Monroe has high hopes of becoming a big player in the nation's wind-energy boom someday because of a parts manufacturer that has agreed to build a $19 million factory there. But the greater Monroe area and others along western Lake Erie face an obstacle to hosting a large number of the commercial or utility-scale wind turbines.

After receiving several letters of complaints from Huron County residents over the last several months regarding the effects wind turbines are having on their lives, the county is taking steps to properly address the issues. Advertisement At last week's Huron County Planning Commission meeting it was announced that a committee will be formed that will include commissioners David Peruski and Kurt Damrow, as well as three members from the Planning Commission.

There was standing room only at Wednesday's Huron County Planning Commission meeting, where officials discussed plans to address a series of noise complaints the county has received in recent months regarding the Michigan Wind 1 development in Ubly. Huron County Building and Zoning Director Russ Lundberg said the county has received a total of four complaints that cite problems residents have experienced as a result of the Michigan Wind 1 development in Ubly.

After receiving another letter from residents who say wind turbines near their Ubly-area home are creating noise disturbances, county officials said they still are in the process of developing a way to respond to complaints received following a wind park's construction. "We thought it would be, as we were told from the beginning of the turbine project, 'no louder than a clothes dryer. ...Now we realize that no one wants to stand right next to a running clothes dryer 24 hours a day. This is the reality of it."

Although no specific project plans have been officially presented by BP Alternative Energy, the results from a 5-year-old wind-test tower on a township farm and a recent push in West Michigan and around the state to develop wind energy eventually could lead to construction of a 100-megawatt farm in northern Muskegon County and southern Oceana County.

A drafted wind ordinance that's been in the works for more than a year was unveiled Wednesday during a local planning board meeting. But whether all provisions included in the draft will be adopted remains to be seen, as some of the conditions in the proposed ordinance may be interpreted as too restrictive. "We are disappointed with what we heard at the Lake Township Planning Commission meeting regarding the draft wind turbine zoning ordinance," said Matt Wagner, DTE Energy wind site development manager, in an e-mail Friday morning. "While we haven't had the opportunity to review the document in its entirety, it appears that the draft ordinance would make it difficult - if not impossible - to site commercial wind turbines anywhere in the township."

A company which received state and local tax breaks late last year for purchasing equipment to manufacture high quality casting for the wind turbine industry, has shut down its Rothbury plant indefinitely.

When Otsego County passed an ordinance three years ago regulating the use of wind turbine generators (WTG), the focus was primarily on the commercial or industrial-sized generators ...Otsego County Planning Commission member Mike Mang said a recently formed sub-committee was specifically charged with looking at the use of private, small WTGs.

"I'd like to see us not charge people extra just to do green things," said Carruthers, who's also a city commissioner. "We're becoming more sustainable and more green in energy production at Light & Power, so let's just have everybody pay the same rate and do progressive things." The Light & Power board this week canceled the special rate program. But its demise won't mean higher rates for all customers, utility officials said. ...Ten commercial businesses and 73 residences paid green rates, generating about $6,500 a year.

A local group is consolidating farm property for a commercial wind energy project while a competing corporation is preparing to set up a tower to begin its own wind measurements. Great Lakes Wind LLC has more than 4,000 acres of land leased for a project that local investors hope to launch, said company chairman Larry Gould. The property is not all contiguous, Gould said, so efforts are continuing to fill in the footprint of a possible wind farm.

While Michigan Wind 1 went into commercial operation about three months ago, the park's development, which was headed by Noble Environmental Power, LLC, took about five years. During that time, there were a large number of vocal opponents against the project. Much of the controversy circled around Huron County's wind overlay zoning provision in the county's zoning ordinance that governs wind parks.

The windswept Great Lakes could play host to an industry some believe could help revive Michigan's comatose economy and fulfill state and national mandates for cleaner, renewable energy. ...Nothing's imminent, but state and federal environmental regulators are preparing for the possibility that utility developers may want to harness wind power from Lake Michigan and the other big lakes.

Lake Township adopted a one-year moratorium on wind energy development in March 2008, so the planning commission would have time to study issues dealing with siting, noise effects, health concerns, possible property value decreases and other problems the board fears could arise if not properly addressed in a township ordinance the planning commission has been creating. Colletta said much progress has been made on the creation of a township wind ordinance.

The newly formed consulting company hopes to convert the blighted northside tank-farm property into a "green" energy production center, using a combination of government grants and private investment. After a detailed presentation, the partners were peppered with questions from the audience of about 30 people. The most serious immediate concerns are environmental.

"They are very noisy," said Jan Sageman, who lives in the village of Ubly near some of the turbines. While she didn't mind seeing her community jump into the world of renewable energy, her opinion has changed because on certain cold nights with a light wind, she can hear them loud and clear. "You would have swore a train or a jet was coming through the house," she said.

In her State of the State speech, Gov. Jennifer Granholm outlined a restructuring of Michigan's energy infrastructure that aims to meet this industrial state's future energy needs with wind power. The plan is radical but hardly new. The governor's policy closely parallels the failed experiment of Denmark -- a similar peninsular water state that has invested billions of dollars in wind generation during the last 25 years. ...it is crucial that the state understand the lessons of Denmark and the very real limitations of wind power.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm today ordered creation of an advisory panel to begin looking at siting offshore windmills on the Great Lakes. The executive order sets up the 13-member Great Lakes Wind Council, which will provide citizens a public forum to identify where the towering windmills can be placed.

A wind farm that would generate electricity from Monroe County's lakeshore breezes is being planned for a tract of farmland east of I-75 near Toledo Beach Marina in LaSalle Township. GM Engineers & Associates of Detroit intends to lease the property to erect three or four wind turbines that would generate electricity to be sold to a major utility, said LaSalle Township Supervisor Larry Rutledge.

Homeowners in the city now have the ability to generate their own electricity by harnessing energy generated by the wind. However, some city officials say it may take time for people to take advantage of the new ordinance, unanimously adopted tonight by the City Council. "...It creates two classes of wind turbine projects -- one geared toward residential use, the other more toward large-scale commercial projects.

Fruitland Township officials understand that wind energy is quickly becoming popular for personal and commercial use, so it makes sense that the township along Lake Michigan wants to have its regulations in place as soon as possible.