Change comes slowly to the mountains, whether it’s the thousands of years it took rivers to carve the breathtaking valleys and gorges or the decades it’s taking to change the way people think about their stewardship of the land. A recent series of events, unrelated on the surface, tells us that change is coming even if it happens at a glacial pace. In Ashe County last month, commissioners asked planners to revisit the county’s floodplain ordinances and recommend changes. That move came amid a lively and continuing debate over wind farms. The heart of the matter is whether windmills would violate the letter and the spirit of the N.C. Ridge Law, which restricts development along ridgelines.

Ben Massey Jr. spends his weekends tending grapes and Christmas trees amid the serenity of the Appalachian Mountains. To protect those pristine peaks, the Raleigh physical therapist is joining the fight to prevent the harvest of one of the most abundant energy resources: wind. Less than a half-hour from Massey’s Grape & Needle farm, a former Ashe County commissioner is proposing to put up 25 to 28 wind turbines that would light up about 15,000 homes. The turbines would rise about 250 feet above the ridge tops, each one taller than the 17-story SunTrust Bank tower in downtown Durham. “The main problem is how unsightly it’s going to be for our beautiful mountains,” Massey said. “Who in the world would want to build a home underneath those towers that constantly go ‘whoop, whoop, whoop?’ ” As state officials consider alternatives to nuclear power and coal-fired plants, the wind farm proposed in Ashe County underscores the challenges renewable energy must overcome.

It has been standing room only at the meetings regarding the proposed wind turbine facility that could be built on Big Springs Mountain in Creston. The Ashe County Board of Commissioners approved the first reading of the Ashe County Ordinance to Regulate Wind Energy Systems Monday at their regularly scheduled meeting. The Ordinance will be presented again at the Feb. 19th meeting of the commissioners and can be officially adopted at that time, but because Commissioner Marty Gambill was not at Monday’s meeting it could not be adopted then.

Ashe commissioners approve an ordinance for wind energy Ashe County commissioners approved an ordinance yesterday to govern wind-energy systems, a response to a proposed commercial wind farm of 25 to 28 windmills. There was no discussion by commissioners before the 4-0 vote, which followed a 90-minute public hearing. During the public hearing, 13 people spoke in opposition to the wind farm, 11 spoke in favor of it, and three people didn't take a position but offered suggestions for the proposed ordinance. Before the hearing began, Ashe Board of Commissioners Chairman Richard Blackburn explained to the audience that the county's lack of a comprehensive land-use plan meant that commissioners could not ban windmills. "The only thing that can happen is we can regulate," he said. "We cannot prohibit. That's a very significant thing to remember." There's controversy about whether the state's Ridge Law prohibits wind turbines of an industrial scale.

Ashe County commissioners are expected to consider adopting an ordinance on wind-energy systems after a public hearing that will start at 5 p.m. Monday in the Ashe County Courthouse. The ordinance is a response to a proposed commercial wind farm of 25 to 28 wind turbines in Creston. The ordinance is virtually identical to a wind-energy-systems ordinance adopted in Watauga County last August, but there is a significant difference in the first sentence of Ashe’s ordinance. It says that the county “has determined the North Carolina Mountain Ridge Protection Act is in effect.”

There was standing room only at the large courtroom at the Ashe County Courthouse for the NC Utilities Commission’s first hearing regarding the proposed wind turbine facility that could be built on Big Springs Mountain in Creston. Now, a special meeting will be held Wednesday, Jan. 31st at 5 p.m. by the Ashe County Board of Commissioners to consider options available to Ashe County.

A proposed wind farm of 25 to 28 wind turbines in Creston has prompted the Ashe County government to draw up an ordinance to govern wind-energy systems. Commissioners will consider it Monday after a public hearing. Yesterday, they got news that heartened people opposed to the project. The wind farm should not be allowed because it violates the state’s Ridge Law - which limits building heights in the mountains — the public staff of the N.C. Utilities Commission said in a statement filed Tuesday but made public yesterday.

A proposed wind farm in Ashe County should not be allowed because it violates the state’s Ridge Law, the public staff of the N.C. Utilities Commission said yesterday. The staff’s statement of position becomes part of the record as the six members of the Utilities Commission consider whether or not to approve an application to build 25 to 28 wind turbines in the Creston community. The Ridge Law contains a limited exception for windmills. Robert Gruber, executive director of the Utilities Commission, said that the staff’s position against the wind farm is based on a previous statement by Attorney General Roy Cooper. In a 2002 letter, Cooper wrote that the term windmills meant only “the traditional, solitary farm windmill which has long been in use in rural communities” and not wind turbines.

A proposed wind farm in Ashe County should not be allowed because it violates the state’s Ridge Law, the public staff of the N.C. Utilities Commission said yesterday. Also yesterday, State Attorney General Roy Cooper filed a notice he intends to intervene in the issue.

Ashe County commissioners announced yesterday a special meeting to consider a proposed ordinance regulating wind-energy generation. The meeting was called after last week’s public hearing before the N.C. Utilities Commission drew an overflow crowd to talk about a proposed wind farm in Ashe County. Two brothers who own the land have applied to build the state’s first large-scale wind farm. It would include 25 to 28 windmills, each about 300 feet tall on or near Big Springs Mountain. The proposal has drawn strong debate. Supporters said during the hearing that alternative energy sources are vital and the project could help farmers preserve their land against housing development. Opponents said that the wind farm is too large and would ruin views and harm the tourist industry and property values.

Several hundred people packed an Ashe County courtroom last night to share passionate opinions about a proposed wind farm of 25 to 28 windmills at sites on or near Big Springs Mountain in Creston. Last night’s hearing before a member of the N.C. Utilities Commission is part of the commission’s decision-making process in approving or denying the project. In July, Richard Calhoun, a resident of Ashe County, filed an application with the utilities commission to build the wind farm, which would generate electricity that would be sold to power companies. Each windmill would be about 300 feet tall. Development costs are estimated to be $60million to $65 million, according to the application.

Edison Mission Group and a private Pennsylvania-based wind farm developer said they have agreed to develop up to 1,000 megawatts of mostly onshore wind energy throughout the U.S. mid-Atlantic. Edison Mission, which manages the power business of Edison International, made the agreement with US Wind Force LLC to develop wind farms over the next several years that would feed PJM power grid that includes Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, West Virginia and parts of North Carolina.

A local farmer and former county commissioner Richard Calhoun of Northwest Wind Developers, LLC is proposing a wind farm of 25-28 wind turbines in Creston to make electricity. Anyone interested in letting their voice be heard on this issue can attend a hearing for the purpose of receiving public comments on Thursday, Jan. 25th at 7 p.m. in the small courtroom of the Ashe County Courthouse in Jefferson. This hearing will be held by the North Carolina Utilities Commission and it will then later reconvene for the purpose of receiving additional public witness testimony and expert witness testimony from the parties on Feb. 13th at 9:30 a.m. in Commission Hearing 2115 in Raleigh.

North Carolina has significant potential to develop wind and other alternative energy without drastically increasing customer bills, a study prepared for the N.C. Utilities Commission says. The report, presented this morning to state lawmakers, concluded that renewable energy could provide as much as 1,800 megawatts of power, the equivalent of two power plants the size of Progress Energy’s Shearon Harris nuclear plant in Wake County. The study comes at a time that Progress Energy and Duke Energy are planning to build nuclear plants and Duke Energy is also planning to build coal-fired power plants. Requiring utilities to use renewables would offset the need to build some power plants, the study concludes, reducing pollutants, greenhouse gases and radioactive nuclear waste.

Under direction from the state Environmental Review Commission, the N.C. Utilities Commission sponsored a study to analyze the costs and benefits of a Renewable Portfolio Standard. If adopted by the legislature, an RPS would require the state’s three investor-owned utilities to generate a portion of their electricity from renewable sources by a given date. The Utilities Commission paid $150,000 to Boston-based contractor La Capra to conduct the study, which is due out this week.

As a 24-foot rotor nosed into the breeze over Crabtree Valley, wind power officially flowed to North Carolina’s electric grid Tuesday. Dr. Louis Mes’ mountain-top turbine became the first wind producer to join N.C. GreenPower, a statewide program that buys electricity made from renewable energy sources such as the sun. The turbine, capable of powering the Louisiana plastic surgeon’s second home but little more, shows both the potential and the headaches of harnessing the N.C. winds.

A local farmers' advocacy group told Ashe County commissioners yesterday that the county should allow windmills to generate electricity that could be sold as an alternative income for farmers. The recommendation came a month after Watauga County became the first county in North Carolina to adopt regulations for windmills. Extension agent Charles Young, a spokesman for the county's Agriculture Advisory Committee, told Ashe commissioners that it's in the county's best interest to gain support and recognition for wind power as a way to preserve farmland.

The turbines will be located behind the Park's Visitors Center and the maintenance building. According to Barnes, energy produced from the turbines will provide power to the Park restrooms.

A wind farm of 25 to 28 windmills generating electricity to be sold to power companies is being proposed in western Ashe County, according to an order from the N.C. Utilities Commission on Tuesday that requires the public to be alerted about the proposal.

Watauga County became yesterday the first county in North Carolina to adopt an ordinance regulating wind-energy systems. The board of commissioners established rules by which the county planning staff may approve single windmills that generate electricity for on-site use. A more comprehensive process with review by the planning board would be required for commercial wind farms.