When Gerry Greenfield received an old surplus wind generator and steel tower from a friend in Tehachapi, Calif., his only cost was the drive.

Back in his Finley home's front yard, Greenfield, a retired radio engineer, fixed the blades, assembled the tower, installed guide wires to stabilize it and plugged the generator into the Benton PUD grid.

For the past two years, the windmill has been producing a small amount of electricity. Greenfield, 58, who lives on a fixed-income and relies on Social Security, said it saves him about $33 per month on his utility bill.

"It may not seem like much to someone else, but to me it's a lot," he said.

Besides, he's a proponent of renewable energy.

He has the blessing of Benton PUD and even got help from the utility's engineers in setting up the system.

However, Benton County officials want Greenfield to take down the 78-foot tower because he didn't get the appropriate permits and it violates several building codes, including a restriction that doesn't allow towers taller than 60 feet.

The county received a complaint about the tower and possible code violations, and Greenfield said he thinks it comes from a neighbor who didn't like the whirring noise it sometimes makes in high winds.

"The neighbor's dogs make more noise than my wind generator," he said.

But on Monday, Greenfield complied with Benton County's order, turned off the power and gently brought down the tower.

Gary Brenner, code enforcement officer with the county planning and building department, said Greenfield can have the tower and generator but must start the permitting process and follow the appropriate codes.

The building code states that structures such as Greenfield's tower must be as many feet away from his property line as they are tall. The base of his tower had been 36 feet from his property line. Greenfield plans to rebuild. In fact, he intends to build a second windmill.

In his garage lay more blades for a more efficient wind generator. It could produce the maximum amount of electricity allowed by law, 25 kilowatts at any one time.

Greenfield's past generator typically produced between 1 and 10 kilowatts. A normal house draws between 5 and 10 kilowatts at any given moment.

Greenfield said he tells people that someday, he would like to see homes equipped with at least one mass-produced, efficient, quiet, small wind generator propped up on the roof.

"Imagine if everyone had a little 300-watt wind generator," he said. "You know how much energy that would save? How many houses that would light?"

However, there's a problem. Another restriction Benton County has adopted for land like Greenfield's in an agricultural protection zone district says a wind generating tower must not exceed 60 feet.

Greenfield said he would gladly go through the permitting process, but because county code doesn't allow for his tower's height, "it wouldn't do any good."

"The county didn't do proper research," he said. "Wind towers come in the standard size of 60 feet and with the blades, the height exceeds that limit, making it impossible to have a tower. They've effectively coded me out of my hobby."

Mike Shuttleworth, a county senior planner, said the code was adopted in October 2001 after several public comment periods during which no one spoke on the issue.

The height limit was chosen because a court case at the time required that communication towers, such as ham radio towers, be limited at 65 feet, Shuttleworth said.

The Washington State Environmental Policy Act, or SEPA, also exempts towers 60 feet or smaller from triggering an environmental review process.

Shuttleworth said if the code allowed for higher towers, the applicant also would have to go through the SEPA checklist.

Greenfield said he will continue to urge the county to change its rules and is willing to go through any steps as long as he can use the wind generator.

He also supports new legislation allowing a wind generation towers as tall as his. House Bill 1021 would have changed the law to allow for wind generator towers to be no more than 80 feet, but the bill was never voted on during the legislative session earlier this year.

Steve Hunter, Benton PUD director of engineering, said Greenfield was the first in the county and possibly the first in the state to use the new Net Metering Law, which allows private individuals throughout the state to set up wind generating towers and plug into a local utility company.

"This is still the only one we have on our system," Hunter said. "At first, it was an interesting thing, we had a process to go through."

Hunter said the PUD now is set up to help those who want to install their own wind generators.

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Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News