CEDAR CITY - Iron County amended its zoning ordinance on wind energy systems and facilities during a meeting Monday, establishing definitions and regulations with some help from experts in the renewable energy industry.

By shaping the ordinance around the suggestions of industry experts, officials said they hope to make it easier for wind farmers to make the most out of their systems, while making sure generators and towers adhere to the desires of the county.
Under the new ordinance, taller towers will be allowed, commercial systems will operate under different design standards than small residential systems and multiple-unit systems will be allowed on lots of 20 acres or more.

Systems will also be subject to safety standards, sound restrictions, screening and landscaping specifications and other requirements.

"We wanted to make sure we do it right," said Reed Erickson, county planner.

As the debate roars over building more coal-fired power plants, local advocates for renewable energy say resources like wind are the way of the future, and the detailed ordinance is a sign that local leaders are paying attention.

"We need to get away from the coal," said Tom Willsey, who uses solar and wind equipment to power his home near Three Peaks. "I don't care how clean they say they are, they're still going to pollute the air."

Willsey, who had his 64-foot tall wind tower installed in 2003, said energy costs

are relatively low in Utah today, but they are on the rise, and renewable energy sources will only become more important.

"I don't have a power bill, and I don't have any outages," he said.

To build the body of the ordinance, county officials worked with local energy companies, representatives from state energy programs and other experts.

"I thought this is a good sign, because it means this is becoming a more accepted practice," said Gerald Whipple, president of Solar Unlimited, a company that sells, services and installs renewable energy equipment in Southern Utah.

According to studies, wind blows in Cedar City 49 percent of the time at an

average of 13 mph. While the stop-and-start gusts associated with Iron County haven't historically been considered ideal conditions for wind farming, new technologies enable the area to be much more productive, Whipple said.

"I think you're going to see a huge increase over the next 10 to 15 years," he said. "The biggest obstacle for renewable energy is a lack of understanding."

The price to get up and running on a wind generator has also been cost prohibitive. The price for a unit that can withstand the strong Iron County winds and stay productive is typically between $15,000 and $20,000, although Whipple said new units that cost as low as $8,000 could be just as productive.

Energy users who consume large amounts of energy and have the capacity to use wind power will be much better off long-term with a wind generator, Whipple said.

Additional incentives, such as tax credits and state and federal grant monies, also help to make it economically viable to produce wind power.

There is an up-front cost, Whipple said, but as energy costs rise, renewable systems take less time to pay off.