http://www.windaction.org/ facts, analysis, exposure of wind energy's real impacts en-us Windaction hourly 1 http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.windaction.org/articles/13462 Mon, 07 Jan 2008 12:48:18 GMT A home sits beneath wind turbines in the Spearville Wind Energy Facility east of Dodge City. http://www.windaction.org/articles/13462 http://www.windaction.org/articles/11875 Fri, 21 Sep 2007 11:31:11 GMT USGS image showing a portion of the Spearville, Kansas wind facility site following construction of roads and turbines bases. The red dots represent turbine locations. This project includes 67 GE (1.5MW) turbines for an installed capacity of 100.5 megawatts. http://www.windaction.org/articles/11875 http://www.windaction.org/articles/11874 Fri, 21 Sep 2007 11:25:10 GMT USGS image showing a portion of the Spearville, Kansas wind facility site prior to the construction of roads and turbines bases. This project includes 67 GE (1.5MW) turbines for an installed capacity of 100.5 megawatts. The red dots identify proposed turbine locations. http://www.windaction.org/articles/11874 http://www.windaction.org/articles/11711 Sat, 08 Sep 2007 23:34:49 GMT Construction of the Smoky Hills Phase I wind site in Ellsworth and Lincoln Counties, KS. Phase I will include 56 - 1.8MW turbines http://www.windaction.org/articles/11711 http://www.windaction.org/articles/11710 Sat, 08 Sep 2007 23:24:20 GMT Construction of the Smoky Hills Phase I wind site in Ellsworth and Lincoln Counties, KS. Phase I will include 56 - 1.8MW turbines. http://www.windaction.org/articles/11710 http://www.windaction.org/articles/11709 Sat, 08 Sep 2007 17:40:59 GMT Construction of the Smoky Hills Phase I wind site in Ellsworth and Lincoln Counties, KS. Phase I will include 56 - 1.8MW turbines. http://www.windaction.org/articles/11709 http://www.windaction.org/articles/11708 Sat, 08 Sep 2007 17:32:54 GMT Construction of the Smoky Hills Phase I wind site in Ellsworth and Lincoln Counties, KS. Phase I will include 56 - 1.8MW turbines. http://www.windaction.org/articles/11708 http://www.windaction.org/articles/5825 Wed, 18 Oct 2006 12:37:18 GMT Courtesy photo A view from the air of the completed Spearville wind farm and its 67 turbines includes Main Street and St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in the foreground. http://www.windaction.org/articles/5825 http://www.windaction.org/articles/4876 Tue, 05 Sep 2006 15:09:45 GMT A wind-collecting unit, above, stands more than 60 feet tall outside Blairsburg, Iowa, where one of the largest wind power experiments in the U.S. dots the landscape. http://www.windaction.org/articles/4876 http://www.windaction.org/articles/4255 Thu, 03 Aug 2006 16:16:55 GMT http://www.windaction.org/articles/4255 http://www.windaction.org/articles/4254 Thu, 03 Aug 2006 16:15:32 GMT http://www.windaction.org/articles/4254 http://www.windaction.org/articles/4008 Wed, 19 Jul 2006 11:28:25 GMT A crane gets ready to place the third section on a wind tower at the site of the Spearville Wind Energy Facility, which will have 67 towers and generate 100.5 megawatts of power when completed in October. By http://www.windaction.org/articles/4008 http://www.windaction.org/articles/2111 Sun, 19 Mar 2006 13:52:08 GMT Wind turbines in Gray County are silhouetted against the setting sun in this 2004 file photo. The turbines shut down automatically when wind gusts are up to about 56 mph. http://www.windaction.org/articles/2111 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23957 Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:28:10 GMT Local governments are beginning to flex their permitting authority to challenge commercial-scale wind farms, a trend some industry observers say could impede broader federal efforts to expand renewable energy production. The latest round in the emerging battle between local governments and wind-energy developers occurred last week in Kansas, where the state Supreme Court upheld a Wabaunsee County zoning ordinance banning industrial-scale wind ...Experts say the Wabaunsee ordinance, unanimously upheld by the Kansas court, is a key test of local governments' power to effectively ban large-scale wind farms, as opposed to blocking a specific project or proposal. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23957 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23879 Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:29:39 GMT The Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday that Wabaunsee County commissioners have the right to prohibit the construction of commercial wind farms in their county. But the court also questioned whether an ordinance banning commercial farms but allowing smaller wind generators for personal use violated some provisions of the U.S. Constitution. Commissioners adopted the ordinance in 2004. In a unanimous decision, the court acknowledged the commission's concerns about potential harm to the aesthetics and ecology of the Flint Hills if huge wind turbines were erected in Wabaunsee County. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23879 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23878 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:12:49 GMT In a case pitting the beauty of the Flint Hills against large wind farms, the Flint Hills won. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday in favor of a zoning ordinance in Wabaunsee County that prohibits commercial wind farms. Poised as the third best state in the country for wind power and on the cusp of a renewable energy revolution, Kansas has the potential to be at the epicenter of the wind industry. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23878 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23847 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:11:15 GMT While it appeared briefly Monday that the lights were out on a proposed high-voltage electric transmission line that would serve the state's growing wind industry, officials recharged the plan Tuesday. The Southwest Power Pool Inc.'s board of directors on Tuesday included the $518 million "Spearville line" in a package of transmission expansion projects it was forwarding for further study and probable approval. The 765-kilovolt line would go from Spearville, the site of a wind farm in southwest Kansas, to Wichita and down to the Oklahoma border, where it could hook into lines to other states. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23847 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23831 Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:35:31 GMT After months of information gathering, Ellis County commissioners revisited proposed changes to the county's zoning regulations during Monday's meeting. However, they still took no action on the changes. Specifically, commissioners discussed proposed changes to setback requirements and noise standards in the regulations. Commissioner Glenn Diehl said he wants to protect platted, multiple-lot developments in the county the most. He proposed a 1.5-mile setback for wind turbine location from those areas. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23831 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23265 Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:17:26 GMT A project to put up a wind turbine at Hope Street Academy generated a civics lesson for students there, five of whom asked the city's governing body Tuesday evening to allow small wind energy systems to operate in Topeka for nonresidential purposes. The governing body, which includes the city council and Mayor Bill Bunten, subsequently voted 10-0 to approve an ordinance making that move and a companion measure requiring users of wind energy systems to acquire a conditional-use permit from the governing body. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23265 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23101 Sun, 13 Sep 2009 10:32:53 GMT The preserve itself has grown to 39,100 acres. But that's only a fraction of the 3.8-million-acre region known as the Flint Hills, straddling the Oklahoma-Kansas state line with the largest remaining patch of tallgrass prairie on the continent. ...While wind power generates clean energy, the vast networks of turbines, roads and power grids can disturb a natural ecosystem just as much as any other industrialization, Hamilton says. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23101