On August 28, the Allegany Town Board enacted a local law regulating wind energy plants. Setbacks from homes for wind turbines must be 2,500 feet. The local law would also provide that nighttime noise increases caused by turbines cannot exceed 3 decibels above background noise levels.
A copy of the local law is available here (995K PDF). This version, dated July 27, 2007, supercedes an earlier Planning Board version dated May 21, 2007.
CCCC has collected and reviewed a large amount of research on wind power. In addition to visual blight of the skyline--commercial wind turbines will be quite noticeable well over a mile away--the lastest research finds that annoying levels of noise can also be heard over a mile away, with variations due to weather and topography.
Wind is the least efficient of the alternative sources of energy. A wind farm in Allegany will not contribute a noticeable amount of electricity to NY, and will contribute no electricity to Allegany.
