Ryan, Let me clarify, and correct myself. The 1.5 acre figure has no direct connection to the ability to install a residential wind turbine in the Town of Groton. I used 1.5 acres because that was the proposed minimum lot size required by zoning. The good news is that the minimum lot size was actually reduced to 1 acre in the final iteration of the draft zoning ordinance, a move that I had forgotten about. In the draft Town of Groton zoning regulations there is a requirement for a "fall zone" around the wind turbine, but that has been proposed to be 1.5 times the radius of the designed fall zone for the pylon and turbine, not the height. I've recommended that distance, as opposed to 1 or 1.25 or 1.5 times the height of the wind turbine pylon, because the majority of pylons are designed with integral breaking points within the structure. Because of the integral breaking points the actual danger zone associated with a collapse is less than many people may think. As a result a lot of communities may inadvertantly be discouraging installations of wind turbines by requiring excessive fall zone areas. For instance local regulations requiring a fall zone equal to the height of a 120 foot pylon/turbine structure automatically require a lot at least 240 feet wide and at least an acre in size - just to accommodate the wind turbine and its fall zone. On the other hand I've seen pylon designs that have a fall zone radius of only 50 to 70 feet. That translates in the Groton regulations to a minimum lot width of 150 feet (50'x1.5x2) to 225 feet, and as little as less than half an acre dedicated to fall zone. So, in the Town of Groton under the proposed regulations, if you have a one-acre lot you may still be able to have the house, the garage, the shed and other buildings on the front half-acre, and the backyard, garden and wind turbine on the back half-acre. The one-acre minmum lot size also applies to businesses and industry. Hope this clarifies the situation. George Frantz Ryan Hottle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: George, Eric and Andy:
Interesting zoning law... 1.5 acres for first turbine, 5 acres thereafter. Most zoning ordinances mandate a "fall zone" of 100 or 125 % but do not mandate property size. But 120 feet and up to 30 kW machine is not too bad. Most ordinances consider less than 100 kW "small wind". I'm certainly no expert, but I did write a "Model Zoning Ordinance" for Ohio a year or two ago for my own purposes based largely on the Wisconsin Model Zoning Ordinance. http://www.renewwisconsin.org/wind/Toolbox-Zoning/Small%20Wind%20System%20Model%20Ordinance%2012-06.pdf Solar thermal is certainly more cost effective than photovoltaics. Any type of heating with photovoltaics is generally not such a good move unless you have a very special situation. Electricity is the most refined, highest quality type of energy... heat is the crudest, lowest quality. Therefore, using extremely expensive PV panels to generate heat usually doesn't make much sense. Unless, for example, you have an extremely tight thermal envelope and require only a small amount of heat to augment, say, an off-grid passive solar thermal home. Maybe... As for water, we need to catch and store it! This is going to be necessary for multiple reasons, not the least of which is the unpredictability of climatic patterns in our warming world or the fact that entire city and regional plumbing is constantly deteriorating and in need of repair and as we face peak oil it may be difficult to maintain this level of repair. Every single home should have a rainwater catchment system in place. Yes, large scale hydro isn't good for ecosystems... all those systems have already been built, however. I'm talking extremely small in comparison to these mega systems. Take Care: Ryan D. Hottle On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 11:16 AM, Andy Goodell wrote: > How about solar thermal oo? Supposedly 4x more efficient at warming > water than solar electric, and still has good NYS incentives. A full > system looks to be around $4000 for a family from estimates I have seen. > > While I love some concepts of small scale hydro, you need water, which > is certainly not on everyone's property, and the larger scale you go, > the more ecological effects are potentially an issue. > -Andy > > _______________________________________________ > For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, > please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > > RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > [email protected] > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > -- Ryan Darrell Hottle The Renaissance Group Program Manager www.ConserveFirst.com Global Climate Solutions www.GlobalClimateSolutions.org (coming soon!) Ohio Peak Oil Action (OPOA) Co-Founder, Director www.ohiopeakoilaction.org 30 N. Rose Blvd. Akron, OH 44022 (740) 258 8450 _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org --------------------------------- Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
