Agenda - Council - 09/08/2009 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

and difficulty concentrating. This group cites personal interviews with property owners containing such systems, or near these systems. Other similar sites include www.wind-watch.org, www.windturbinesvndrome.com, and www.windwisehaven.com. These sites do cite studies from registered MDs, but much of the research is not peer-reviewed. Advantages and Disadvantages According to the US Department of Energy (2005), there are several advantages and disadvantages to Wind Energy. First, wind energy is considered a clean energy in that it doesn't pollute the air as some other forms of energy. In addition, it can be harnessed domestically and is relatively low priced to generate, approximately 4 to 6 cents per kilowatt hour. Finally, it can be a good economic development tool for rural areas by providing an additional revenue stream. Wind energy is disadvantaged by a high initial start up cost and intermittent winds. Developers are still looking for a good way to store the energy, especially in times of low wind conditions. Wind energy often requires additional transmission lines to carry energy from remote locations to urbanized areas. This factor is less important if the intent of the ordinance is to allow for smaller scale systems geared towards supplementing existing energy needs on a smaller scale, such as the case with small and medium scale systems. Building in Flexibility to the Ordinance There are several ways to add in flexibility to the ordinance, if desired. Variances to setbacks could be granted provided that proof of enhanced engineering would limit the fall zone in the event of failure. Flexibility in the WECS Ordinance as well as the overall Zoning Code could be added as a device to provide incentive to constructing a WECS unit. As-of-right deviations to setbacks could be built into City Code to entice the construction of these units. This could also be used as an economic development tool as well.