Effective January 1, 2010, a new law in Illinois now provides that a county or municipality, including a home rule unit, may not require a wind tower or other renewable energy system that is used exclusively by an end user to be setback more than 1.1 times the height of the renewable energy system from the end user’s property line.
Public Act 96-0306 (Illinois) can be accessed here
…and this is the story of how the pawn of central planning usurps melee between parties’ individual rights and furthers the war against Democracy.
By: Tom Stacy on March 28, 2010
at 10:29 am
I would be interested in knowing the rationale. I have recently drafted two local laws allowing wind turbines, and based on my review, it appears that the standard setback is 1.5 times the total tower height, including the turbine at its vertical limit. The rationale for that distance is that if there is a blowdown during a wind storm, while the turbine is turning, the increased distance would provide a better safety buffer.
By: Dominic Cordisco on March 28, 2010
at 11:02 am
Whatever the technical rationale, it is likely no better than the rationale for subsidizing open air mechanisms that offer energy-diffuse generation on a schedule inimical to demand that creates 2,000 times the sprawl and eight times the overnight cost of GHG free generators per unit of reliable capacity.
Rationale aside, the reason this law has passed is that the lobbying efforts of the AWEA are effective at altering the laws of the Illinois General Assembly where they have failed to alter the laws of physics.
By: Tom Stacy on March 28, 2010
at 11:38 am