Renewable energy, zoning and local control

Over the past few years we have seen tremendous growth in the efficiency, effectiveness, and use of wind power. This is especially true in the Midwest.

States have worked hard to take advantage of this valuable renewable resource, steadily increasing the amount of wind power they use to meet the energy demands of their state.

Small towns and rural communities have also seen the benefit. New property tax revenue flows from the wind projects, helping to fund local schools, police, and fire department; and landowners receive land payments for turbines that they host on their property. There's also the benefit of new jobs that bring new people to the community.

But as wind energy continues to grow rural economies and expand across the Midwest, there are questions from local communities. How will this affect my community? What are the rules for wind energy development?

New development of any kind can spark questions and concerns, and it's important that public officials work to address these issues, creating standards and regulations that can create a balance between developing new wind energy and tackle the concerns of local residents. Some of the most common standards that can achieve this goal are zoning ordinances.

Zoning is often used by a city, county, or state to determine appropriate land use and set conditions for projects. But the problem with some zoning standards is that they can often be a patchwork of different local and state level regulations, mixed together in such a way that it creates headaches for anyone looking to get approval for a new project. For still-growing industries like wind energy, finding effective and consistent zoning standards is essential, as a stalled approval process can potentially end a project.

In our report Zoned Out, we analyzed different approaches to zoning commercial wind energy systems in four different states in the Midwest - Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Wisconsin. The report also broke down the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches, and what makes for effective zoning standards.

One of the main take-aways from the report is that there is no clear winner between state or local zoning standards. While state-based standards can provide consistency for project developers, they can have difficulty fully capturing local preferences and concerns. Likewise, local standards can easily be tailored to reflect the desires of the community, but this means that the zoning ordinances for neighboring counties could be wildly different, complicating the application process for a project that may cross county lines.

Finding the best method for regulating wind energy zoning is a matter of striking a balance between state and local standards. The key is to merge aspects from both approaches, combining the benefits of state and local regulations while attempting to limit the drawbacks associated by either. The goal of these regulations ought to be creating standards that are fair and effective, addressing local concerns while also providing consistency for developers.

As we continue developing our wind energy resources and benefiting from new wind farms, it's important that we do it in a way that works for all of the stakeholders involved.

' Lu Nelsen is an energy and climate program associate for the Center for Rural Affairs. Comments: lucasn@cfra.org