The County Wind Ordinance Survey was designed to help users navigate through the permitting regulations for wind energy development at the local level. The information provided will be useful for all wind developers but specifically targets Community Wind developers who are interested in local permitting and siting rules as well as local officials who are working to develop wind ordinances for their area. This survey provides a single place to access the local permitting and siting rules for a certain area as well as providing additional resources for information relating to wind energy siting, such as wildlife interactions and federal permit requirements.

In 2007 the Wind Turbine Guidelines Advisory Committee was established to provide advice and recommendations on developing effective measure to avoid or minimize impacts to wildlife and their habitats related to land-based wind energy facilities.

According to the AWEA website, "The Wind Energy Siting Handbook was developed by the AWEA Siting Committee to inform wind energy developers and other interested parties about environmental siting issues relevant to land-based commercial-scale wind energy project development in the United States.

Visit this page from the Bureau of Land Management here.

Available from the NWCC website.

This publication from the National Wind Coordinating Collaborative is available from their website.

PDF Version

A wind rose shows the direction and the frequency of that direction that the wind blows at a particular location. Wind roses are used in wind projects to portray the amount of energy that comes into the wind project from various directions.

The space behind a wind turbine that is marked by decreased wind power capacity due to the fact that the turbine itself used the energy in turning the blades. The wind behind the turbine, in its wake, is less effective at generating energy for a certain distance in the downwind direction due to turbulence created by the upwind machine.

A term used in siting and permitting for the construction of structures that refers to the distance from the base of the structure to existing easements, roads, buildings, bodies of water, or other geographic or man-made structures or property lines.