Wind energy conversion systems for use in residential neighborhoods is a new technology that's still emerging, City Planning and Zoning Administrator Dan Hanson told city planning commissioners on Tuesday evening.

The City Planning Commission is exploring systems' use at the request of the Brookings City Council, which recently heard from a local resident who wants to capture and utilize wind energy on his property.

"This is one type of renewable energy that is making fairly fast strides in trying to come up with ways to produce energy for small sites."

Hanson said smaller versions of the wind turbines seen on Buffalo Ridge do exist, but there are a number of different styles on the market as well. Some turbines turn vertically, while others spin horizontally. He showed photos of several models, including one that sits on rooftops.

Hanson is also studying wind energy guidelines created in other communities , including Cottage Grove and Woodbury, Minn.

Spearfish allows residential wind energy systems within city limits as a conditional use, but no applications have emerged yet. There are some residential systems in rural Lawrence County, though.

"In some of the places they had proposed to put them was certainly causing some concerns for other nearby residential areas. … They all brought up different issues, and they're all studying whether these are appropriate ." Community issues

Some issues that communities are addressing include: tower setbacks from nearby structures; tower design and support; auto braking; visual impact; noise levels; minimum blade clearance; wildlife impact; color; climbing potential; lighting and removal requirements; and shadow flicker.

"If you had blades that were rotating to the point that you had a constant shadow flicker in the windows of your neighbor's house, to me that could be a substantial impact if you like to have your shades up and you have this constant shadow flicker in your house."

Every city that Hanson studied had some of the requirements in place, but none had all.

He added that in general, turbines currently must be placed high above any nearby structures to operate efficiently. But that could change in the future.

"They need to be out in the open. That's why the large ones are out on a ridge. That's just the nature of a wind turbine.

"Right now the technology says they have to be 20 to 40 feet above any nearby object, but we think there might be technology coming down that may be able to offset that a little bit. And if that was out there, I think that might be more appropriate at least to consider or look at down the road as a potential for savings for someone who wanted to install one of these," Hanson said. Evolving field

Hanson said he will continue to gather data on residential wind energy systems and ordinances written by other cities. "It's just really evolving , and we need to keep looking at it."

The Planning Commission briefly studied wind energy systems in residential neighborhoods in 2007, when a Brookings resident wanted to put in an individual wind turbine on his property.

Contact Jill Fier at jfier@brookingsregister .com.