Navitas Energy has been dotting the northwestern Illinois landscape with wind turbines for six years. Now the company is looking to make a southwestern section of Winnebago County part of its next wind farm project. Problem is, until Navitas came knocking, county government never had a reason to figure out where wind farms should go, what they should look like or what restrictions should be placed on them.

When state Sen. Michael Noland and state Rep. Fred Crespo went to bat for wind power last year, they predicted a hard-fought battle against Illinois' electric utilities. They were right. The freshman state lawmakers and the more than 60 Illinois school districts that supported their efforts effectively lost that battle when a state House committee ...voted against sending their bill to the full House for a vote. ...Undeterred, three suburban school districts are considering a different strategy that would allow them to exploit wind power within the existing legal framework.

Three different companies are considering placing towering wind turbines on property leased from farmers and other Edgar County landowners. Indeck Energy Services, based in Buffalo Grove, is looking at potential turbine locations north of Kansas, while Eco Energy, based in Elgin, and Horizon Wind Energy, based in Houston, Texas, are looking at sites in northern Edgar County.

After hearing a litany of complaints about noise from angry neighbors of an industrial wind turbine, village trustees Tuesday promised to initiate a temporary moratorium at their next meeting on granting any more such permits until the noise problem is resolved. ...Sandra Cooper said she moved to the subdivision seeking peace and quiet. Instead, her ability to enjoy her home has been constantly sullied "by a most abusive sound" coming from the turbine.

Clean power is regarded as an exciting possibility, but few towns have ordinances on the books to regulate potential impacts, such as noise or flickering shadows. To avoid pitfalls, several towns have imposed moratoriums and about a dozen have teamed with the county in a task force to study issues surrounding wind power.

The Town Council voted in favor of a three-month ban on wind energy development Monday after a public hearing on the measure. The move came on the heels of a six-month moratorium on wind energy facilities that ran out this month. The first ban was meant to prevent development while the Planning Board reviewed the portion of the town's zoning law that regulates wind energy generation facilities at the Town Council's request.

A request for an injunction to stop construction of a wind farm has yet to be heard in DeKalb County court as lawyers seek a way for an out-of-county judge to hear their case. Attorneys for Citizens for Open Government asked Presiding Judge Kurt Klein to assign a circuit judge from outside the county to the case. The 16th Judicial Circuit includes DeKalb, Kane and Kendall counties.

Residents living near a recently installed wind turbine in Libertyville will continue to fight what they say is a harmful presence in their neighborhood. Members of Citizens for the Protection of Libertyville, a grass roots group centered east of where the turbine is located, are scheduled to address the village board today regarding the 120-foot structure at Aldridge Electric Inc., 844 Rockland Road. "Our goal is to get them to rescind those special ordinances designed for Aldridge and start over again," said Dave Gates.

The District 300 school board approved a pilot all-day kindergarten program ...The money - an estimated $2 million a year after six years - made from the wind farm would be used to offset the district's energy costs. ...But board member Monica Clark questioned whether it is too good to be true.

It is also an emerging technology that few Lake County officials know much about, or know how much to trust. According to some, electricity-generating windmills are becoming less like the gargantuan eyesores most are familiar with, and more like the aesthetic afterthoughts that suburbanites would be comfortable to live with. A small, quiet, discreet windmill can cut owners' electricity bills and punch their tickets onto the green bandwagon -- if it indeed works as advertised.

A group of DeKalb County residents is suing the county over a wind farm that is set to be erected this year. County Planner Paul Miller announced the lawsuit, filed Tuesday by about three dozen people belonging to the anti-wind farm group Citizens for Open Government, to the county's planning and zoning committee, which met Wednesday.

In the name of transparency, the Woodford County Board on Tuesday tabled the vote that would have given Navitas Energy Inc. the special-use permits to build a 52-turbine Roanoke wind farm as well as a 100-turbine one in Minonk. The reason for that, said Larry Whitaker, who made the motion to table it for 30 days, was so that, "We can take this wind farm issue and take it out of these smoky township meetings and out into the open.

The Sugar Grove Village Board has slapped a moratorium on the installation of all wind energy devices within the village. The temporary ban began this month and is scheduled to expire in six months. Sugar Grove Village Administrator Brent Eichelberger said the moratorium should not be taken to mean that the village is opposed to the notion of wind energy generation.

The chairman of Woodford County's Conservation, Planning and Zoning Committee started Tuesday's meeting on an uncomfortable note when a resident asked him point-blank if he would resign. Vicky Kingdon, who read from a prepared statement, said Terry Pille should step down as a County Board member. She said he had a conflict of interest resulting from his involvement in a wind farm project in the county.

Residents of Benson say they are not opposed to having a wind farm in their community but would prefer them to be at least a mile and half outside the village limits. At a meeting of Woodford County's Conservation, Planning and Zoning Committee on Tuesday, a Village Board representative presented a letter asking the county to insert a 1.5-mile setback radius surrounding Benson to the wind farm permit.

Supporters of a requirement that turbines be at least a mile from "non-participants" in wind-farm developments estimate they have collected 450 signatures in support of the change in Sangamon County zoning rules. The developers of the first such farm in the county say the requirement would spell the end of the project. Cathy Bomke of Sangamon County Citizens for Wind Rights said Friday the group hopes to get a hearing as early as next month.

The Woodford County Zoning Board of Appeals has approved a special-use permit to allow Navitas Energy Inc. to move forward with a 52-turbine wind farm near Minonk and Benson.

Construction on a 100-turbine wind farm in the Carlock area is expected to start later this year. "We hope to start construction this year and be online by 2010," said Gina Wolf, director of business development for Invenergy of Chicago, which is developing the White Oak Energy Center. Ground grading is under way for a substation that will collect the wind turbine power and send it to the purchaser.

Village Board members unanimously approved an ordinance Tuesday night that puts a moratorium on construction of windmills, turbines and other energy-generating devices for a period of six months. The intent is not to prohibit construction of windmills and turbines permanently, but to give the village time to research their appropriateness in the village, board members and village staff said.

After neighbors reported a gravel road was being built without proper permits, a company that is building a wind farm in southwestern DeKalb County halted construction until it gets the required permits. ...Planning department staff ordered that the work stop, and the company readily complied.