LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Sweden finalizing wind power regulations 

Credit:  By Jeremy Moule, Rochester City Newspaper, www.rochestercitynewspaper.com 3 September 2010 ~~

In a little over a week, Sweden residents will have a chance to speak out formally about the town’s proposed wind-energy regulations.

The Town Board has scheduled a public hearing on the law for 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday, September 14. It’ll be held at Town Hall, 18 State Street, Brockport.

Sweden’s looking at a pretty run of the mill ordinance. It doesn’t allow turbines to go up randomly all over the town, but it doesn’t ban them either. Instead, it’ll limit them to a wind-energy overlay district that would stretch across a southern section of the town.

That’s a standard approach that’s been used by several communities in this region. When Hamlin developed its wind tower regulations, it included a wind energy district as well. A court ultimately struck down Hamlin’s regulations, but that had more to do with a flaw in the environmental-review process than it did the contents of the law.

I had the quashed Hamlin law filed away, so I pulled it out to compare with Sweden’s proposal. The laws have the same general intent and effect. They are written and organized differently, and some of the details aren’t the same. But Sweden and Hamlin are different communities, so that’s to be expected.

Both laws address residential wind-energy systems and industrial systems. For residential systems, both require special-use permits and make the applicants cover the costs of the reviews. Both contain height limits: Sweden would limit them to 100 feet tall while Hamlin had 65-foot or 120-foot limits that were based on lot size. Both regulations require to applicants fund periodic noise studies. Sweden tacks on a requirement to periodically study any flickering light caused by the rotating blades.

There are a couple of major differences in the industrial turbine approaches, more matters of numbers than guiding principles. Hamlin had a 400-foot limit on tower and turbine height while Sweden maxes out at 200 feet. Again, community character and things like housing density could be factors. Sweden uses a simple formula to determine how far towers have to be from the edge of the site; multiply the tower height by two, and there’s the minimum setback. Hamlin’s law would have required the turbine to be 600 feet from the site’s edge and 1,500 feet from the nearest off-site residence. The setbacks were a major source of controversy when Hamlin developed its laws.

Source:  By Jeremy Moule, Rochester City Newspaper, www.rochestercitynewspaper.com 3 September 2010

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon