Everything is bigger about wind energy these days. The towers are taller, and the rotating turbines have greater diameter. Leases to landowners are becoming more lucrative. But as "big wind" owned by utilities and merchant generators gets bigger, voices for "little wind" - people who want to build backyard generators or farmers unhappy about the effects of towers - are beginning to make themselves heard. ..."If you're a farmer and used to a quiet environment, a wind turbine changes everything," said Heide ...At a meeting last week in Malcom, Heide warned landowners about broken tiles, damaged roads and fences during turbine construction, and noise and shadows from rotating turbines.

MidAmerican Energy is developing a 100-turbine wind-power project in Carroll County that will stretch from just inside Carroll's two-mile limit to Breda. The $300 million turbine project started in recent days with the construction of access roads and other initial work, Tom Budler, Mid-American's general manager for wind power, said in an interview with the Daily Times Herald. MidAmerican plans to move swiftly on the project. "It will absolutely be on the line by the end of 2008," Budler said. ...Budler and other MidAmerican officials were in Carroll Monday for a city council meeting to discuss a proposed ordinance that would affect seven of the 100 turbines. Those seven would be in the jurisdiction of the city, and officials want more information about height, setbacks and possible impact on other development before any ordinance goes into effect.

Smith said that Horizon does not yet have a contract with any major provider to purchase the electricity produced. "We hope to have a contract soon, but if we don't by next spring, we will be a merchant power facility, selling our energy to a daily marker," said Smith. "This is a new concept for wind energy, but we expect it will grow and become common in the future as the United States reduces its dependence on foreign oil." The Iowa Utilities Board granted a regulatory waiver in February to Horizon Wind Energy to create its Pioneer Prairie Wind Farm in Howard and Mitchell counties.

"By itself, it cannot be the solution because wind by its nature is an intermittent source of power," said Bill Haman, industrial program manager and alternate energy revolving loan program manager for the Iowa Energy Center. "Therefore we as a society cannot rely on wind as our primary energy source, but it certainly can play a part as a piece of the solution when combined with both fossil and renewable sources."

Next week Acciona Windpower will begin construction work next week on its first wind turbine plant in the United States - in West Branch. The facility, to be built at the site of the old Sauer-Danfoss building, is expected to be operational by the end of the year. It represents an investment of $23 million and will produce 250 wind turbines in 2008 using in-house technology.

Acciona Windpower plans to cut employment by 58 at its West Branch facility in response to slackening demand for wind turbines. In a statement, Acciona said demand "is uncharacteristically low due primarily to instability in the financing markets." A total of 65 positions are being cut.

ORIENT - Landowners in Adair County may be better equipped to understand MidAmerican Energy's efforts to install wind turbines on their land. An informational meeting at Orient-Macksburg High School Thursday evening included presentations from Wind Turbine Specialist Tom Wind; Iowa State University Agriculture Law Professor Roger McEowen and MidAmerican Energy General Manager of Wind Development Tom Budler. Budler said there are five meteorological towers up in the area, which are being used to study the feasibility of installing wind turbines in Adair County. He said the studies, which began this month, should conclude by mid-August.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)--Alliant Energy plans to buy and develop a wind energy farm that could become the largest in Iowa, producing up to 200 megawatts of electricity. Key parts of the farm's wind turbines would be assembled at a factory in Cedar Rapids, according to the announcement April 25 by a Cedar Rapids-based division of Alliant. Alliant's plan is the second major Iowa wind energy project to be announced this month.

In 2010, Alliant Energy expects to ask for another rate increase to pay the costs of building its Whispering Willow Wind Farm in north central Iowa. "Raising rates right now, with the way the economy is, is something you would not want to do if you had your druthers," said Tom Aller, president of Alliant's Interstate Power & Light subsidiary, to The Gazette's editorial board.

The construction company, ICS of North Dakota, lifted the wind turbine rotor assembly, to which the blades attach, 246 feet high into place late yesterday afternoon. After it was lifted it was discovered the blades were not ‘feathered' or turned properly so they could not catch the wind. In the position the blades are in, the wind caught the blades causing them to spin. When this was discovered, the Bremer county sheriff's department was notified and all personnel were evacuated, including two homeowners who were outside of the recommended danger zone.

If you're a landowner and someone approaches you about placing a wind turbine on your property, are you getting the best deal possible? The best terms? And if the wind company should go belly up, who's going to pay to take down that 235-foot turbine? Those were some of the questions that attorney Scott Buchanan addressed at the second annual conference of the Iowa Wind Energy Association.

A group of municipal utilities, including the City of Ames, is exploring the feasibility of a new wind farm. A farm in northern Boone County could serve utilities across the state. ...Even thought the project is still in the initial stages people who live in the Ridgeport area are eager to learn the details of how the wind farm may change the landscape. Anne Long said, "I've heard stories of excessive noise, possible vibrations, the flashing strobe lights at night, the light reflecting off the blades so it's a concern or what's going to happen to our way of life out there."

Erie and Sherrard school districts in the Illinois Quad-City area are closer to being powered by wind energy.

FOREST CITY: Officials from Florida Power and Light explained details about a proposed string of heavy electric wires that would cross the area. The transmission line would carry power from a proposed wind farm near Crystal Lake to a power station south of Manly.

About 25 to 40 trucks are cruising Iowa's roads every day with oversized trailers hauling huge wind turbine towers, extraordinarily long blades and other equipment en route to wind energy farms under construction here and in other states, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation. ..."you get tower sections that are fourteen- and fifteen-feet wide and it becomes more difficult during the construction season to use the interstates."

The top executive of a Warren-based wind-turbine blade maker said the decision to build a new manufacturing facility in Iowa, rather than in Rhode Island, was based on that state's proximity to the market in which the blades will be used. The blades made by TPI Composites are typically 35 meters to 40 meters long, and can weigh 10,000 to 20,000 pounds each, said Steven C. Lockard, chief executive officer of the company. Transportation costs for these blades, which are typically shipped by truck, can run into the "tens of thousands" of dollars, he said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "In this case, there really wasn't an option for this particular factory to be located in Rhode Island," he said.

ESTHERVILLE, Iowa -- Al Blum has been involved in many economic development projects as president of the Estherville Industrial Development Corporation.

U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, said today that he is introduced a bill to extend the wind energy production tax credit until 2017. The current credit, which was extended last year, is set to expire at the end of 2009. Braley told reporters Thursday a long-term extension will create some certainty in the market and spur greater development.

... a coalition of local utilities is grappling with one of the thorniest challenges in the field of renewable power: how to store the excess energy windmills create when demand is low so it can be used later, when the need is greater. The group is building a system that will steer surplus electricity generated by a nearby wind farm to a big air compressor. Connected to a deep well, the compressor pumps air into layers of sandstone. Some 3,000 feet down and sealed from above by dense shale, the porous sandstone acts like a giant balloon. Later, when demand for power rises, this flow is reversed.

Officials from Florida Power and Light Energy have teamed with the manufacturer of wind turbines in an attempt to learn what started a fire that destroyed a turbine Oct. 3 at the Hancock County Wind Farm. ..."We have a large number of these units," said Florida Power and Light spokesman Steve Stengel. "It has never happened before, so we believe it is a very isolated incident."