RENEWABLE ENERGY MODEL ORDINANCES LOCALLY DERIVED ORDINANCE SOLUTIONS

摘要

Local governments often struggle with developing or updating their policies and regulations for distributed renewable energy generation projects, especially for residential small-scale wind turbines and solar arrays. The prevalence of model ordinances has led to a wider awareness and adoption of regulations that assist planning officials with answering inquiries from potential renewable energy system owners and installers. Some jurisdictions have developed ordinances that effectively pave the way for local renewable energy installations. Others, however, have adopted policies that only appear receptive but actually prevent small systems from being installed. This paper examines two community approaches to zoning ordinances and permitting processes to highlight how model ordinances were modified to fit the local social and political contexts. At issue is whether or not the adopted ordinance ultimately permits a small renewable energy system to fully capture the available resource and to what extent does a community share in the benefits of locally generated renewable energy.