Electricians get final approval for Cedar Rapids wind turbines

Two, 37-foot-tall wind turbines should be in place by May at the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Electrical Training Center, 2300 Johnson Ave. NW.

They will be the first wind turbines erected in the city under the city's six-month-old wind-turbine ordinance.

The training center's proposal won approval from the city's Board of Adjustment on Monday afternoon, which voted 4-0 to grant the center a conditional use permit to erect the two wind turbines.

The board had rejected an earlier proposal in November on a 2-2 vote after neighbors objected. The center revised its plan, removing a 61-foot turbine from the plan. No neighbors objected at Monday's meeting.

The two, 37-foot turbines are considered small turbines under the city's ordinance. They don't look like the typical wind turbine with three blades spinning at the top of a tower. Instead, an airfoil the length of the turbine tower moves in the wind to generate electricity.

Mike Carson, the training center's director, said the electrical training center wants to install the turbines so its 120 apprentices and 650 journeyman electricians can train on them. A federal grant is helping with the cost. Carson said he hoped to have to the turbines in place in May.