NEWS

Murrieta resident seeks to install wind turbine on her property

The Californian
January 19, 2008
www.nctimes.com
By: NELSY RODRIGUEZ - Staff Writer

MURRIETA -- The watchful eyes of a red-tail hawk glare at Diana Hofman from behind the soft-netting containment on her 2.5-acre lot against the Santa Rosa Plateau. A gust of wind picks up ---- the hawk keeps its eyes locked on Hofman and her company as it descends to a lower branch. More wind stirs.

"That's why I named it Wind Canyon," Hofman, director of the Wind Canyon Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Murrieta, said of the chilled, blowing air. "Murrieta for the most part is not a windy city, but because of the location I'm in, I could take total advantage of the fact that every afternoon I have winds that run about 25 miles per hour."

Inside what she and her husband intend to be their retirement home, Hofman has switched all her incandescent light bulbs out with energy-saving ones. During the cold nights of late, their heater is set at 62 degrees. So it seemed a natural progression when the idea of wind power blew into her head.

"Not to say solar panels wouldn't work, but it would take so many solar panels," she said gazing around the sprawling perimeter of her property.

Yet when Hofman sent a packet of information about the 30-foot tall SkyStream wind generator with a 9-foot wingspan to the Murrieta Planning Department last month for direction on how to apply for a permit, the request was received with unfamiliarity.

"We don't have any development standards for wind generators," Assistant Planning Director Cynthia Kinser said in a phone interview Friday. "When solar technology first came out and everyone was commencing to utilize it, all the cities had to go through a process to see how to use it. Every time we have new technologies there's just the steps we have to go through."

Kinser said new concepts like these can be brought before the city in a couple of ways: a formal application can be submitted by an individual, or the City Council can perceive a general interest in the community and put the item on the city's ever-growing list of things to look into. The latter method could take an unknown amount of time, but the city would pick up the check. The former method is much quicker, but the cost of researching the issue is the responsibility of the individual.

This particular bill could be as much as $4,000, said Jorge Garcia, owner of Photovoltaic Technology in Temecula, the company trying to install the turbine in Hofman's yard. Garcia said he was taken aback when city planners told him he would have to pay for them to investigate the matter and establish regulations to issue future permits.

"Murrieta doesn't have any regulations for that so they don't want to do it and it's kind of hard to invest four grand when we don't know if it's going to get approved," he said.

The SkyStream wind turbine uses no batteries -- it begins spinning when wind speeds reach 8 mph or faster. It connects directly into a home's electrical system and, by converting the wind's kinetic energy into electricity, reduces or completely eliminates the house's use electricity from the power grid. According to the manufacturer's Web site, the SkyStream generates a minimum of 4,800 kilowatts of energy hours per year. One kilowatt could light one of Hofman's energy-saving 20-watt bulbs for 50 hours.

In accordance with state requirements for energy incentive programs, Garcia received a promise of a $4,000 rebate from the California Energy Commission to install Hofman's turbine ---- bringing her purchase and installation price down to about $8,500. Garcia and Hofman have until March to show proof to the state commission that the installation has been approved or they stand to lose the rebate.

Concerns about wind turbines include the disturbance to wildlife and the waves of base vibrations. Those are among other issues Kinser said the city would want to explore before approving an installation. But Mayor Rick Gibbs said the process of approving a permit shouldn't be as difficult as Hofman is finding it to be.

"Wind power doesn't sound like that unusual of an idea," said Gibbs, who was not familiar with Hofman's specific situation. "Certainly, this is not the first time that a local government or a county government has approached this."

That the city doesn't already have regulations in place is shocking enough to Hofman, let alone that she might bear the financial responsibility to establish the regulations.

"I'm just kind of blown away by the whole thing," she said. "In this day and age when alternate energy is becoming very important and the governor is calling on individual citizens to make the switch, the city should already have it on the books."