| Kosciusko County planners vote to toughen wind farm ordinance |
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Mark Howe, Times-Union Staff Writer
Kosciusko County’s Area Plan Commission voted Wednesday to recommend to the county commissioners a series of amendments to the ordinance regarding wind power. If adopted by the commission, the revised ordinances will make it much more difficult to establish a wind farm in the county. Among the changes, amendments would limit construction of turbines on land zoned Industrial III; increase the setbacks from property lines; regulate the height, noise level, vibration, shadow flicker and glare from night lights of towers; and require bond amounts for site abandonment and the decommissioning of tower sites. The board also seeks to establish provisions to protect roads from heavy-truck traffic related to construction areas; tighten fire prevention and emergency response plans; and require the submission of maintenance logs to the county’s planning office. Changes to the county’s solar farm ordinance were also approved. The moves came after Lynn Studebaker spoke to the APC in August, encouraging the board to recommend either to ban or regulate industrial wind turbines. She cited declining property values, quality of life, environmental and remediation issues during her presentation. Dan Richard, area plan director, said that despite advertising the changes to the ordinance, no one came forward to oppose the revisions.
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Author Archives Laura Arnold
Lewisville Town Council (IN) takes a stand against wind turbines
| 10/2/2018 12:53:00 PM Lewisville Town Council takes a stand against wind turbines, joining Sulphur Springs |
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Travis Weik, Courier-Times Reporter
The Lewisville Town Council took action late last week to protect the people who live in and visit their town. Council members Justin Thompson and Patrick Saunders opened the special meeting in town hall Thursday evening. Member Richard Craig was not able to attend the meeting. Thompson and Saunders passed an ordinance restricting Wind Energy Conversion Systems (WECS) in their area and agreed to ask the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) to limit long-term parking on the highway going through town. WECS ordinance Thompson and Saunders voted 2-0 to adopt a new ordinance based on Indiana’s “Home Rule Law” and forbidding the construction of industrial or commercial wind turbines within a four-mile radius of the southern Henry County town. According to Ordinance 092718, the town council believes industrial wind turbines “will constitute a danger to the health, safety, and/or welfare of the citizens of Lewisville, Indiana.” The ordinance allows a private land owner to put up a wind turbine for personal use as long as it is shorter than 100 feet tall and produces less than 100 kilowatts a year. Thompson explained that the council is stopping big wind energy companies from putting up big turbines anywhere near the town. “We’re trying to keep the majority of the town happy and do what we think is right,” said Saunders. Lewisville resident Marcus Allhands disagreed with the new ordinance. “You’re going to make a lot of landowners unhappy,” Allhands said. Allhands said Henry County towns are being regressive with their stance against wind farms interested in building here. He took issue with the overall local movement to keep industrial wind farms out of Henry County. “There was a group or a movement that tried to get the county to outlaw them (wind turbines). They didn’t quite get that done,” Allhands said. “So now they’re going to the individual towns to get them to do it in place of the county.” Allhands pointed out that “if you go four miles around every town in the county, you’ve eliminated the county as a whole.” A round of applause and comments of “I’m all for that” and “Amen” may not have been the response Allhands wanted, but it’s the response his words elicited. The council passed the new ordinance on first reading, voted to suspend the normal rules and voted a second time Thursday to put the wind turbine ban into immediate affect. Lewisville joins Sulphur Springs as the second incorporated town in Henry County to pass a local ordinance banning large wind turbines beyond their municipal limits. This is not the first time that the people of Lewisville have taken a stance against industrial wind projects that are looking to develop in Henry County, either. In September 2016, the Lewisville Town Council passed a resolution to the Henry County government stating that wind farms are not welcome in their area. That resolution requests that the county commissioners not take any action to authorize the construction of wind farms near Lewisville. Business parking The Lewisville Town Council also agreed Thursday to send a letter to INDOT asking them to implement one-hour parking in front of businesses along U.S. Hwy 40 in town. U.S. Hwy 40 acts as Main Street in Lewisville. The town’s business district runs from 2nd Street to Market Street along Main. INDOT regulates the highway and needs a letter from the town council before implementing any restrictions to the area. Saunders and Thompson agreed to ask INDOT to impose 15 foot “no parking” restrictions from any intersection in the Lewisville business district. The letter will also ask for parking in front of Lewisville businesses to be limited to one hour from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The request stemmed from safety concerns about town residents being able to safely turn onto U.S. Hwy 40 off side streets. When vehicles are parked close to the intersection, it is sometimes difficult to see oncoming traffic. Chuck Covey owns an antique store in the Lewisville business district. Covey also lives in the building. He took exception to the town’s request because he would not be able to park in front of his home during the day. Thompson said the ordinance is trying to be fair across the board. Thompson pointed out that Covey has space behind his antique shop to park both the truck and trailer that he typically parks along the highway. Thompson said the town is also looking to hire a town marshal who could help control speeding along the highway and through the side streets of town. |
Cass County (IN) officials to explore wind rules
| Cass County officials to explore wind rules | |||||
Mitchell Kirk, Pharos-Tribune Staff Writer The Cass County Plan Commission on Tuesday decided to have one of its committees delve into local rules on commercial wind energy generation.Commission members Jim Donato, Josh LeDonne, Mike Kinsey, Stacy Odom, Krista Pullen, Fred Seehase and George Stebbins voted to task the commission's ordinance committee with the responsibility. Commission members Jon Guy and Jim Sailors were not present. Odom, Pullen, Sailors and Seehase serve on the commission's ordinance committee. Arin Shaver, executive director of the Logansport/Cass County Planning Department, explained that she and the committee will research and prepare any recommendations, which would be shared at a public hearing. Any rule changes recommended by the plan commission would have to be approved by the Cass County Commissioners before going into effect, Shaver added. The plan commission decided to consider conducting research on commercial wind energy generation last month. Two weeks later, Renewable Energy Systems, an international company with a U.S. headquarters in Broomfield, Colorado, announced it was no longer pursuing a commercial wind energy project in Cass and Miami counties due to technical circumstances. The project was a contentious issue for about the past year. Tuesday's plan commission meeting drew public comments from several Cass County residents. Paige Woodhouse, Royal Center, said a petition Cass County residents started almost a year ago has amassed 1,850 signatures calling for setbacks between commercial wind turbines and nonparticipating property lines to be a half-mile. The county's current setbacks are the length of a turbine blade from nonparticipating property lines and at least 1,000 feet from residences. Woodhouse encouraged the plan commission to request that the county commissioners place a moratorium on future potential commercial wind energy projects while the plan commission's ordinance committee conducts its research. "At this moment with our ordinance, we are sitting ducks ready to be attacked by the next company," Woodhouse said. Woodhouse went on to encourage county officials to consider wind turbine height restrictions along with stricter sound and shadow flicker restrictions. Other suggestions included using a multiplier to determine setbacks based on turbines' specific heights, requiring developers' decommissioning funds upfront, requiring a wider range of notification when projects are proposed and even banning commercial wind turbines altogether like other Indiana counties have done. Lora Redweik, Twelve Mile, questioned Sailors' ability to be impartial on the committee exploring the wind rules because of his support for RES' project. |
PJM: ‘Significant chunk’ of renewables to come from corporate procurement
88% of voters say utilities shouldn’t block residential solar
88% of voters say utilities shouldn't block residential solar: SEIA
Published Sept. 27, 2018
ANAHEIM, Calif. — A new poll of U.S. voters and their energy preferences reveals a split on customer trust in utilities and large energy companies, and heavy support for solar generation.
The Global Strategy Group, in collaboration with Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), released the poll on Tuesday at the Energy Storage International / Solar Power International Conference. The results highlighted a growing consumer appeal for policies that advance solar power, including net metering and renewable energy mandates.
"Consumers hate the fact that utilities can control their choice of electricity," Dan Whitten, SEIA's vice president of communications, told Utility Dive. Many of SEIA's members — solar manufacturers, installers and developers — profit from pro-solar and pro-distributed energy policies.
The poll said 88% of voters agreed that utilities should not be able to block residential solar. That margin increased to 96% when asking "opinion leaders," or voters who self-identified as being college-educated, employed and engaged in public policy news.
"I think utilities are incredibly responsive to their customers and what this survey tells us is that customers want solar."
Abigail Ross Hopper, President and CEO, SEIA
At stake is the way utilities would reward distributed solar customers for selling the excess energy they generate back to the grid as utilities work to establish a transition from net metering rates. In recent post-net metering debates, some utilities argue that less competitive export rates for rooftop solar do not necessarily reduce solar deployment, especially given certain commitments for utility-scale solar.
The survey is meant to provide data to show "that a high percentage of the people we polled are resentful of the idea that utilities can restrict their options," Whitten said.
With customer choice debates occurring across the country, more utilities are trying to address their customers' demands.
However, SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper says the more important takeaway is customer support for solar power.
"I think utilities are incredibly responsive to their customers and what this survey tells us is that customers want solar," Hopper told Utility Dive. "I don't think customers have a particular care in the world about who owns it or how it gets there, they just want to make sure it happens."
The survey also highlighted support for a 'fair' net metering policy, a 50% renewable portfolio standard for utilities and other consumer attitudes toward the market, as highlighted in the graph below.
Credit: SEIA
Credit: SEIA
The online polling was conducted on 750 registered voters and on 480 opinion leaders. Each survey question asked the voters to identify their approval or disapproval on a scale of 0 to 10, with "5" being neutral.
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