For those not yet acquainted with us and the story of our quest to install a wind turbine at our car wash/quick lube in New Jersey, here’s a brief summary.

An environmentally friendly car wash? Yes, it’s true. In Wayne, NJ, our car wash uses solar panels to create clean electricity; cleanly burns used motor oil in special furnaces to heat our facility; recycles our water; uses bio-degradeable soaps; and uses energy efficient lighting. Recognized by NJ’s governor with the Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence and by the NJ state legislature for environmental leadership, Wayne Auto Spa is an early adopter of green technologies and a small business environmental leader.

For two years, we have been trying to work with Wayne Township officials to get permission to build a wind turbine on our property to generate more clean electricity from renewable resources. Our efforts have been frustrating. 

The local town leadership made it clear prior to our filing that they oppose this green addition to our property, primarily on the grounds of aesthetics. They also made it clear that we would bear the burden of proving that the turbine would be safe for people, would be quiet, wouldn’t fling ice at people or structures, wouldn’t kill birds, etc. However, there are wind turbines aside more than 80 schools in 23 states in America. They haven’t thrown ice or otherwise hurt anyone. Here are some links to turbines at schools:

There’s even a windmill at a McDonalds.

Wind turbines don’t kill any more birds than other stationery objects (and the Audubon Society agrees).

And they are so quiet that they stay well within state noise limitations imposed by statute.

Let’s remember our site, too. As fond as I am of my business, it’s a car wash – not Yosemite. We are a car wash on 2+ acres on a four-lane county highway (loud) in a commercial zone that has a spaghetti mess of above-ground utility wires, transformers and telephone poles (less than attractive). The property is flanked by a body shop and a day care center. Across the street is a convenience store. Behind us is a hill atop which are about a dozen homes – the closest is about 500 feet from the proposed structure. These homes have a 6-month view (i.e., while the leaves on the trees are down) and that view right now includes our car wash, and a 63 foot tall flagpole.

Our proposed turbine would sit atop a 120 foot tall lattice tower and would have 3 eleven foot blades. The State of New Jersey has its Customer Onsite Renewable Energy Program, which provides partial funding for renewable energy projects. This program seeks to implement public policy favoring renewable energy. Our turbine has been approved for partial funding of this program to the tune of $50,000. That leaves us with about $30,000 left to buy the turbine and who knows how much to fund a protracted legal process. We’ve already spent upwards of $25,000.

We think that the resistance to our proposal is largely a function of fear — that neighboring property values might be impacted by our turbine.

If every Planning Board/Zoning Board in the country needs to have hearings on these same issues over and over, we will waste a huge amount of time and money. This of course will strongly discourage folks from trying to adopt this technology – contrary to overwhelming federal and state public policy.  (New Jersey Municipal Land Use Law even lists the incorporation of renewable energy into land use as one of its goals!)

In fact, we think that federal legislation needs to be adopted to establish clear rules for small wind turbine siting that binds municipalities and landowners throughout the country. That’s how cell towers were handled — with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. (Ironically, I have been advised by Township officials that if I want a cell tower, they can only tell me what color to make it — yet they can block wind turbines!)

We think energy and environmental issues facing us all are too important to let this issue fade away. Yet we cannot afford to finance what will no doubt be a protracted legal battle. One fall back we are considering is to put up a 50-foot tower behind the setback line. Since the turbine is a permitted use in this zone, and this would comply with the relevant zoning ordinances, we cannot be rightfully denied. Sadly, we’d be making a point & not much electricity. But at least folks would learn that wind turbines don’t explode, don’t fall down, aren’t deafening and so on. Maybe this is the best we can do for now.

We’ve gotten lots of press coverage on this issue. Here are a few links.:

Let us know what you think. If you want to help, we’ve added PayPal buttons on the left side of this page — you can donate $5/$25/$100 to help us finance our efforts if you want to. Any excess funds will be donated to the NJ Environmental Lobby.

We want to thank everyone for their support, donations and comments.