AMARILLO, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 2006--Xcel Energy has issued a request for proposals for about 40,500 megawatt-hours of annual renewable energy or renewable energy certificates to be generated from renewable technologies other than wind turbines.

ALBANY — To some upstate residents, massive windmills are "a blight on the landscape." To environmentalists and energy companies, they are a low-cost energy source that can reduce society's dependence on oil and gas.

Green power at no extra fee became official this week as the City Council approved renewable energy tariffs for the Farmington electric utility. The new structure reverses a consultant's recommendation that drew fierce protest from green-minded utility customers. The consultant recommended charging $40 of utility customers who wanted to either sell self-generated solar power back to the utility or choose to purchase renewable power from a third party in blocks. The tariff accepted this week not only ignores the recommended $40 fee, it proposes to purchase self-generated power at 8 cents per kilowatt hour, the same amount the utility charges residents.

What this will take is an Apollo-like program focused on new technologies and renewable energy resources.

Commission Chairman Tom Martin said the need for an ordinance addressing wind turbines surfaced because the city Building Safety Department has received numerous inquiries from residents who want to install wind towers on their properties. The ordinance regulates the allowable height of wind towers and appropriate the square acreage of properties where they could be installed. "We just didn't want them in the center of town," said Department Director Pete Wilt.

The city's planning and zoning commission is recommending to the city commission an ordinance regulating residential wind turbines within city limits. The Planning and Zoning Commission discussed the proposal Wednesday during its monthly meeting. ...The ordinance includes regulation of tower height and design standards. The ordinance also requires a building permit to construct a wind energy system on residential property.

Santa Fe County installed a 12-kilowatt wind turbine at its newly constructed Public Works facility last October. But the machine is not up and running yet. Community Project Division Director Paul Olafson said the 100-foot-tall windmill is ready to start providing power to the new Public Works building and back into the power grid "pending a windy day." Public Service Company of New Mexico inspectors need to see the turbine in action before they can certify that it's safe to connect it to the power grid.

Wind power offers the potential of clean, inexhaustible, if intermittent, energy. But where to site wind turbines in relation to homes and communities is a major and growing point of controversy around the world and in the U.S. Here's why.

SANTA FE — Gov. Bill Richardson is proposing to create a quasi-government authority to plan and finance construction of new electric transmission lines in hopes of encouraging more renewable energy production in the state.

Gov. Bill Richardson approved all items in the capital outlay bill, including about $1.9 million to develop the site for and plan, design, construct, equip and furnish the North American Wind Research and Training Center at Mesalands Community College in Tucumcari. Going into the legislative session, Mesalands officials had expressed hope for a larger appropriation because costs of wind turbines escalate with the rising costs of fuel, metals and manufacturing. Mesalands has been on spring break for the past week and Phillip Barry, college president, could not be reached for comment. The college wants to install a single wind turbine that could be used for maintenace and operational training of technicians and research on wind energy.

Governor Richardson has signed into law two bills he says make New Mexico what he calls the “clean energy state.” One measure quadruples the use of clean electricity. It requires that by the year 2020, utilities must be getting 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources. The other bill creates a transmission authority that will help the state export solar, wind and other renewable energy. The governor says the measures not only will help keep New Mexico’s air clean, but will create new high-tech jobs in the state.

New Mexico State University researchers and students are advancing the development of wind energy technology along the U.S.-Mexico border, with the ultimate goal of wind energy commercialization.

It's round two for green power in Farmington today, with utility customers attending another City Council work session to protest a recommended $40 renewable energy fee. "A bunch of us are going to turn up again," said Mike Eisenfeld, New Mexico staff organizer for the San Juan Citizen's Alliance. "I think the city needs to do the right thing and shuck the recommended policy." ..."All I can do is present the information and they will make a decision." "Customers who choose to utilize renewable energy should do so because they believe it is the right' thing to do, but should also understand that these options are more expensive than traditional carbon-based resources," the report reads.

SANTA FE The state land commissioner has signed a lease agreement with a Santa Fe company that plans to develop a wind energy ranch in Colfax County.

Moving renewable energy resources from where they could be produced to where they have a market is the goal of one of the biggest electric transmission projects conceived of in the United States. The name of the project is SunZia Southwest and what the company wants to do is take a fiber cable 460 miles from the southeastern New Mexico area to the Phoenix area. ...The ballpark figure for the completed power transmission line is $1.5 billion, Crane said. "This is a very big project," Crane said. "It is important to understand the primary purpose is to enable renewable resources.

While the industry portrays electricity-generating windmills as a benign and natural source of power, community opposition to new windmill farms is cropping up across the country - particularly in Eastern states, where there are more people fleeing urban blight to live in idyllic rural towns.

Engineers at Sandia National Laboratories have designed a data system which can continuously track the performance and of large wind turbines that produce electricity. The project, called Accurate Time Linked Data Acquisition System II, is contained in shoebox-sized aluminum structure that contains data-collection equipment and lightning protectors.

New Mexico regulators have ordered an investigation into whether a tariff charged by the state's largest utility for a voluntary renewable energy program is just and reasonable. The state Public Regulation Commission announced Monday that it will review the tariff charged by Public Service Company of New Mexico for its Sky Blue program, in which customers elect to pay extra for wind-generated electricity. PRC Chairman Jason Marks questions whether the combined effects of the Sky Blue charge with a recently approved fuel adjustment surcharge and a tariff approved in an earlier rate case adds up to an overcharge for Sky Blue subscribers.

New Mexico State University has launched a project to track wind speeds in Eastern New Mexico to determine potential locations for commercial wind turbines. NMSU's Agricultural Science center at Clovis erected a 50-meter meteorological tower in November at a site 13 miles north of Clovis to gather wind data. The science center will work with NMSU's Institute for Energy and the Environment and the College of Engineering to process the data, calculate potential to power wind turbines, and make the information available to the public.