How big a deal is two cents? Well, it's a big deal if you're trying to produce wind energy. A federal production tax credit of 1.9 cents per kilowatt hour is set to expire at the end of the year. Wind energy producers generally expect lawmakers to renew the credit, but Congress has yet to act. With time running out, the wind power industry is scrambling. ...Xcel's Frank Prager said the end of the tax credit on December 31, is rippling through the wind industry. He said many U.S. companies are rushing to finish projects before the deadline.

Like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, the elements needed to put together a 5-megawatt wind energy farm northwest of New Ulm are all coming together for the New Ulm Public Utilities Commission. Giant steps were taken at the NUPUC meeting Tuesday as the commission approved the land and wind easement leases with three landowners in southwestern Nicollet County to provide space for the wind turbines needed to generate that amount of "green" energy. In all, New Ulm Public Utilities would be leasing a total of 237.03 acres just off Highway 7, about 5 miles northwest of Klossner.

State Rep. Ken Tschumper, DFL-La Crescent, hosted a community forum last week featuring a panel of environmentalists. Tschumper and others question whether the project's estimates of demand are accurate. He also is concerned that ratepayers could end up financing a project that could harm the area's environment. Other worries include possible health effects and what the potentially 150-foot-high transmission towers would do to the region's scenery. "There are decisions being made here with this high-voltage transmission line ... that are going to impact people's lives for the next 30 or 40 years," Tschumper said.

The deadline for public comment in the controversial power line project known as CapX2020 has been extended to Sept. 26. Minnesota Rep. Ken Tschumper, DFL-La Crescent, along with members of several nonprofit groups encouraged residents to take that extra opportunity to voice their concern about high-voltage power lines coming through or near La Crescent. ...Joseph Morse, a member of the Bluff Land Environment Watch based in Winona. cited risks to people's health and to wildlife. "This is my community, and I'm concerned about it," Morse said.

Residents in Anoka and 10 other cities across the state could soon be looking up to the whipping blades of a wind turbine towering over their communities. The turbines are part of a project by the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (MMPA), an electricity cooperative made up of metro and outstate cities that hopes to bring wind power off large turbine farms in rural areas and into homes. While plans for the turbines are in the early stages, the project's leaders are beginning to approach the member cities to determine appropriate sites.

Lynden Township has denied a landowner's request to erect a wind turbine. The township board voted 2-1 this week not to approve a conditional-use permit for the 120-foot tower. Russ Pearson had proposed installing the wind turbine to produce electricity for his property in the Hidden River addition.

The first several towers for the new 99-megawatt Elm Creek Wind Farm have been put up just southeast of Bergen and all 66 of the project's wind turbines are expected to be built and operational by the end of the year. Construction of the Elm Creek project, an expansion of the 100-megawatt Trimont Area Wind Farm built late in 2005, was announced July 12 at the Trimont Chocolate Festival by developer Iberdrola Renewables and electric utility Great River Energy.

High Country Energy L.L.C. is going to Minnesota investors for as much as $3.1 million to help finance the early stages of its project in parts of Olmsted, Dodge and Mower counties. Eventually, the project could take in as many as 200 turbines generating electricity from the wind. Such wind projects typically are financed by large private investors. However High Country Energy has registered an in-state public offering, which allows the company to sell shares of stock to the general public living in Minnesota.

Construction has already begun on a second 99-megawatt wind farm, which will double the size of the current Trimont Area Wind Farm, officials announced Saturday in Trimont. The Elm Creek Wind Power Project will add another 65 wind turbines and is expected to be online by the end of this year.

Winds in southwest Fillmore County may soon do more than blow hats off of farmers. EcoEnergy LLC plans to build a 400-megawatt, $850 million wind farm in Bristol Township, a 36-square-mile farming town near Preston, Minn., with a population of about 500. The Elgin, Ill., alternative energy company is the latest trying to cash in on Mother Nature in Fillmore County. Bristol Township's prevailing winds have attracted two other wind developers in the past year, according to zoning records.

Two wind power projects are blowing through Fillmore County. EcoEnergy of Elgin, Ill., has released plans for an $850 million wind farm in Bristol Township, a rural farming community near the Iowa border in southern Fillmore County. The company has scheduled construction for 2009, assuming the project moves forward as planned ...Others are also following suit. Fillmore Wind owner Larry Tammel has filed for a test turbine on his land.

Greg Jaunich, a longtime Minnesota wind-power entrepreneur, pleaded guilty Tuesday to mail fraud in connection with federal charges that he bilked Xcel Energy of up to $400,000 with false meter readings from a couple of mostly inactive turbines. Jaunich's plea was accepted by U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson. Jaunich, 47, who will be sentenced by Magnuson at a later date, faces a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

A proposal to build new high-voltage transmission lines across Minnesota has the backing of some unlikely supporters. Several environmental groups say they are in favor of the project if it helps provide a means of transporting wind power and other renewable energy. "We do have very aggressive renewable energy goals in Minnesota," said Beth Soholt, director of Wind on the Wires. "And we do believe that without additional transmission investment, we're not going to be able to achieve those goals." However, not all environmental groups agree, and some will demand an alternative at public hearings scheduled this week on the project.

During the last night of the 2008 Minnesota Legislative session, Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed the wind energy production tax revenue proposal for Minnesota's rural school districts. Pawlenty held a gun to the head - figuratively speaking - of legislators, threatening to veto the property tax relief bill if the wind energy production tax revenue provision was in the bill. "I was in Southland that day visiting with Gary Kuphal for our regular superintendents' meeting," Brown recalled. "Here I was driving up and down Mower County roads and everywhere I went there were wind turbines, generating electricity from the wind. "When I heard the news, I literally got sick to my stomach," Brown said. "Districts like Grand Meadow and Southland were about to lose again."

According to fire chief John Garmer, the wind turbine had a "ball of flame" on top when firefighters arrived at the scene. ...The fire was located at the six-turbine Ewington Wind Farm, the same site where a wind generator burned two months ago.

Opponents of the proposed Big Stone II power plant likely cheered a Minnesota administrative ruling that jeopardizes the construction of transmission lines across the state. But that element of the power plant's construction also benefits something opponents probably support: wind power. The same lines that Big Stone II would use to transmit power also would carry South Dakota wind power. ...The search for feasible replacements for fossil fuels will not always be painless. Wind power requires more than turbines, which are eyesores in their own right, to harness energy. That energy must then be moved and stored, and that potentially means heavy-duty lines crisscrossing the country.

The proposed Bent Tree Wind Farm in northwest Freeborn County could come under new ownership. Wisconsin Power & Light Co., a subsidiary of Alliant Energy Corp., created a letter of intent to purchase the 400-megawatt wind farm site from Wind Capital Group, according to a press release. ...The wind farm's total cost is estimated at $760 million, at $1.8 million per megawatt to build. The farm would have 150 to 270 turbines ranging in size from 1.5 to 2.5 megawatts. Each turbine must be located 1,000 feet from every residence.

Nearly two dozen school districts in southern Minnesota would have hundreds of thousands of dollars restored to their budgets next year under a tax provision passed in the state Senate on Wednesday. An amendment, introduced by Sen. Dan Sparks of Austin, would restore to school districts the revenue generated by an energy production tax on wind farms. Triton, Grand Meadow and Southland are among the 22 districts that would benefit from this revenue stream at a time when schools are struggling financially, legislators say. ...Those odds are still considered long. Spark's amendment passed by only a single vote, while exposing a deep regional rift between rural and metro legislators.

Suzlon Rotor Corp., a manufacturer of wind turbine blades in Pipestone, has paid a $19,000 penalty to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) for alleged violations of air quality regulations. According to the MPCA, the company failed to obtain an air quality permit prior to construction and operation of the facility. With the potential to emit 27 tons per year of hazardous air pollutants, 17 tons of which could be xylene, the company is subject to federal standards for hazardous air pollutants. Xylene includes types of benzene used as solvents. Construction of the plant began without an air quality permit in November 2005, and the facility began operation one year later.