Capturing the breeze: Macon County Board creates rules regulating potential wind farms

Sep 21, 2008 (Herald & Review - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- CILL | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Sep. 21--DECATUR -- Hot air flowing on the presidential campaign trail this year is touting the expansion of wind-generated electricity to solve the nation's energy needs, and some people in Macon County are taking action to prepare for potential wind farm expansion here.

Although no wind farms have been built in the county, an increasing number of wind turbines are being erected in fields throughout Central Illinois -- with projects constructed or being considered in Christian, Clark, DeWitt, Logan, McLean, Montgomery and Shelby counties.

That has prompted the Macon County Board to take action recently in establishing an ordinance regulating wind farm siting and construction.

"We tried to design this to kind of be a model ordinance," said board member David Williams, R-Maroa, who worked on the ordinance as a member of the board and the area Regional Planning Commission.

Williams said the ordinance, which was approved in August, was drafted in advance of any particular wind farm project. The ordinance also establishes regulations if the Warrensburg-Latham School District moves forward with a plan to construct a wind turbine to power the district's buildings.

The school is using a $30,000 grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation to study the feasibility of building a wind turbine on 24 acres of land the district recently purchased.

Superintendent Emmitt Aubry said if wind data is favorable, the school would then pursue construction of a wind turbine.

Aubry said the school is exploring the unique strategy to cope with growing energy costs that have been busting the school board's budget even after the district joined a consortium to purchase electricity at a lower rate.

"It's just like anybody's private home, except our bill is a lot bigger," he said.

Although Aubry won't know the results of the study and whether a turbine would meet his school's energy needs for several months, county board members are hoping that developers will find the ordinance they drafted to be friendly to wind farm investment.

Williams said there is a ridge in the western part of the county that is part of the same higher ground throughout the area that wind farm developers have found hospitable to wind farm placement in other counties, and he is optimistic they might consider exploring construction in Macon County, as well.

"The other thing we're hearing is the reason Illinois is so attractive to some of the farms is the market in the Chicago-area and market in the St. Louis-area," Williams said.

He said the power demands of those markets and the electricity infrastructure that connects them makes Central Illinois fertile territory for wind farm construction, especially when the state is mandating more electricity in the state come from alternative power sources such as wind.

Williams hopes that means wind farms can add an economic boost to the rural parts of the county such as the board district he represents.

"There'd be some jobs created in the construction phase, plus there's potential for a reduced number of permanent jobs once wind farms or wind towers actually become a reality," he said.

Still, some advocacy groups raise concerns that businesses and government officials may be blinded to the adverse affects of wind farms by the money to be made in the increasingly lucrative alternative energy industry.

Lisa Linowes, the New Hampshire-based executive director of Wind Action, said her organization has been fighting wind projects throughout the country including some in Central Illinois, where homeowners have protested the turbines for bringing unwanted noise, environmental hazards and lowered property values.

"What appears to be happening is the counties are buying into the revenue opportunity for the turbines being built without any regard for the residents who are going to live near them," Linowes said.

Macon County officials, however, counter that they took the step of developing a wind ordinance before any specific wind project was before the board. The board also consulted heavily with David Horn, an ecologist at Millikin University, when drafting the ordinance.

"I think that the ordinance that was created is a very strong ordinance in that I think it will both encourage wind energy to be developed here in Macon County while simultaneously providing strong environmental protection for the natural resources of Macon County," Horn said.

He said the ordinance includes stipulations for pre-construction study of the environmental impacts of wind farms and one-year post-construction studies of the projects.

Horn said one of the biggest environmental concerns about wind turbines is their impact on birds, but he said research has found bird mortality from the construction of wind turbines is no more than it would be from the construction of a building.

He also contends that environmental hazards such as global warming, mercury emissions and acid rain caused by traditional energy sources pose a much bigger threat to birds than wind turbines.

Although some people have been critical of the idea of building wind farms in Illinois rather than areas with more wind, Horn said turbines are becoming more efficient each year in terms of how much wind is needed for them to operate and be profitable.

He noted that some places such as the Dakotas have the potential for more wind but don't yet have the electricity infrastructure needed to make large-scale wind farms work.

But Horn said he recognizes there are still concerns about wind farms coming to Central Illinois that may never be alleviated such as an "unknown change to country life."

"It certainly will result in changes, but whether those are changes that will negatively impact one's daily quality of life I think that's a question that's being asked as we think about renewable energy," Horn said.

mtallon@herald-review.com|421-7984.

To see more of Herald & Review, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.herald-review.com Copyright (c) 2008, Herald & Review, Decatur, Ill. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

More News:   Market Updates | Stock Alerts | All Trading News | Stock Index