If energy-generating wind turbines are built in the Atlantic Ocean off New Jersey, the state wants to limit how close to shore they can be.

New rules proposed by the state's Department of Environmental Protection would ban such projects in all state-controlled ocean waters except for a half-mile wide strip from 2.5 miles offshore to the end of state waters at the 3-mile mark.

This effectively means that any large wind farms will have to be built in federally controlled waters starting three miles off New Jersey's beaches.

The new rules would also make it easier for people pursuing small, land-based wind projects - such as home turbines - to get state approvals. Such projects, however, would still be subject to local municipal ordinances and need local approvals or variances.

Under the proposed rules, small wind projects built along the coast would not have to go through lengthy individual reviews from the DEP. These reviews tend to delay the construction of a wind turbine for months at a time.

Several companies are planning offshore projects, but most are already targeting sites in federal waters. The bulk of the wind turbines are proposed for an area about 16 miles off the coast of Atlantic City.

Fishermen's Energy, however, has proposed a pilot project with eight or nine turbines built within three miles of shore.

The Cape May-based company is reviewing the proposed rules and considering options to get the project in the water, according to spokeswoman Rhonda Jackson.

"This is still preliminary, and the rule is not finalized," Jackson said.

Though the proposed rules do not affect Delsea Energy's plan to erect 106 turbines in the upper Delaware Bay, that company is also reviewing the rule changes.

"New Jersey is still in the early stages of wind power," said John Renz, vice president of business development for Delsea Energy. "And so the state is still in the early stages of developing these rules."

The Delsea project faces hurdles of its own. DEP officials informed the company last month that the project's potential impact on birds and oyster beds in the Delaware Bay makes it unlikely to get state approvals.

The state's Energy Master Plan has a goal of 3,000 megawatts of electricity capacity from offshore wind power by 2020. That's enough electricity to supply the needs of nearly a million homes in New Jersey or more than one out of every 10 homes in the state.

The move to limit the area where wind farms can be built would seem to contradict the state's stated goals of becoming a leader in green energy production.

But, state officials say the move is a result of concerns about the environmental impact of large offshore wind farms, particularly on migratory birds and bats.

The new regulations would encourage the development of smaller projects so the DEP could study such impacts while still allowing for the generation of some electricity, state officials said.

"If we do these studies and everything is okay, then (the DEP) may go back and make new proposals at a later time," said Karen Hershey, a spokeswoman for the DEP.

In addition to changes to offshore regulations, land-based wind projects would also be affected by the new rules.

The new rules would require wind turbines built on land to be less than 200 feet tall from the bottom of the pole to the tip of the blade.

By comparison, the wind turbines at the Atlantic County Utilities wind farm outside of Atlantic City are 380 feet tall.

The turbines would also be banned from dunes, beaches, wetlands or other environmentally sensitive coastal areas.

The streamlined process does not begin immediately for land-based turbines. The DEP wants to closely monitor the first 15 such projects to see what effects they may have on bats and birds.

Earlier this year, the New Jersey Audubon Society reported that the Atlantic County Utilities Authority turbines outside of Atlantic City killed 30 birds and 60 bats during the first 18 months of a three-year observational study.

To put that in perspective, birds flying into glass windows account for between 100 million and more than 900 million bird deaths per year, depending on the region, according to the National Audubon Society. The society also reported that house cats kill about 100 million birds each year.

Some environmental groups criticized the state's approval process for wind farms as being too long and cumbersome.

On Thursday, a representative of one of the groups said the new rules would be a step in the right direction.

"The more we move towards uniform permitting standards, the better," said Matt Elliott, clean energy advocate for the group Environment New Jersey.

While the proposals would remove some state-imposed hurdles for people seeking to build land-based home turbines, it's unclear how much that cutting of red-tape will actually help these small projects.

Robert Olivio, who supplies wind turbines through Jersey Wind Power, said that municipalities still have control over whether individual projects get off the ground. Even with eased DEP permitting regulations, a municipality still has to allow residents to harness wind power.

Olivio was one of the citizens who fought against Lower Township's recently passed ordinance that does not allow residential turbines to be any closer to property lines than 15 feet from the tip of the blades. He said it places strong limits on a community with stronger winds and better suited for power generation.

"If the state would just adopt one rule (for all projects), then we'd really have something," Olivio said.