According to this account in The Martha's Vineyard Times Online, the town of West Tisbury has concluded that a 250-kilowatt (kW) wind turbine proposed at the West Tisbury School is too noisy for the site and for residential neighbors.

The results of the acoustic study that was conducted by Tech Environmental showed that the community-scale wind turbine would increase the sound level for West Tisbury School's property boundaries and nearby residences beyond the acceptable level allowed by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) Noise Policy.

Newburyport has a 600 kW turbine in its industrial park that has sparked noise concerns from nearby residential neighbors. According to the city's building inspector Gary Calderwood, he has yet to receive the results of an acoustic study for the turbine that was installed in 2009 at Mark Richey Woodworking on Parker Street.

The City Council's 2009 Planning and Development Committee had recommended changes to the city's wind energy conversion ordinance that in part would require a setback of three times the height of the turbine from the closest residential zone. The changes could not be voted on by the full Council in its last session so the matter was held over to the 2010 session. The changes triggered a mandatory public hearing by both the Planning and Development committee and the Planning Board that will likely be combined into one hearing.

The Mayor's Energy Advisory Committee recently submitted the results of its own study and recommended a more strict setback than is in the current ordinance (300 feet from a residential zoning district) - to 1.5 times the height of the proposed structure. The Richey turbine is 292 feet high. The ordinance relates only to wind energy conversion facilities proposed in areas zoned for industrial use.