Concerns over "flicker vertigo," property values and flight paths for crop dusters were raised by area residents who voiced their objection Thursday to the proposed Black Prairie wind farm east of the Twin Cities. Horizon Wind Energy LLC is seeking a special use permit to locate about 333 turbines in Towanda, Blue Mound, Martin and Anchor townships, north of Illinois 9. ...After taking testimony for more than four hours, the zoning board continued the hearing until November. A date had not been announced as of The Pantagraph's press time.

Before anyone in Walnut signs any deals with any wind farm company, a forum will be held Sunday to discuss how commercial turbines could impact the community, one organizer said. Rockford-based environmental lawyer Rick Porter is scheduled to talk about the long-term effects wind farms can have. Porter is the attorney representing 39 DeKalb residents suing to block a 151-turbine wind farm that straddles the DeKalb/Lee county border.

A newly activated subcommittee of the Macon County Board voted 6-0 Tuesday evening to pass along two revised ordinances to the board's Environmental, Health, Education and Welfare Committee. The Siting, Rules and Ordinance Subcommittee first approved changes to an ordinance governing the siting and construction of wind energy conversion systems.

The McLean County Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a third public hearing Thursday on Horizon Wind Energy's request for a special-use permit to build an expansion of the Twin Groves Wind Farm expected to cost in excess of $400 million. The hearing, the first opportunity for opponents of the permit to give testimony, will be at 7 p.m. at the county's Government Center, 115 E. Washington St. Two more hearings for permit foes may be scheduled for 7 p.m. Nov. 9 and 10, also at the Government Center.

Construction resumed Monday north of Ohio on the Big Sky wind farm, which may be operational by next winter. The wind farm's approaching completion has implications on the question of closing Ohio High School, although opinions differ on whether the money generated by the wind farm can solve the district's problems.

Woodford County is on the verge of losing $566,000 in wind farm building permit fees next year because of the failure to negotiate road agreements with Gamesa/Navitas. The Zoning Board of Appeals earlier approved special use permits for the Minonk and Roanoke wind farms, and they will come before the County Board when road agreements with the county and townships involved are completed.

Top Crop Wind Farm will start construction on Phase 2 of its Grundy County project this coming spring. The move comes on the heels of municipal approval Wednesday to reconfigure some portions of the Enterprise Zone - which extends east from Ottawa in La Salle County to Morris in Grundy County - to afford Top Crop a sales tax break on building materials.

It's all about location, location, location when it comes to Vermilion County's position in the wind farm industry. The county is already the site of four planned wind farm projects stretching from one in the southeast corner to three more along the western side. Most of Illinois - as well as the majority of Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Michigan and Wisconsin - rate in only the second lowest category as far as annual wind speed is concerned, turning in a speed range of between 5 ½ and 6 ½ meters per second.

Dressed in warrior robes and helmet, Tom Kapraun raised his staff to the east. He was "tilting at windmills," he said, in classic Don Quixote style. Kapraun, of Lee, was one of about 30 people who were protesting Saturday about a wind farm company's desire to build six turbines in the village's jurisdiction, despite village leaders denying the developer's application.

The Winnebago County Board overwhelmingly passed an ordinance Thursday night that will allow the location of wind farms in the county. The 27-1 vote was the culmination of six months of work that began when officials from Minnesota-based Navitas Energy started looking at a potential wind farm site near Seward and discovered that Winnebago County had no ordinance to allow wind turbine construction.

Acciona Energy officials say phases two and three of their northwest Illinois wind farm project are still in development, and that Stephenson County likely would not receive revenue from these phases until at least 2011. "These projects are not going to be starting construction in 2009," said Eric Schneider, director of marketing and communications for Acciona Energy. "Even if construction were to start in 2010, they would not be completed and generating revenue that year. ... Revenue probably won't come in until 2011 and beyond."

KU and sister company Louisville Gas and Electric Co. plan to purchase wind power from the breezy prairie of northern Illinois to help meet what they expect will be federal requirements to increase their use of renewable energy. Last month, they asked the Kentucky Public Service Commission for permission to add a "renewable resource clause" to customer bills so they can recover the costs of the pricier wind power and transmission.

New jobs and noise - both seen as byproducts of wind farms - were discussed Tuesday as a hearing on a proposed, 333-turbine project in eastern McLean County continued for a second day. Horizon Wind Energy LLC is seeking a special-use permit from McLean County for Black Prairie Wind Farm, which would be built north of Illinois 9. Horizon owns the 240-turbine Twin Groves Wind Farm, which is across Illinois 9 from the Black Prairie site.

A request for a new wind farm that would be larger than the existing Twin Groves Wind Farm is under review by the McLean County Zoning Board of Appeals. The hearing began Monday night at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts and will continue at 6 p.m. today at the BCPA, 600 N. East St. Horizon Wind Energy LLC is seeking a special-use permit to build its Black Prairie Wind Farm.

Winnebago County Board members are set to put an end to what turned into several months of intense lobbying by unions, environmental groups and others when they vote Thursday night on an ordinance to allow wind farms in the county. Most of the details - such has how far back a wind turbine should be from a property line - have been worked out and agreed upon by most everyone involved.

As the nation moves to find more energy efficient ways to use resources, surrounding counties are deciding if a 100-turbine wind farm would be a step in the right direction. Winnebago County currently doesn't have an ordinance allowing or restricting the use of wind farms. A proposal by Navitas Energy Corp. was submitted in April and is the first wind farm plan to go before the northern Illinois county board.

Even though some of 151 wind turbines planned for DeKalb and Lee counties have already been built, citizens who oppose the project are confident they can still halt construction. "If we indeed prevail, and in our opinion, we will ... they will be stopped from ever turning (the turbines) on and will be asked to remove them," said Rick Porter, attorney for a 39-person group known as the Citizens for Open Government. On July 21, the group filed a lawsuit against all 24 DeKalb County board members, and Florida Power & Light Energy Illinois Wind LLC.

An attorney representing the Bureau County Board has released details of a dispute over a road agreement the county claims a wind farm company has failed to honor. Earlier this week, the county board voted to take legal action, in an apparent attempt to force Iberdrola Renewables Inc. to agree to assessed road damage linked to the company's work on Providence Heights wind farm in rural Tiskilwa.

Officials here are looking at harnessing the wind to help provide power to residents. A number of Geneva officials, both elected and city staff, attended a meeting last week dedicated to providing information about a project to build a power wind farm in Rochelle. The eight-turbine farm, scaled down significantly from the 100-acre farm originally proposed, would not be built until 2011.

In other news, a proposed wind farm ordinance was on the floor for discussion during the board’s Oct. 8 meeting. But because of changes crafted the same day, which most board members were seeing for the first time, some were uneasy about putting the ordinance to a vote. Zoning Officer Troy Krup assured the board the intentions of the Zoning Board of Appeals and Zoning Committee had been maintained through the changes, but others weren’t so sure.