projects taller than the base height would have to meet a proportionally-increased setback.
Chris Nickell says the Sangamon project is being planned using the current ordinance as a guide, but any significant changes would cause AWEM to reconsider the project.
“The fact that all the surrounding counties have much more ‘wind friendly’ ordinances would most likely inspire us to move the project,” Nickell says, emphasizing that the possibility of moving elsewhere is only speculation. In the meantime, SSCRPC has attempted to address concerns about the effects of wind turbines on health and property values. County residents have expressed fears about the noise from wind turbines, which some opponents claim can cause mental and physical anguish. A SSCRPC report on wind turbine noise explored peer-reviewed scientific studies on the issue and concluded that, aside from mere annoyance, there is no significant danger related to wind turbine noise and vibration.
“On a clear night, you can kind of hear them,” says Katheryn Hall, who lives with her husband, Gale, near several wind turbines at the Rail Splitter wind farm in Tazewell County. “When we do hear them, it’s not enough to bother us. When you’re inside the house, you don’t hear them at all.”
Hall says a couple of her neighbors originally had qualms about the Rail Splitter farm’s construction, but she hasn’t heard any complaints in the year since it became operational.
“We don’t have any safety worries or complaints,” Hall says. “I actually like them. They’re pretty in the morning when the light gleams off of them with different colors. I think they’re peaceful.”
A different SSCRPC report examined studies of property values near wind farms and found “there is no compelling research indicating that proximity to wind farms results in a decline in property values that is of significant magnitude.” However, the report cautioned that much of the available research is of European origin, and wind farms are “typically located in sparse rural communities with few property sales transactions for comparison.”
Nickell says AWEM is aware that some Sangamon County citizens have concerns, and the company is already working to minimize the turbines’ impact on people, wildlife and the environment. Before erecting a wind farm, the company will do impact studies to mitigate issues like turbine noise, bird collisions and water drainage, he says.
"They’re pretty in the morning when the light gleams off of them with diffrent colors. I think they’re peaceful."
“The landowners are all excited about it, and we’ve started our environmental work, with biologists doing bird and bat counts,” Nickell says. “We’ve been doing work with the (U.S. Army) Corps of Engineers for waterways, and once we know where we want to put the turbines, we’ll do a noise impact study to make sure the decibel limits won’t be exceeded at anybody’s house.”
The same procedure is followed for shadow flicker – the moving shadow cast by turning blades. The county only allows a cumulative shadow flicker total of one hour per year, Nickell says, so AWEM will use a computer model to ensure no houses will sit in the path of a turbine’s shadow.
The wind farm will not be subsidized by state or federal dollars, Nickell says, though it will be eligible for a federal Production Tax Credit for the first 10 years of operation. That means AWEA won’t receive money from the state or federal governments to build the project, but it will be allowed to subtract part of the cost (2.1 cents per kilowatt-hour produced) from its income tax bill.
AWEM has not yet submitted its permit application to the county, Nickell says, because the company is first seeking approval from regulators like the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Federal Aviation Administration and others. Nickell says AWEM’s goal is to begin construction by late 2012 or early 2013.
“I can’t look you in the eye and tell you it’s 100 percent certain, but it’s looking good,” Nickell says. “It’s a big step, and we’re hoping for big things.”
Contact Patrick Yeagle at [email protected].
