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Sowing the windmill, reaping the whirlwind
Safe, renewable and enviornmentally friendly, wind power is getting plenty of attention these days. Long a staple in Europe, modern windmills can offer farmers income opportunities which can lead to farmland preservation and reduced dependence on foreign oil. Zoning restrictions, however, are threatening one farmer's attempts to farm the wind on his Cheybogan County family farm. - Photo courtesy of Madison Gas and Electric
Like Job, Matthew Bonnett admits he doesn't know where the wind comes from or where it goes. But if he can save his farm because it blows, he's going to try.
If he loses his fight with Cheboygan County, he won't be allowed to harvest the wind or $400 per month per windmill. If he loses, houses could catch all that wind power and leave it impotent. That, Bonnett says, could be the biggest waste of all.
Bonnett, a dairy farmer until about a year ago when he sold the herd, has a commercial windmill company ready to build, an energy company willing to buy and a windy cash crop farm on which to build wind-powered generators. But neighbors have cried foul, the county is considering an ordinance that could effectively ban all commercial windmills and, like Job, Bonnett is asking why.
"Neighbors are objecting," Bonnett said as he awaited yet another bureaucratic decision about his fate. "They don't like the site, they think it will be ugly to look at, and maybe they're worried that the landowner might make a little money," he said. "I think the windmills look pretty neat. They're better looking than cell phone towers, in my opinion."
Bonnett may well be on to something that could provide a steady income for his farm, and his may be a test case for other potential wind farmers who wish to make relatively good money to help provide clean, "green" energy.
The story began when Bonnett was approached by Bay Windpower, which wanted to put up a test tower on his farm to measure wind currents.
The company, said Chief Executive Officer and owner Richard VanderVeen, owns and operates two windmills visible from Interstate Route 75 near Mackinac City. Among the reasons he started the company, he said, are to help provide the United States with clean, renewable and inexpensive energy, and to preserve farmland.
"We need energy security and independent, clean renewable power, and we need to protect farmland by providing farmers with a new stream of income," he said. "To those people who oppose it, I would ask 'are you against energy independence?' and 'what right do you have to tell a farmer how to use his land?' I think if windmills are put up, 30 or 100 years down the road, we'll have the next generation of farmers in place because the farm will not have been sold for taxes or to a wealthy developer."
The company, which anchors its 15-foot by 15-foot windmill foundation with 300 yards of concrete extending 30 feet under the surface, asked for a variance from a county ordinance that limits structure height to 35 feet, Bonnett said. But the Cheboygan County Zoning Board of Appeals tabled the request twice and then denied it, after which Bonnett sued, according to his attorney, Chris Bzdok, a partner in the Traverse City law firm Olson and Bzdok. Since that time, the county's planning commission began working on an ordinance, Bzdok said.
That might seem like progress, like friends coming over to offer comfort, but no.
"Even if they pass this ordinance, there will be no (commercial) windmills allowed," Bzdok said. "No site in the county could fit the requirements. That's one reason the Bonnetts sued the county and the Zoning Board of Appeals, saying the (present) ordinance constitutes a denial of rights to due process and wrongfully excludes a lawful use from the county."
VanderVeen said every potential problem anti-windmill groups have brought up have been shot down with hard, scientific evidence, but the county doesn't seem to have listened.
"It's a darn shame that Mr. Bonnett has had to file a legal challenge with Cheboygan County officials because they're too shortsighted to follow through on projects that provide energy independence, improve public health and preserve farmland," he said.
Among the requirements under consideration in Cheboygan County's proposed ordinance, Bonnett said, is a setback of 1,500 feet from any property line. That would require 206 acres to accommodate one windmill. Bzdok said that requirement is by design.
"Isn't it interesting," he said, "that the ordinance would require the (164-foot tall) windmill to be in the middle of 3,000 square feet, when Bonnett's largest piece of property is 2,870 feet. This isn't even government work. It's a sham."
As Bonnett fights for what he says is the survival of his farm, other farmers - in other counties - are ready to take advantage of friendlier zoning.
No downside for farmers?
Todd Fox, an Oceana County and Benona Township fruit farmer, said he recently signed a lease agreement with a company that intends to put up six windmills on his property and pay him $6,000 per year per windmill. Benona Township has an ordinance that requires setbacks - at 75 percent of the windmill's height (restricted to 300 feet at the top of the blade's arc, meaning the maximum setback requirement is 225 feet) and noise monitoring, even though eye-witness reports say the windmills are no louder than a furnace or refrigerator motor.
"It's not quite a done deal yet," said Fox, "but it will be great if we can get it done. One tower takes up the space of about four cherry trees, and you can farm right up to the base. If I'd ever make that much gross from a whole acre of cherries, it would be a very good year. This is a perfect fit for production agriculture. If you want the farm to stay a farm, this is using the farm in the best way you can."
In Oceana County's Golden Township, wind turbines are encouraged, said Dick Walsworth, an asparagus, grain and hay farmer. He said there has been no opposition to the idea from people there, and township board members have expressed their support for a renewable power industry that's in its infancy; and joy in something that will help farmers keep farming.
"There's no financial risk to the farmer," Walsworth said, noting that Golden Township has issued permits for about 20 windmills. "The company is willing to pay $6,000 per year per windmill, and I don't see a downside. If the land has potential to be developed for homes, I can see where they wouldn't be compatible. But if you want to keep farming, this is the way to go."
His desire to farm is exactly why Bonnett is willing to fight the county for his right to provide energy that could lessen the country's dependence on foreign oil. He's already sold development rights on part of the farm near Levering, where his 86-year-old father remembers windmills as a common sight a mere generation or two ago.
Knowing that windmills were once part of the rural landscape makes Bonnett wonder even more about some of the arguments against the project.
"They say the windmills will produce mutant animal babies, will cause human fertility problems, that birds will die from flying into the blades," said Bzdok. "So in the proposed ordinance, they included things that were pulled out of thin air, all in deference to the rabble rousers. The planning commission is letting these people drive the train. There is no evidence that there's anything bad that can happen from a windmill, and there's no merit to the county's position. And to say that a windmill doesn't belong in an agricultural area shows just who's out of place."
Cheboygan County officials who are reviewing the proposed ordinance did not answer requests for comment.
Clean, green and reliable
Wind power hasn't yet found a place of prominence among energy providers, but it is making headway. Presently, said Consumers Energy spokesman Jeff Holyfield, the utility buys energy from two wind turbines, both near Mackinac City. He said the company offers "green" power to customers at ratios of 10, 50 or 100 percent, and as of Jan. 30, 435 customers were buying electricity generated by wind at 8 cents per kilowatt hour. He said Consumers Energy first measures how much green power is available, then offers it to customers.
Energy generated by wind and wind turbines is reliable, said Tom Miner, assistant director of Traverse City Light and Power, which installed a windmill in 1994.
"It has run 40 percent higher than all other rates," he said. "But part of the reason for that is that we have really low rates. We expected 23 percent higher, but we have old technology. So far, the good news is reliability. It is low maintenance and it runs and runs."
Aside from the obvious benefits of clean, renewable energy and income for farmers, wind power can, as Job discovered from the whirlwind, point the way to redemption.
"I don't want to sell the farm, but I might have to if I can't put up windmills," he said. "I've got to survive, and there are no jobs around here. My dad remembers when they ran electricity through here and that created quite a ruckus with people saying they'd be getting shocked all the time or killed by it. That's not to say that we don't have supporters of green energy, but for some reason, all the good reasons to do this aren't registering. I guess they aren't thinking about preserving open space, income for the property owner or tax dollars."
Perhaps they aren't thinking, either, about troubled times for farmers or the need for renewable energy. But as evidenced in counties outside Cheboygan, clean energy is the way the wind is blowing. And if farmers like Matthew Bonnett need the patience of Job to get it done, they might take to heart Job's example: Job became richer after his conflict than he was before.
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