Iberdrola Renewable Energies USA has filed three new conditional-use permit applications with the Ellis County Environmental Office, requesting permission to install three meteorological towers. The towers would be located in the southern portion of the previously proposed wind farm area. The towers would stand 60 meters tall, the same height as the tower installed to collect wind data in 2006, said Project Manager Krista Gordon. ...Wing said the submitted applications are incomplete, and that further information is needed. For example, the application is missing a list of the affected landowners, he said. "There's no way it's going to happen," Wing said of the Nov. 28 meeting. "They're incomplete."

...commission's Monday night meeting, where regulations on private wind turbines eventually were approved on a 6-0 vote. ...The new zoning code section sets out a series of steps that must be followed, such as having the site surveyed, rules limiting height to 200 feet, setbacks from property lines must be at least 1.5 times the height of the tower and generally limiting the number of turbines to one per 80 acres. Commissioners questioned a few provisions, including one requiring turbines be shut down during icy weather, with some saying that rule would be difficult to enforce. Koepsel said she'd read reports of 2.5 pound chunks of ice being thrown as far as 800 feet from turbine blades, so icy weather is a safety issue.

Countywide zoning, conditional-use permits and tower construction topped the Ellis County Commission agenda Monday morning. But for once, the discussion wasn't related to wind energy. Commissioners heard from opponents to construction of a 300-foot tall communications tower southeast of Victoria city limits. Commissioner Perry Henman said ... "The problem I see we're getting into is every time we have an industrial application," Henman said. "When we have a project deal, we don't have any problems with any of those. Once we have an outside or bigger industry wanting a conditional-use permit, we have this problem every time.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment recently sparked controversy around the country when it denied a permit for the expansion of a coal-fired power plant in its state. The plant, being proposed by Sunflower Electric Power, was denied because of carbon dioxide emissions concerns. During today's OnPoint, Jeff Holmstead, the former chief air official at the U.S. EPA and currently head of the environmental strategies group at Bracewell & Giuliani, explains why he believes the Kansas Department of Health and Environment had no legal basis for turning down the proposal for the permit. He also discusses why he thinks denying this project will negatively impact consumers and will have no significant impact in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

For the anti-nuke crowd, the storage pool's ghostly appearance hints at potential catastrophic fallout from reliance on an energy source with a waste stream so toxic it must be guarded for centuries. ...The nation's tolerance for atomic power is about to be tested by an industry intent on welcoming a new wave of nuclear plants and drowning memories of accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Legions of activists will surface to obstruct the flow of this nuclear gambit. The exchange is likely to spark a relapse into polarizing environmental, political and regulatory debates that dominated nuclear power's emergence at Wolf Creek and plants carrying the names Copper Station, Turkey Point, Vermont Yankee, Peach Bottoms, Beaver Valley, Comanche Peak and Grand Gulf. ...Stuart Lowry, a Topeka lawyer who works with power cooperatives and serves on the Kansas Energy Council, said he didn't need surveys to grasp that nuclear power had to play a larger role in the nation's energy future.

"It has almost become like a gold rush," said Sherry Kunka, Xcel Energy project director. "We have a long waiting list of developers seeking transmission access." ...The future of wind development depends on transmission lines that need to be built to take the power where it is needed because local needs are filled. One transmission plan would be just for wind energy headed for the rest of Texas. Another would take it to the grid that serves the eastern U.S. When Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment Roderic Bremby denied an air permit for two large coal generators near Dodge City, Kan., on Oct. 18, he may have put up a roadblock for sending power east, said Bob Bryant, president and general manager of Golden Spread Electric Cooperative.

Enjoy the wind, while it's still free. Next year, you'll be paying for it in your electric bill. While wind itself doesn't cost anything, buying, installing and maintaining the equipment to turn it into megawatts of electricity is expensive. In Kansas, the cost is likely to reach into the billions. Starting next year and for the next few years, you can expect to pay about $2 to $2.50 more a month on your Westar Energy bill as the company brings on line the first phase of its wind expansion plan. Overall, that 300 megawatts of wind power will increase the company's rates by $55 million in 2009, its first year of operation, according to documents filed with the Kansas Corporation Commission. The 20-year cost works out to $830 million, the documents show. ...The governor wants to increase the use of wind power to 20 percent by 2020. Assuming future wind projects have similar costs, Kansas consumers could end up paying about $4.8 billion over the next 20 to 30 years to meet those goals. ..."I have not been against development of any kind of alternative energy," said Rep. Don Myers, R-Derby, a 15-year veteran of the House Utilities Committee. But Myers and others say the biggest drawback of wind is that utilities using it will have to maintain conventional power plants to back it up on days when the winds are calm, usually in late summer.

Why is Kansas behind? The short answer: It's complicated, and thoughtful people disagree. Wind proponents say the state has provided little leadership, either through regulation or incentive. State officials say Kansas has been perceived as being anti-wind, which has encouraged citizens opposed to wind. Utilities insist they're embracing wind just as fast as they can. ...Many utilities maintain that adding any significant quantity of wind-powered generation will make the electric grid too unstable, because you never know when the wind will start blowing. Or stop. ..."They [wind turbines] could never, ever serve even one home," he said. That's because at some point the wind will stop but demand for electricity hasn't. ...in order to make this wind power available, Austin Energy had to line up a back-up source of electricity for nearly all its wind energy. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the electric grid in much of Texas, requires all utilities file an energy plan, every day, that shows how much electricity it expects its customers to use during every 15-minute period of the next day, and where it plans to get that power from. The 9 percent rule If the power source is a wind farm, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas counts only 8.7 percent of the farm's rated capacity. Never mind wind farms typically produce 20 percent to 40 percent of their rated capacity in the long term. What matters is the short term.

Midwest is doing what it can with renewable energy, such as wind. "Let's use what we can from renewables, but they're not the silver bullet," Helm said. Midwest has agreed to buy 25 megawatts of power from the Smoky Hill Wind Farm west of Salina, but if past performance is any indication, it will rarely get the full amount. When Midwest was purchasing power from the Gray County wind farm, it generally was getting only 8 megawatts of power anywhere from 35 percent to 40 percent of the time. "We never got the total amount we contracted for," Helm said.

The licensing agreement with a company that has proposed a wind energy farm in Cowley and Elk counties may be completed within the next month, according to Cowley County Administrator Leroy Alsup. The agreement sets the standards and specifications for construction and operation of the project, he said. Greenlight Energy, Inc. of Charlottesville, Va., constructed Kansas' largest wind farm in Butler County and applied to construct one in Cowley and Elk counties. The company has since been purchased by a subsidiary of British Petroleum, according to Alsup.

The uncivil war ignited by a request from Iberdrola Renewable Energies to build a 200-megawatt complex near Hays exposed deep gaps in thinking about wind power. Advocates pointed to a sustainable, free source of energy that didn't mirror a coal-fired plant's contributions to smog, acid rain, global warming and mercury poisoning. Critics responded that each $2 million turbine was an aesthetic irritant, complete with blinking night lights to warn aircraft. Property owners near the proposed site suggested land values would nose dive. ..."No one in their right mind can possibly consider this an environmentally beneficial development for a peaceful rural community," he [J.P. Michaud] said.

Unlikely bedfellows in the past, utilities are turning more often to environmental groups for advice on potential wind farm sites. ..."We do have a bit of a landrush sort of scenario going on right now without much to control it, Pollom said, "Wind energy in general really has no federal oversight, like you might see with conventional power plants, because you're not producing air emissions. You're not using water resources, and it's not regulated by the Kansas Corporation Commission." The only regulatory involvement is in a zoned county. But much of the state's rural western counties have no zoning, leaving citizens without a formal appeals process.

So far nobody has asked for permission to put up a wind farm in Saline County, but Vicki Koepsel, the county's planning and zoning director, said it's just a matter of time. "There are people who are interested," Koepsel told the Saline County Planning and Zoning Commission during a study session Monday night. The commission took a first look at proposed regulations for private and commercial wind generators, with an eye toward adopting final regulations by December.

At today's Ellis County Commission meeting, a motion to guarantee a moratorium on wind-energy developments within the county failed due to the lack of a second. The motion, which chairman Vernon Berens and commissioner Dennis Pfannenstiel opted not to second, was made by commissioner Perry Henman. Henman suggested a one-year moratorium, or until such time as the county would have a comprehensive zoning plan in place.

But as much wind as there is in Kansas, it shouldn't be relied on to feed our growing hunger for energy and prevent further climate change; ...Those who champion research into alternative fuels and high-efficiency cars are "perpetuating the idea that we can continue to be car-dependent," Kunstler said. "There's no silver bullet that will allow happy motoring to continue ... we're not going to run the interstate highway system and Disney World and Wal-Mart on any combination of wind, solar, french-fry oil or switchgrass."

There were three different compensation offers, depending on how close each landowner would be to the generators, Gordon said. Most of the offers were for electrical reimbursement, in the amount of either 10,000 or 20,000 kilowatt-hours per year. According to a copy of the agreement obtained by The Hays Daily News, the initial reimbursement rate would be set by the electricity rate in the owner's most recent electrical bill. The electricity reimbursement rate would escalate by 1 percent each year.

Davis also said it is important for commissioners to solidify the necessary conditions in the county's zoning regulations before entering a contractual agreement. "When you buy a house, you don't sign a contract and say 'let's go back and talk about the roof that leaks,' " he said. "At the point you sign the contract, you lose the ability to negotiate."

Fort Hays State University had an interest in the county's decision; however, President Edward H. Hammond said the university would continue with its motions to bring a wind farm to Hays. "The university is going to go ahead with wind generation on our property," Hammond said. "This decision means we will do it alone."