Salazar said Interior is setting aside 24 parcels of federal land for a special study of environmental effects. Those areas, a total of 670,000 acres, were chosen based on the routes of transmission lines and early indications that they are less environmentally sensitive than other areas in the state. Once an area wins preapproval, applications for solar plants could race through the process, officials say.

Harnessing the sun and the winds will be looked at Monday by the Mohave County Supervisors. The supervisors will look to hold a special workshop in the coming months dealing with renewable energy projects in Mohave County. No workshop has been scheduled, but, upon recommendation of the county planning and zoning board, one is highly likely.

Residents of the desolate Palomino Valley have attended citizen’s advisory board meetings, planning commission meetings and will soon face another round of meetings because of an appeal filed by area resident Dan Herman. Herman said he filed the appeal not in opposition to the Virginia Peak Wind Project as a whole, but in opposition to the project’s two closest turbines to residents’ homes and property. As part of the special-use permit, approved by the Washoe County Planning Commission on Feb. 4, no wind turbines can be installed within one mile of existing homes.

Nevada Wind won a small battle with the Washoe County Planning Commission on Feb. 4 when the panel unanimously voted to approve a special-use permit for the project slated for development in the Palomino Valley, approximately 30 miles north of Sparks. ...Then the project hit a snag Tuesday when nearby landowner Dan Herman filed an appeal. "Well, the only thing I appealed is the one condition that allowed the two windmills on the property at the end of Quaking Aspen that directly affects the surrounding neighbors," Herman said.

Storey County residents told the Bureau of Land Management on Thursday that a proposed windmill project would ruin the tourist-based economy in Virginia City and surrounding areas. Jane Peterson, bureau energy project manager, said in a presentation to the Storey County Planning Commission that public comments collected since November have been split on whether to allow Reno-based Great Basin Wind to build about 70 windmills on BLM land in Storey and Washoe counties.

When Duke Energy went to Boulder City to pitch a wind farm outside Searchlight, the company was greeted with a virtual love-in. Not so in Searchlight, where residents seemed armed with pitchforks and torches. ..."I presented that to the town of Searchlight and I couldn't get to the car fast enough," Charlebois said.

A wind farm that would be Southern Nevada's first could sprout 30 miles south of Boulder City near Searchlight as soon as 2011. Some Searchlight residents, though thankful planners have already moved turbines because of their concerns, worry that the wind-powered energy plant would be ugly, noisy and deadly to wildlife. Yesterday, about 60 Searchlight and Cal-Nev-Ari residents met with planners ...

How does a small rural town react when it is chosen to be the centerpiece of an industrial renewable energy project? Can a town successfully fight a large corporation backed up by the federal government when it does not want such a giant development in its backyard? We wanted to see, and since we own a parcel of land within the greater "viewshed" of the proposed wind farm, we attended the first of many public meetings hosted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to "scope" comments from locals and others interested in Duke Energy's plans to place 161 large wind turbines.

Alternative energy advocates and residents opposed to giant wind turbines overlooking their homes in Warm Springs Valley are expected to square off when Nevada Wind's proposed wind farm comes before the Washoe County Planning Commission on Tuesday. ...No matter what the planning commission decides, the project is expected to be appealed to the Washoe County Commission.

But the visibility issue had several Comstock-area residents questioning the project and its effect on the historic mining district. "This is a very special piece of real estate, and a very fragile piece of real estate," said Ron Reno, an archaeologist who lives in Silver City. "Right now, the landmark is officially listed as threatened. It can't absorb much else that alters the nature of this historical district." The question that is unanswered is just how visible these wind turbines will be from Virginia City.

Heidi Brautigam loves nothing better than horseback riding in Warm Springs Valley, where she has lived for 17 years. But she is worried her rides could become dangerous once big tractor rigs and construction trucks start hauling equipment and materials to build Nevada Wind's proposed wind turbine farm on the northern ridges overlooking the valley, north of Spanish Springs.

Residents weighed the greenness of wind power with the amount of visual pollution that the tall towering structures could bring to the popular 1860s-era tourist destination communities in the Comstock Historic District, designated a National Historic District. ...If placed on the ridge lines as the company proposes, the wind "turbines would be highly visible from Virginia City, Gold Hill and American Flat," [resident Ron] Reno said. Most of the wind turbine towers would be installed within the National Historic District and about half would in the Comstock Historic District.

Silver City residents expressed mixed reactions after learning recently of a proposed wind turbine project for the nearby ridge lines. Residents weighed the greenness of wind power with the amount of visual pollution that the tall towering structures could bring to the popular 1860s-era tourist destination communities in the Comstock Historic District, which is also designated a National Historic District. The proposed project would also affect the views of people living in Washoe Valley. Great Basin Wind, LLC's new Comstock project was discussed during the September Silver City Town Board meeting's public comment segment.

Hamilton is proposing a wind turbine farm on Bureau of Land Management property along the ridgeline of the Virginia Range, just east of Washoe Valley and west of Virginia City. The 72 turbines would be placed where the wind is strongest, beginning at McClellan Peak and extending northward to Geiger Summit, touching Carson City, Washoe County and Storey County. The whirlwind, if it comes, could be from officials and residents of Storey County, especially the Comstock Historic District, who aren't crazy about modern wind turbines being in view of the 1860s-era communities of Virginia City, Gold Hill and Silver City.

When power developers announced plans for coal plants in the Nevada desert, it was clear which side conservation groups would be on: the opposition. Less clear was how they would react when solar developers announced they would build huge arrays in that same desert. Because although renewable energy is the darling of the environmental movement - hailed as a cure for our addiction to fossil fuels - solar and other clean power plants can still be hard on the birds and bunnies trying to survive in their shadows. "Just because it's green doesn't mean ... it doesn't have impacts," said Kathleen Drakulich, a Nevada attorney with clients who develop renewable energy and more traditional fossil fuel power plants.

Two large utility companies have proposed building more than 150 wind turbines near Searchlight and more than 400 turbines in Lincoln County. These turbines ...would be placed near existing communities, where they would be visible to and affect the lives of all who live near them. Just a few questions for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is a strong proponent of these two unpopular projects:

Little has been said about the transmission lines, which will carry the intermittent power produced by the looming mountaintop monsters down to the Tracy power plant. These are high-voltage transmission lines hanging off of 70-foot-tall, rusted-steel towers. In the years to come, such transmission lines will crisscross our valley, wind down narrow canyon roads and march somberly along property lines to their final destination.