Turbines in North Carolina

A state Senate committee on Tuesday sidestepped proposed mountain ridge protection rules that wind power advocates said would have crippled a promising new industry.



Senators from Western North Carolina had recently inserted language in a bill regulating the placement of wind-power generating equipment that would have forbid turbines more than 35 feet tall on high ridges.

But wind power advocates said the rules intended to protect mountain views would kill the industry because the best wind is on the ridges and turbines would have to taller to be worth building.

At a Tuesday hearing on the bill, the Agriculture Environment and Natural Resources Committee decided to put off the ridge top portion and change the language to make sure residential wind turbines would be allowed, Sen. Joe Sam Queen said.

“One of the reasons we didn't run the mountain segment of the bill today is we didn't have the language exactly the way we needed for residential wind,” said Queen, D-Haywood. “We want it so you can have one big enough to power a two-story house, not a subdivision.”

The mountain segment of the bill could be taken up as soon as today by a finance committee. A positive recommendation could put the bill for a vote before the Senate and House in a couple of weeks.

The committee did approve coastal wind farm regulations. They allow for wind farm permits to be blocked if they have a negative effect on navigation, wildlife or the views from any state or national park.

Viable residential turbines would probably need to be 60-120 feet tall, said Dennis Scanlin, a professor of technology at Appalachian State University in Boone.

Scanlin had criticized the language inserted by the mountain senators, saying it would cripple the industry and take away the power to decide on wind turbine placement by local governments, such as counties.

“All the experts I'm aware of recommend taller towers,” he said.

The American Wind Energy Association reported in January that the amount of electricity generated by wind turbines grew by 50 percent last year and 55 new manufacturing facilities were built to make turbine components.