Councilman Charlie Tygard wants to allow windmills in Davidson County, but his original proposal didn’t pass muster with the Metro Planning Commission last summer. He’s now trying to pass a more restrictive version.
The last bill was geared towards larger installations, and this time, the bill is more focused on residential areas. The windmills can only be 15-feet higher than the tallest building on the property.
Tygard says the only windmill he knows of so far in the area is in Franklin. He just wants Metro to have a structure in place for anyone who wants to put up a wind-powered electricity generator.
“We don’t want to discourage people from doing it if they have the financial means and want to do that for the environment, but we also want to make sure that their surrounding neighbors are not impacted.”
To create power, the systems need sustained wind of more than 8-miles per hour. In Nashville, the airport analyzed wind data for the last ten years and found that wind speeds did not consistently hit the sustained 8 miles per hour mark.
The Metro Planning Commission will vote on the bill at its Thursday meeting and the Metro Council will take it up on the second of three readings next week.
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