County stays ahead of wind, solar projects

The Rock County Planning Commission will host a public hearing Monday to consider proposed changes to the local renewable energy ordinance.
Zoning administrator Eric Hartman told commissioners at their June 16 meeting that three areas could potentially change.
•eliminating wind farm setback requirements from property boundaries between participating landowners.
•reducing setback requirements around wetlands.
•allowing some solar farm communication and distribution lines to be above ground.
“As it stands now, they have to be buried, and I’ve had some questions about maybe allowing some degree of overhead (lines),” Hartman said.
The changes proposed for wind farms bring Rock County’s ordinance in line with the state’s ordinance, which allows turbines to be closer together when adjoining landowners are both participating in the wind farm development.
“If you are not willing to participate, you still have to be set back the three rotor diameters on the east-west (axis) and five rotor diameters on the north-south axis,” Hartman said.
“With the size of these things (turbines) it would be hard pressed to site a turbine without doing a variance to meet that setback standard in terms of property lines.”
The setback would also still apply between separate wind farms, Hartman added.
The Rock County Renewable Energy Ordinance was adopted in September 2018.
It outlines permit requirements for wind farms producing up to 5 megawatts (about two to five turbines) of electricity and solar systems under 50 megawatts operated in the county.
Larger production farms are permitted at the state level.
The public hearing is at 7:15 p.m. Monday, June 29, at the Law Enforcement Center in Luverne.
After the hearing, the Planning Commission’s recommendations will be presented to the Board of Commissioners for final approval.