Batavia, Sugar Grove keeping wind turbines out of backyards -- for now

Whether Kane County has enough wind for individual homeowners to use wind-energy electricity in their homes is debatable.

But Batavia officials want to make sure that if you decide to try it, you don't hurt yourself, your neighbors or the city's electrical grid. And that you don't make the neighborhood look ugly.

And in Sugar Grove, officials are putting a hold on installation of any turbines until the village can come up some rules.

Wind turbines consist of blades that spin in the wind. They turn a rotor, which transfers the kinetic energy to a generator and onto the electrical service.

Sugar Grove recently put a six-month moratorium on their installation, as interest spikes with a federal tax credit change. In 2007 the tax credit was $2,000; this spring's stimulus bill changed that to 30 percent of cost.

And since Sugar Grove residents receive their electricity from ComEd, they can get credit for an excess energy generated by their turbine and then flowed into the electrical grid.

Proponents of turbines say they generate electricity without creating pollution, such as coal- or nuclear-powered plants.

"We would like our zoning regulations to reflect the opportunity for people to put alternative energy sources on their property," said Joel Strassman, Batavia's planning and zoning officer. He noted Batavia bills itself as the "City of Energy." It was known worldwide in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for its windmill manufacturing.

How to do that without changing the look of the neighborhood?

Batavia city staff are proposing that any ground-mounted wind turbines be set back at least 10 to 15 feet from a property line, and that the lowest edge of a perpendicular turbine blade should be at least 20 feet off the ground. They suggested the height allowed be whatever is the current maximum in a zoning district.

The Batavia Plan Commission recently reviewed the proposal and asked for more details on how tall the turbines should be for efficiency's sake. Typically, wind speed increases with height.

"There is a balance between efficiency and aesthetics," Strassman said.

The commission was not sure there should be a difference between roof- and ground-mounted turbines as far as maximum height. The proposal calls for a maximum height of 15 feet for roof-mounted turbines. A ground-mounted turbine, in certain residential districts, could be up to 35 feet at the upper tip of a blade.

In either case, the owner would also have to put up a sign warning trespassers to stay away, and that these are high-voltage devices.

There is no set date for Strassman to bring the information back to the commission, which is in the midst of a multiyear update of the town's zoning rules. The rules will likely be bundled with proposed changes in other areas of the code, and voted on en masse at the end of the review. In the meantime, anybody wanting to install a system is governed by existing rules for accessory structures, which prohibit anything taller than the principal structure on a lot.

A Web search for 10kw turbines showed prices ranging from $23,000 to $35,000 for such systems. There are smaller systems, which would generate power that could be stored in a battery or operate a water pump.