Recycled turbines that turn renewable wind energy into electricity are expected to begin appearing this summer in Anoka, Buffalo, North St. Paul and eight other Minnesota cities that are part of a power agency. ...Anoka Mayor Phil Rice expects the windmill will go up, but calls it a taxpayer-subsidized waste of money that will never cover the windmill costs. "In my mind it is foolishness," Rice said. "The government is mandating it, and we will comply so we don't have to pay a fine."

Local landowners who may have questions after being approached by wind energy firms, communities thinking about getting a piece of the wind energy pie and anyone else interested in the future of wind energy in Jackson County are invited to a public-service wind forum later this month in Lakefield.

The Great Plains have been called "the Saudi Arabia of wind energy." But because the windiest areas tend to be sparsely populated, much of that wind power might go unused without a way to move the energy to where the people are. Now a Michigan company is proposing to build a 765-kilovolt transmission line called "The Green Power Express" from the gusty Dakotas through Minnesota to Chicago. The 3,000-mile project, which is estimated to cost $10 billion to $12 billion, could be among the first of a new generation of energy superhighways.

About 100 people showed up Monday, February 16 at the St. George Parish Center when the New Ulm Public Utilities Commission held a listening session to hear concerns of local property owners. This was the first public meeting held in Nicoillet County by the PUC about the controversial wind farm project. ...There seemed to be an aura of frustration as some had hoped their questions would be responded to at the meeting.

Across the Great Plains the wind blows incessantly, while in the remote Nevada desert the sun bears down without relief. Each holds the potential of a vast new energy resource. While wind turbine and solar projects are ready to capture this new, eco-friendly energy source, where are the transmission lines to get the power to where it is needed?

A power line company wants to build a massive power line across seven states, including Minnesota. The line would carry electricity generated by wind to points east and the project could have major implications for Minnesota's wind developers. It would also require the erection of towers and lines across a big section of the state.

The wind-energy boom has been seeded by federal and state tax credits that generally are most beneficial for wealthy investors, partnerships and corporations who might have unrelated income to offset. The federal stimulus bill appears to allow the tax benefits to be claimed by such a taxable pool, increasing profits and dividends to a lot of smaller owners, said Lee Schafer, director of investment banking at Northland.

Minnesota's wind-energy industry is about to get a turbo-charged boost from the $789 billion economic stimulus package ...An extension of the production tax credit to three years plus the addition of an investment tax credit will inject new life and urgency into projects that were starved for financing, tax experts said. And the Energy Office in the Minnesota Department of Commerce estimated the bill could inject about $220 million into Minnesota.

A Lynden Township landowner isn't giving up on his plan to put a wind turbine on his property near the Clearwater River. The township denied his request in July after neighbors protested that the tower would ruin their view and affect property values. But now Russ Pearson is taking his request to Stearns County, proposing to put the turbine in an area where the county has authority. The case is the first real test of Stearns County's land-use regulations since they were revised last year to encourage more small wind projects.

Noble Environmental Power, the firm seeking to build a sprawling wind farm northeast of Moorhead, recently encountered turbulence from state officials and the financial markets. Noble's business practices are being investigated by the New York attorney general's office and an assistant attorney general in New Hampshire has questioned the financial ability of a Noble subsidiary to build and operate a wind farm in that state.

Building new transmission lines in the name of wind power is the latest attempt to strengthen coal's grip on the country's electricity generation, said a critic of plans to build new power lines throughout the Midwest. "Wind in 2009 is the rationale for companies who want to build transmission lines," said David Morris, vice president of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Minneapolis, which provides environmentally friendly development strategies.

The "listening" meeting that New Ulm Public Utilities has scheduled for next Monday in St. George is not a part of the permitting process that the utility must hold if and when it attempts to install five wind turbines in that area, Utilities Planning and Development Engineer Pat Wrase emphasized Friday.

The Flat Hill project is one of several proposed wind farms that could, if built, transform the landscape of eastern Clay County and neighboring Becker and Otter Tail counties. ...Combined, the trio of projects could mean almost 375 towers dotting a landscape that contains important wildlife habitat areas - and altered views for the homes that increasingly are being built in the gateway to Minnesota lakes country.

Clay County residents will get a glimpse tonight of details for a proposed wind farm that could bring 134 turbines and 27 miles of new access roads. ...The wind farm, pending before Minnesota regulators, is proposed by Noble Environmental Power, a Connecticut company that has developed more than 3,800 megawatts of wind capacity in eight states.

" ... it is clear that the economic and financial downturn have begun to take a serious toll on new wind development." Jeff Wright, vice president at Minneapolis-based Midwest Wind Energy Finance, said several factors led to the state's modest showing in 2008: a logjam of wind-energy projects, a power-transmission system in need of repairs and a shortage of adequately financed wind farms.

"I don't think we're surprised to find isolated pockets of good wind in the high bluffs of that region," said Eric Norberg, Minnesota Power's senior vice president of strategy and planning ...But Norberg said he doesn't see the sort of broad areas that would appear suitable for the development of a large-scale wind farm. He noted that many of the upland sites identified in the study would be difficult to access with heavy equipment. Migrating birds and bats could pose another challenge.

The 10 wind turbines at the Taconite Ridge wind farm will probably still be motionless until early February, a company spokesperson said Thursday. Nine of the ten wind turbines now are having repairs done to blades, instead of just five, that was reported earlier. The completion date for repairs has been pushed back from mid-January, said Amy Rutledge, Minnesota Power communications manager.

A 33-year-old man is recovering from a severe electric burn he sustained Tuesday afternoon while working on a wind turbine north of Dexter ...Officials believe the turbine was electrically charged when Chlan was working on it, giving the worker an electrical burn on his left arm, Amazi said.

The next driver and the major incentive from here out is the Renewable Portfolio Standard ..."It's going to be a challenge," Huelskamp said, to meet the RPS. A prime challenge facing the industry is transmission. Somehow, renewable energy has to get onto the transmission lines. The need exists to relieve congestion and improve reliability in the existing transmission system, he said. The infrastructure is maxed out.

Shakopee will be one of 11 Minnesota cities to be the site of a wind turbine to create renewable electricity under the "Hometown WindPower" program. The location for the turbine in each community will be determined by local permitting authorities. "Wind power is most efficient when it can be used at the point of generation, rather than being transmitted many miles away," said Avant Energy President Derick Dahlen.