A new windmill ordinance is being considered in West Penn Township.

The township's board of supervisors reviewed the proposed ordinance at great length as part of Monday morning's meeting.Township solicitor Holly Heintzelman said the township currently has about three paragraphs in its zoning ordinance that relates to windmills.Heintzelman drafted a completely new ordinance back in November.She said one of the purposes of the new ordinance is to distinguish between the requirements for windmills that might be used for residential and/or agricultural uses, which they are calling accessory wind energy facilities, and commercial wind farms, which they are calling principal wind energy facilities.Heintzelman said the power created by accessory wind energy facilities is used primarily by the resident of the property on which the accessory wind energy facilities are located, while the power created by principal wind energy facilities is generally sold to third parties for profit.Supervisor Ted Bogosh raised various questions."It's my understanding that we're redoing this because people have requested their own personal windmill," Bogosh said.Supervisor Tony Prudenti said he doesn't want supervisors to have the say as to who can put a windmill on their property."We're trying to go green energy, and we're trying to save our township residents money," Prudenti said.Resident Gary Steigerwalt told the board he owns a turbine on his property."I did quite a bit of studying before I installed my turbine," Steigerwalt said. "A lot of these issues aren't really necessary."Heintzelman will revise the windmill ordinance per the board's direction.Because it involves zoning, it must be forwarded to the Schuylkill County Planning Commission for comment, she said.