Change Might Be In The Air

Balto. County Panel Weighing Rules About Residential Wind Turbines

The proposal sets a turbine height limit of 150 feet and, in an effort to reduce the impact on neighbors, ties allowed height to the size of the property. For example, a 150-foot tower would have to stand at least 165 feet from property lines, meaning the minimum lot size for a turbine of that height would be 3 acres. A 100-foot turbine would need at least 1.4 acres, an 80-foot turbine would be allowed on the minimum one-acre lot.

The revised zoning would set a noise limit of 55 decibels, or roughly the level of a "humming refrigerator," for all but the most extreme conditions such as power failures or windstorms.

If Baltimore County revises its zoning to include wind turbines, it would be the latest of a number of Maryland counties that have done so in the past couple of years. Andrew Gohn of the Maryland Energy Administration estimated that eight of 24 counties and Baltimore City - including Carroll, Allegany, Frederick and Montgomery - have established ordinances governing wind turbines. A number of counties now have turbine rules in the works.

While the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory rates the county's wind resource as "generally poor," as the planning report puts it, windmills have been on the local scene for centuries. Small windmills have been used to run pumps on farms and to grind grain, according to the planning department's draft.

While these windmills were used to generate mechanical energy, Antonelli's would apparently be the county's first to generate electrical energy. In the house they expect to complete by the end of next year, the family plans to include the turbine in a renewable energy array including solar and geothermal systems.