore. Something had to be done.”
Mayor Kris Gebruers (CD&V)
