Wind turbines in Leelanau County?

Glen Arbor Sun

Local opinions, for and against, passionate and protective, are blowin’ in the wind

Ever since the Michigan Wind Energy Resource Zone Board (WERZ) released a report on June 2 that named Leelanau County as the second best location statewide for industrial-scale windmill farms, local citizens have vociferously debated this prospective news in coffee shops, stores, restaurants, and in the editorial pages of The Leelanau Enterprise, the county’s paper of record.

On one side are those who believe we need to take advantage of this prized and abundant natural resource, especially given our current energy crisis. On the other side are those who think this area is far too beautiful, and the environment too sensitive, to erect 262-foot wind turbines.

The public will have until Tuesday, Aug. 4 to comment on the WERZ report (available at www.Michigan.gov under the Public Service Commission page: the direct link is also available here), and public hearings are scheduled downstate for Aug. 24 in Bad Axe and Aug. 31 in Scottville. WERZ will also hold a training program at the Township Hall in Empire on July 23 at 6 p.m. for local planning commissioners, elected officials, administrators, planners, developers and anyone else interested. Space is limited and the program costs $70.

Our country and our society need new ways of creating energy that don’t rely exclusively on coal, nuclear power or oil and petroleum from politically troubled parts of the world — that opinion is now largely unanimous. And out-of-work, archaic Michigan needs new jobs, income sources and ways to rebuild its industrial backbone. The most known sources of alternative energy — that don’t contribute to global climate change — are wind and solar. But those of us who head south, or dream of doing so, during the cold months know that the sun doesn’t shine year-round in northern Michigan, at least not enough for solar power to satisfy our energy wants and needs.

Wind power, on the other hand, is everywhere, and it doesn’t break for the season. The WERZ board’s report —prepared by the Lansing-based Public Sector Consultants along with the Michigan State University Land Policy Institute, and funded by the Michigan Public Service Commission with support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation — reports that Michigan ranks 14th of the 50 states in its wind power capacity potential and that the state could “experience significant commercial wind energy development” in the years to come.

Ever since Michigan passed Public Act 295 late last year — known as the “Clean, Renewable and Efficient Energy Act” — WERZ has studied which regions of the state boast the highest wind energy harvest potential. It identified four regions: the west coast of Allegan County in southwestern Michigan, Antrim and Charlevoix counties northeast of Traverse City, an area including parts or all of five counties along Lake Huron in the thumb of Michigan … and Region 3, which includes western Benzie County and part of Manistee County to the south and almost all of Leelanau County — our home.

The industrial thumb region already boasts two commercial wind ventures — Harvest Wind Farm LLC and Michigan Wind I — which went live last year and currently provide 122 megawatts of energy, or 94 percent of the state’s installed wind energy capacity. WERZ estimates that the thumb region could host between 1,578 and 2,824 one-and-a-half-megawatt wind turbines, generating as much as 12 million megawatt hours of energy per year.

Leelanau County’s rolling hills and orchards along Lake Michigan also boast promising wind potential. The WERZ board estimated that between 435 and 778 turbines could be erected in Region 3, which includes Leelanau County, and they would supply between 2 million and 3.5 million megawatt hours per year to the region and beyond — making us energy independent while putting money in our coffers when the excess energy is sold back to the grid.

But unlike the thumb, our neck of the woods is a beautiful tourist destination, known around the state and the world for its dunes, forests and beaches, its wildlife, wineries and National Park. Anyone who has walked or biked her scenic roads, or sat with an easel and brush in one of her meadows, will have an opinion on whether 80-meter-high (over 262 feet) wind turbines ought to appear in her midst — in the name of sustainable energy.

And therein lies opposition to industrial-scale wind farms, even if that argument borders on a “not in my backyard” sentiment.

“Too large, too industrial”

JT Hoagland, chairperson of the Leelanau Economic Development Corporation, personally opposes “big wind” because, he says, we live in a largely seasonal/tourist area, whereas the “beets and beans (produced in the thumb of Michigan) are not a tourist draw … and it’s closer to markets like Detroit.”

“Personally, if I don’t want to see condos on the hills, it’s hard to support wind,” Hoagland wrote to the Glen Arbor Sun. “I try to be consistent.”

Tim Johnson, chairperson of the planning commission in Centerville Township, in the heart of the county, remembers when a company called Noble Environmental Wind Power released a study in 2005 that advocated wind turbines running through Centerville Township and up the spine of the county. A majority of citizens who turned out at public meetings opposed the idea, he says.

“People thought it was too large, too industrial,” says Johnson. “Their biggest concern was size and appearance, and the noise associated with them. People were worried they’d devalue the property values. And they were concerned about migratory birds dying.”

Noble’s initiative, Johnson recalls, was perceived as a big corporation coming in, installing giant windmills, turning local land into an industrial site, and then leaving town with the profits.

Centerville’s planning commission has since drafted legislation to regulate wind energy — legislation that would likely stop industrial-sized turbines but allow smaller windmills that could power individual homes.

“Folks who turned out were in favor of renewable energy,” Johnson says. “But I personally have reservations about 400-foot windmills.”

Johnson, himself, has a 70-foot windmill and solar panels on his property, which combine to generate 90 percent of the energy he uses. (The Glen Arbor Sun has printed numerous stories lately about Leelanau County residents — such as Allan Fici and Sun co-editor Mike Buhler — who’ve taken it upon themselves to install windmills or solar panels to generate their own energy.)

The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore — the local branch of the National Park Service — weighed in when Centerville drafted its legislation against large wind turbines, primarily expressing concern for the safety of migratory birds and endangered species such as the Piping Plover.

“Fifty percent of the Great Lakes species fly through here annually,” says the Park’s Deputy Superintendent Tom Ulrich. “We wouldn’t want the Plovers flying into wind turbine blades.”

Wind worth considering

But Jim Lively, program director of the Leelanau Smart Growth Coalition for the Michigan Land Use Institute, doesn’t think that the public has given wind turbines a fair shake since the June 2 WERZ report and since a front-page story ran in the Enterprise on July 1, which largely dismissed support for “big wind” and generated a flurry of letters to the editor.

“I think this is worth talking about,” says Lively, a Burdickville resident. “We’re not necessarily on board saying that we want the biggest wind farms in Leelanau County, but this is something we should talk about from a bigger perspective. I’ve honestly heard input stating that (industrial-sized windmills) are good policy, but that it’s too pretty for them in Leelanau County.”

To argue in favor of wind power over other, destructive forms of harvesting energy, Lively cites a website called ILoveMountains.org, where the viewer can see live Google Earth images of mountaintops being stripped in West Virginia for coal.

“We think it’s pretty here, and we can watch the devastation happening in those mountains, while we sit in air-conditioned homes watching our flat-screen TVs. We should at least think about wind power, because we’ve got it here.”

“Of course the drawbacks (to wind turbines) are legitimate questions to address, just as global climate change is legitimate to address,” Lively continues. “And we have a moral obligation to think about how we can help the cause of renewable energy.”

The Michigan Land Use Institute views the ability of an individual township to stop wind turbines, such as the case with Centerville Township, as potentially problematic. “The institute’s position is that there ought to be room for statewide regulation as well,” says Lively. “Local zoning can’t be the only thing.”

Lively also views wind power as compatible with agriculture — Leelanau County’s original occupation, and still the livelihood of many farmers in places like Centerville Township. Every township has an agricultural area, he says, but in actuality they are also residential.

“If people live in agricultural areas, they should realize there will be tractors and other noises, including wind. We think that agricultural districts should allow wind energy as a use by right.”

Community-sized wind energy

The Empire Renewable Energy Committee embraces community-sized wind turbines, though not on the scale of what WERZ has proposed. Executive Director Liana May considers turbines similar to the 150-foot Vestas tower on M-72, west of Traverse City, as a “happy medium between huge wind turbines and windmills at every house.”

“We’re interested in developing community wind energy tailored to the needs of our individual community,” she says. “In Empire, we’d like to see our energy come from a more sustainable source.”

As locations, May says the Committee is exploring several farmer-owned fields east of Empire high enough to catch the wind but set back far enough from town that they wouldn’t be directly visible from National Park overlooks, the beach, or Empire itself. She says that several farmers are very interested in hosting windmills, because this could mean an added source of revenue for them, and they could continue to maintain their fields.

Two active wind turbines, May believes, would be adequate to power Empire.

But the Committee’s initiative in development faces a roadblock in an Empire Township height limit of 40 feet. The Committee is attempting to build community support for the project and may apply to the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the “stimulus” American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for funds before hurdling that legal barrier.

“It’s important to convey that you don’t have to develop giant wind farms,” says May. “They don’t have to be owned by people who don’t live here, and you don’t have to ship (the energy) downstate. We can use our own resources and improve our standards of living without hurting the land.”

When discussing the prospect of industrial-sized wind turbines, local politics and attitudes always come into play. It’s important to note that the WERZ study and feasibility of wind farms in Leelanau County is based on natural wind energy potential and not on local political conditions, including zoning, public policies, land use, community support or opposition, costs associated with transporting energy to the electrical grid or to consumers and economic factors. The study states that WERZ doesn’t necessarily endorse or advocate for wind development in these regions — it is simply “identifying the regions with the highest wind energy potential.”

But whether or not wind turbine proponents and renewable energy advocates are able to garner popular support, we can’t deny the massive energy potential all around us — it’s blowin’ in the wind.

“It’s nice to know that Leelanau County has something to offer besides sand dunes and cherry orchards,” concludes the Michigan Land Use Institute’s Jim Lively. “We’ve got some of the best wind power in the Midwest, and we can’t ignore that resource.”