Help may be on the way for St. Joseph residents frustrated with high electrical bills.

Personal wind turbines can lower electric costs for their owners, or in some cases, cause the meter to spin backward as the device produces more energy than is used.

City staff has started work on an ordinance that would allow the installation of wind turbines within the city limits.

Assistant City Planner Vicki Johnson said the city wants to be proactive, not reactive.

“We don’t have any information or any ordinance, so we can’t give people a permit because right now it’s prohibited,” Ms. Johnson said.

Interest has been light so far. Ms. Johnson said she didn’t know the exact number of inquiries the city had received but estimated it was closer to four or five than 10 or 20.

“It’s not an overwhelming amount of people,” Ms. Johnson said. “I don’t want everyone to think we’re going to have windmills in every backyard.”

The city is using a Wisconsin wind energy ordinance as a guide. The ordinance will set guidelines for where wind turbine towers may be constructed, how close they may be to property lines and roads, how tall they may be and other regulations.

For example, the city is tentatively looking at what Ms. Johnson called a “2-to-1 ratio” that would require a property line setback of twice the height of the tower — meaning a 60-foot tower must be 120 feet from the property line.

“We’re trying to make them as unobtrusive as possible,” Ms. Johnson said.

The turbines would not be restricted to residential use. The ordinance would allow provisions for commercial wind farms, though different from the large ones that have recently been constructed in Northwest Missouri. Some local businesses have enough land to house multiple wind turbines — classified as wind farms in the ordinance — that would provide power for their private use. Excess power could be sold back to the grid.

Ms. Johnson said the city had considered using wind power at the landfill, though no formal plans had been made.

The city also will evaluate rules for smaller turbines that can be mounted directly to roofs or other existing structures.

The ordinance is expected to be ready for the City Council this summer, possibly as early as June.

Clinton Thomas can be reached

at clintonthomas@npgco.com.