DETROIT SCHOOLS LIKE SMALL WIND
Home windmills spin debate; Cities are imposing restrictions, bans
Bill Laitner, April 18, 2010 (Detroit Free Press)
"…[S]mall wind turbines designed for urban homes, small businesses and schools -- which cost $15,000 to $30,000 -- are generating debate in some Detroit suburbs.
"Facing requests from homeowners, Royal Oak enacted a zoning ordinance last year to regulate home-based wind turbines, with Birmingham and Novi soon to do so…[The Birmingham Planning Board…voted 7-0 to ban wind turbines in residential areas, restricting them to commercial districts and to areas of mixed-use zoning where condos coexist with shops. The ban could get final approval…by the City Commission."
click to enlarge
"Among the concerns? The injury risk of turbines spinning near people, the threat of towers being residential eyesores and the quality-of-life fear of flicker -- the distraction of sunlight flashing off moving blades, like a strobe light that belongs in a nightclub…
"Royal Oak's ordinance, passed last year, is less restrictive, allowing wind turbines at twice the maximum permitted height for homes -- about 60 feet -- and up to 100 feet in other zoning districts…No residents have applied for a permit…Novi's new ordinance might get final approval in May…"
click to enlarge
"A single, $20,000 wind turbine could power a small home…[but requires 14 m.p.h. wind] which in Michigan puts ideal sites at high elevations or along lake shores…Turbines in southeast Michigan can work in tandem with solar power to provide much of a home's electricity…Schools are exempt from most local zoning, and some have installed turbines for energy classes…
"…A 60-foot tower with a single spinning blade was installed in 2001 at Seaholm High School in Birmingham. And a 30-foot Windspire -- made in Manistee -- is [soon to be operating] at the Birmingham Covington School in Bloomfield Hills…Oakland Schools Technical Campus in Clarkston is to have a $35,000 system of wind and solar…Also getting turbines, as soon as this fall, are Cass Tech High School in Detroit, the Allen Park school district and Woodhaven-Brownstown public schools, paid for by grants from a statewide surcharge on utility bills…"
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
<< Home