Former Colorado State University President Larry Penley garnered national headlines when he announced the plan March 29, 2007, declaring the CSU Green Power Project would be under construction in two years, providing all of the university's power needs and a valuable teaching tool. But today, the university's partner in the project has not yet requested the permits necessary to build the facility at Maxwell Ranch north of Fort Collins and is still determining how to get the power to CSU and other customers.

Despite its high-minded claims of providing research opportunities and powering the entire CSU campus, she contended, the Green Power Project actually is a massive commercial enterprise focused on raking in revenues. The claim of powering CSU is a sham unto itself, Milligan maintained, because it's impossible to deliver the wind farm power directly to the university. Instead, she noted, it will go to the substation where the power can be transported anywhere in the nation.

Danish company Vestas is catching some head wind. The world's largest wind-turbine maker on Wednesday said it might reduce jobs and scale back capital spending in Colorado and the United States, unless orders pick up, according to Bloomberg News. Vestas CEO Ditlev Engel said orders from the U.S. "came to a standstill" after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September tightened credit for wind energy developers.

U.S. Forest Service officials had a tour scheduled Wednesday afternoon to show off to journalists a pair of recently installed wind turbines. But they had to cancel the tour when 100 mph winds damaged one of the turbines Tuesday night. "We were kind of tickled" by the irony, acknowledged Maribeth Pecotte, a spokeswoman in the Forest Service's Boulder Ranger District office. ...The turbine project is costing the Forest Service $171,568 over a 15-year financing contract, Pecotte said.

Xcel Energy (XEL), the largest utility in Colorado, is trying to settle a case with the state over allegations that it oversold wind energy credits between 2005 and 2007. An administrative law judge is looking at the $2.6 million proposed settlement, reported the Associated Press. Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission said Xcel sold more credits for wind energy generation than what it actually produced from wind farms in its Windsource program.

Xcel Energy will use $2.6 million in shareholder money for a proposed settlement following a state investigation into the utility's voluntary wind- energy program. Under the pending agreement, Xcel will refund $1.6 million this year to Windsource customers and spend another $1 million to purchase renewable-energy credits that will ensure customers receive the alternative power for which they pay a premium price.

Xcel Energy oversold wind energy credits as far back as 2000 for a program in which customers voluntarily pay a premium for wind-generated power, according to an investigation by Colorado Public Utilities Commission staff. A settlement is looming related to Xcel's excess collections for the Windsource program from 2005 to 2007, which was disclosed earlier this week.

Xcel Energy overcollected more than $1.5 million from customers who voluntarily pay a premium for wind- generated electricity, according to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission staff. From 2005 to 2007, the state's largest utility sold credits for more green power than it generated at the wind farms in its Windsource program. Xcel knew it would have a production shortfall in the program but "failed to act".

The city of Durango is pulling the plug on green power because of problems with green -- or money. ...The La Plata Electric Association charges 80 cents more per 100 kilowatt hours for electricity from solar and wind power. LeBlanc says that adds $45,000 to the city's annual electric bill.

The state needs to come up with nearly 5,000 megawatts of electricity to satisfy the needs of the state by 2025 ...Northeast Colorado has been rightly billed as a wind energy mecca. The problem is wind energy cannot be the end-all, according to Sonnenberg. Supporting a statement made earlier by CREA Executive Director Ray Clifton, Sonnenberg said wind energy resources are available only 10 to 35 percent of the time. "Even if we estimate liberally, we still will not meet the 4,500 megawatts by 2025," he said.

Despite the recession, Denver oilman Philip Anschutz is moving ahead with his Wyoming wind farm project. ..."Nothing has really changed. We're still pursuing the transmission line and the wind farm," said Jim Monaghan, an Anschutz spokesman. "There's no change in our plans."

Xcel Energy has asked regulators to increase the amount it can charge consumers to help recover the cost of renewable-energy generation. ...If approved, the increase would take effect Jan. 1 and increase typical residential bills by 33 cents a month.

A Sunday morning leak in a paint thinner pipe at the Vestas Blades paint building allowed about 20 to 30 gallons of the flammable material to be spilled. ...The spill is believed to be the first of its kind at the $60 million wind turbine blade manufacturing plant located on an 80-acre site in the Great Western Industrial Park.

Colorado ranks fourth nationwide when it comes to solar and geothermal resources and 11th in terms of wind power generation potential, according to online Renewable Energy World. It also has untapped hydroelectric and biomass resources. ...The Grand County planning commission is reviewing the allowable height of wind turbine towers. Currently, the county height restriction allows for a tower of 35 feet. Guy Larson of the Granby-based alternative energy solutions company Simply Efficient said "the taller the better," when it comes to harnessing wind power.

Details about Colorado State University's proposed wind farm should surface soon as the university proceeds toward applying for the necessary county permits early next year. That wind farm could include as many as 100 turbines constructed in or near CSU's 9,000-acre Maxwell Ranch property some 25 miles northwest of Fort Collins near the Colorado-Wyoming border.

Bats, not birds, might be more at risk from a wind tower at the top of the Snowmass ski area, according to a local forest service official. The blades of three potential turbines the Aspen Skiing Co. and the Forest Service are considering placing up from the Big Burn chairlift could be more deadly to bats if the agencies are required to place a light on the tower for aviation purposes, according to Jim Stark, winter recreation supervisor for the White River National Forest. The light could attract insects and therefore bats, he said.

Representatives from the Public Service Company of Colorado updated the city's Planning, Economic Development and Redevelopment Policy Committee Aug. 28 on plans for the Pawnee/Smoky Hill Transmission Line, a channel that would enter Aurora from the east just south of Quincy Avenue and end at the Smoky Hill power substation near south Gun Club Road. ...The proposed 345-kilovolt line would replace the current 230-kilovolt line and would originate in rural northeast Colorado, drawing on wind and solar energy sources.

An experiment to gauge the viability of wind turbines at the top of Snowmass Ski Area is expected to begin by the end of August, according to the U.S. Forest Service. A 164-foot tower equipped with four anemometers is en route to Snowmass Village and will be placed at the top of the Big Burn to start gathering data on wind speeds ...Nearly everyone agrees that visual impacts should be minimized and that a full-blown wind farm with multiple turbines wouldn't be appropriate. Forest officials also want to keep turbines away from land designated as wilderness, where permanent human presence isn't allowed.

The wind turbine erected in Wray in February contained a lemon of a power converter that hasn't been able to deliver the promised kilowatts, says Ron Howard, the superintendent of the town's school district that had the clean-energy windmill installed. ...The turbine was praised at a news conference in April featuring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the congresswoman from San Francisco, and Leah Daughtry, chief executive of the Democratic National Convention Committee, as an example of what carbon credits purchase.

The eastern Colorado wind turbine tapped for the Democratic National Convention's carbon-offset program has one problem: It doesn't generate any electricity. Convention organizers are now being questioned for their eagerness to market those credits to delegates. ...Despite the fact the wind turbine does not produce energy, that hasn't stopped the district from cashing in on the project. In addition to the carbon credits sold to the DNC and others through NativeEnergy, Howard says the district receives downtime compensation from Americas Wind Energy, Inc., the firm that built the apparatus. "The money that we're making isn't necessarily coming from production," he said.