Matt Thomas is a car dealer who co-owns several Thomas Sales & Service dealerships in Central Oregon. He's also a wind-power advocate, with hopes of erecting four small windmills on the 320 acres he owns between Bend and Tumalo where he plans to build a home.

He's prepared a site and purchased his first turbine. But due to Deschutes County code, his turbine plans are coming up short.

As renewable energy projects are encouraged by government mandates and tax breaks and as they gain mainstream acceptance, they are increasingly running into obstacles from unlikely sources, said Rich Stimmel, with the American Wind Energy Association in Washington, D.C. For small wind projects - windmills like Thomas' that produce 100 kilowatts or less - the No. 1 obstacle is local zoning codes, Stimmel said.

The minimum height Thomas' turbine can operate at and still generate electricity (wind speed increases farther from the ground) is 33 feet. That's 3 feet over the county's height restriction for structures, which is what a windmill is considered, according to county planner Anthony Raguine.

County code allows exceptions for structures up to 36 feet tall, but an exception requires approval from the county's planning department and an $815 application fee, Raguine said. Thomas hasn't applied with the county for an exception because he wants to go even higher - to 41 feet - so his windmill operates at maximum efficiency. That would be impossible without a change in the county code, Raguine said.

Thomas could apply to change the code with a text amendment to the county's Comprehensive Plan, but - as Raguine outlined - that would require Thomas to pay an application fee of between $2,875 and $3,920 (depending on whether the proposed amendment conflicted with state statutes); draft language for the amendment; submit it for review by the planning department; then face public hearings before the department and the Deschutes County Commission.

That's too much, said Thomas, who's also convinced his efforts to build the windmills will face costly scrutiny from land use groups.

He noted that support structures for telephone and power transmission lines are not subject to the county's height restrictions.

"A utility could string power in here on 45-foot poles with no problem, but to put in a pole shorter than that to generate power, it's a ... nightmare," Thomas said.

Archaic fuels

Stimmel said municipal height restrictions are often archaic regulations based on the height that water from a firefighter's hose can reach. But Stimmel also chalked up wind power's conflicts with local zoning codes to a changing world.

"Lots of times, it's unfamiliarity with small wind needs," he said.

In March, Kent Whiteaker, of Alfalfa, erected a 36-foot windmill after becoming the first Deschutes County resident to get approval for such a structure.

Because Thomas has not applied with the county to erect his windmill, Deschutes County commissioners Tammy Melton and Mike Daly were unfamiliar with his situation when contacted Wednesday by The Bulletin. But both agreed that the county's Comprehensive Plan, which dates from the 1970s, needs to be reviewed to address windmills.

"The county code was written without knowledge of renewable energy and windmills, so I think this is something we need to look at," Daly said.

Said Melton, "We have changed in so many ways that I just can't believe we are working from such an archaic document, and next year we will be working on a Comprehensive Plan review. I definitely feel we ... need to take a leadership role in renewable energies; so, for me, I hope that's something put into the update."

Erin Johnston, the renewable energy project manager for Energy Trust of Oregon, said that for all of government's talk about renewable energies, it's been a struggle to get actual projects in place. Zoning is a statewide issue, she said, noting that the Association of Oregon Counties has applied for a federal grant to study the different county zoning regulations in the state with hopes of developing a model ordinance that could be adopted by each county.

"The small wind industry is so new in Oregon, there are roadblocks both known and unknown, and it's my personal hope ... that as more systems are installed and as the market matures, some of these obstacles will be overcome," Johnston said.

Wind power

Wind power currently accounts for 1 percent of the nation's energy production but could reach 20 percent by 2030, according to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Energy, with resulting reductions in the consumption of natural gas and coal by 11 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

Wind farms, with their giant turbines, are the most visible signs of the growth of wind power, but the fastest-growing sector in wind power is the much smaller, residential-scale market, Stimmel said. Residential-scale windmills produce 2 to 10 kilowatts of energy.

One kilowatt (kW) equals 1,000 watts, and one kilowatt-hour (kWh) is one hour of using electricity at a rate of 1,000 watts, according to an online primer about electricity at www.ucsusa.org. According to the federal Energy Information Administration, U.S. homes use an average of 920 kilowatt-hours per month.

As an example of generating capacity, Thomas' windmill, a Skystream 3.7, can produce between 1.8 and 2.4 kilowatts, depending on wind speed, which constantly varies. Theoretically, at 1.8 kilowatts, the Skystream could produce roughly 1,300 kilowatt-hours a month. However, because of wind's inconsistency, Johnston said, a more likely scenario is that it would produce from 2,500 to 3,000 kilowatt-hours a year.

Stimmel said residential-scale turbines were often manufactured to power an off-grid home, as the power generated by the windmill was stored in batteries. Newer models, he said, make it easier for the windmill to plug into the electrical grid, allowing the windmill's owner to sell electricity back to the utility.

For all the growth in wind power, Stimmel said, the startup costs can still be high. What is crucial for the market's continued growth, he said, are tax breaks and incentives for manufacturers and users.

On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to extend renewable tax breaks, including a tax credit of 30 percent of the cost of purchasing a small wind turbine. The bill, the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008, still needs approval from the Senate.

Alan Guggenheim, spokesman for Central Electric Cooperative in Redmond, the utility that would buy the unused power from Thomas' windmill, said CEC supports small power generation projects like Thomas'. Guggenheim said the utility has 30 net-metering accounts - which earn credits for feeding electricity back to the grid - and that it modified some of its policies last week for net metering and its safety concerns to make it easier to establish such accounts.

"Every one of these little things is a hurdle, and the more of these technical hurdles we can eliminate or lower, the better, so we encourage this," Guggenheim said.

Thomas' property

Thomas' 320 acres east of Bend is in a rural forest zone and sits on land that was formerly Crown Pacific's Bull Springs Tree Farm. He bought the property in 2000, hoping to build a house, but he said he has been stymied by land use appeals from environmental groups.

Nevertheless, he is continuing with his plans, which include digging a large pond that can be accessed by land and air by firefighters. To get water to the pond, Thomas drilled a 450-foot well. He wanted to use the windmill to provide the pump with electricity, but he ended up paying CEC to extend service to his pump house so he could have the pond ready this summer.

To help him install the windmill, Thomas hired Dennis Patrick, a Bend electrician who specializes in windmills. Patrick is a proponent of vertical-axis windmills, which spin vertically like a barber pole. A propeller turbine spins on a horizontal axis.

Again citing bureaucratic hurdles, Patrick said vertical-axis turbines aren't yet certified in the state.

That's because manufacturers have yet to send their specifications to the state for certification, according to Johnston.

Regardless, Patrick is happy to put up Thomas' turbine, when they get the chance. Thomas painted the turbine's three blades green and plans to paint its base brown to blend it into the surrounding forest. Eventually, he'd like to add more.

"I can do something on a smaller scale to more than offset my carbon footprint," Thomas said. "For me, it just makes sense to capitalize on this."

Patrick, chiming in, said small wind is the future.

"The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind," he said.

How high is too high?

• Deschutes County limits the height of most structures to 30 feet. The county's planning department can approve exceptions up to 36 feet tall, but that requires an application fee of $815.

• Residential windmills, while on a smaller scale than wind farms, constitute the fastest-growing sector of the market. Deschutes County resident Matt Thomas' windmill, a Skystream 3.7 - like the 33-foot tower pictured at left in Sandy Lake, Pa. - could produce between 2,500 to 3,000 kilowatt-hours a year, depending on wind speed, which constantly varies. Because wind speed increases farther from the ground, taller turbines can produce more wind power.

• Power companies sell energy in the form of kilowatt-hours. A kilowatt-hour is an amount of energy - for example, when you run a 1-kilowatt appliance for an hour, that signifies a kilowatt-hour of energy expended. American homes, on average, use 920 kilowatt-hours per month.