a) CWECS. No person may construct a CWECS without a site permit from the board. No person may commence construction of a CWECS until the board has issued a site permit for the CWECS.

b) NWECS. A site permit from the board is not required to construct an NWECS. Nothing in this chapter precludes a local governmental unit from establishing alternate requirements for the siting and construction of an NWECS.

c) Expansion of existing system. No person may expand an existing CWECS by any amount or expand an NWECS to exceed 50 kW without a site permit from the board. A new project is considered an expansion of an existing WECS if the new WECS is within five miles of any turbine in the existing WECS, both projects are under common ownership, and the new WECS is proposed less than three years after the existing WECS commenced operation. Two WECS are under common ownership if the proposer of the new project, or a principal of the proposer, has an ownership or other financial interest in the existing WECS, although two projects are not under common ownership solely because the same person provided equity financing for both projects.