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Oil prices propel interest in wind
By Kirsti Marohn - kmarohn@stcloudtimes.com
Times Photo by Mike Knaak

AVON — When the price of oil starts going up, Joe Straley’s phone starts ringing.

With oil prices nearing a record $100 a barrel, his phone has been ringing a lot lately.

Straley is a dealer of wind turbines, particularly smaller ones used to generate electricity for a single home, business or farm. He’s passionate about his products, which he installs, maintains and repairs himself with grease-stained fingers and a knack for machinery.

Wind power is “100 percent green energy,” said Straley, who sold his first windmill in 1981.

“I guess I liked the idea of something free,” he said.

When helping customers get the necessary permits, Straley has found that not all government officials share his view.

The Stearns County Board of Adjustment recently turned down a request from a Big Fish Lake resident who wanted to erect a turbine to power his lake cabin.

It was the first time one of Straley’s projects has been turned down.

He wants to see Stearns and other counties ease their restrictions.

“I’d like to err on the side of too many windmills,” he said.

Stearns officials say they will consider changes to rules about how tall turbines can be and how far they must be from property lines and buildings.

“I think that what we’re seeing is the industry standards and the industry technology have changed over time, and we need to respond to those changes,” said Don Adams, county environmental services director.

Too restrictive?

Turbine dealer David Winkelman has done about a dozen wind projects in Central Minnesota, so he’s familiar with regulations in different counties.

Winkelman is founder of WERC, a division of Brainerd-based Eco Domes LLC that specializes in wind power. In the past 12 months, his company has had more than 1,000 calls from potential customers.

“Frankly, it’s overwhelming,” Winkelman said. “It’s like the floodgates let loose.”

One of those was Johnson Excavating of Foley, whose owners wanted to erect a wind turbine but encountered problems with Benton County’s ordinance. The county changed its rules to allow the project.

About 25 Minnesota counties have adopted an ordinance similar to Benton County’s that favors small turbines, but most haven’t really dealt with the issue yet, Winkelman said.

Others, such as Sherburne County, have ordinances that restrict wind towers to less than 120 feet, which typically isn’t tall enough to be effective, he said.

Vince Miller got a permit from Stearns County last August for a wind turbine on his 60-acre property north of Eden Valley. He had to get a variance to put the windmill closer to his house than the 750 feet county ordinance allows.

“If I would go 750 feet from my house, that would put me in a hole,” Miller said. It would also waste energy to transmit the electricity that far, he said.

Many of the regulations were written with a large wind farm in mind, rather than a small, individual turbine, Miller said.

“There’s a lot of people that would like to get the right to put them up, but the restrictions are so great, it’s very difficult,” he said.

Energy independence

Dr. Walt Ellis, a St. Cloud podiatrist, asked for a variance to erect a 120-foot windmill on Big Fish Lake in Collegeville Township. Ellis is a technology buff who became interested in windmills after restoring a 1920s-era wooden one several years ago.

“I’m attracted to ... older good ideas,” Ellis said.

The turbine would allow Ellis to generate all the electricity he needed for the cabin. Plus, he’d be plugged into the electrical grid, meaning any excess electricity he produced would be sold back to the utility.

“On a good, windy day, your meter spins backward,” he said.

Ellis ran into opposition from township officials concerned about whether a windmill would create too much noise or interfere with TV reception. He assured them it would be quiet and unobtrusive.

“Most of the time, the wind going through the trees or grass is louder than the tower,” he said.

Still, the county Board of Adjustment turned Ellis down in May. His windmill wouldn’t meet the requirement for a “fall-down zone,” meaning the distance it must be from property lines, homes or other buildings.

Stearns County requires a fall-down zone of 1.1 times the tower’s height. That’s not necessary, Ellis said.

“The irony of that is these towers are constructed much more rigidly than our cell phone towers and other towers,” which are closer to homes and roads, he said.

Wind power doesn’t come cheap.

Ellis’ windmill would cost him about $60,000, and it will take 10-15 years before he sees a return on his investment.

Still, Ellis said there are many people interested in trying wind power — as long as the regulations aren’t too steep.

“Those who are teetering on whether they want to do this definitely won’t do this,” he said. “I think we’re turning a lot of people away.”