The Palm Springs Planning Commission approved about 50 windmills on Wednesday.

Mountain View Power Partners IV won the recommendation for approval to put the wind turbines north of Highway 111, south of Interstate 10 and west of Indian Canyon Drive in Palm Springs.

The commission voted 5-1-1, with Commissioner Jon Caffery voting no and Tracy Conrad absent.

The turbines would be about 3,000 feet from the Mountain Gate housing community and 2,000 feet from where College of the Desert's west valley campus is planned.

The 298-foot-high wind turbines would provide energy for Southern California Edison.

The $100 million-plus project will sit on a site where there were once 600 wind turbines, according to the developer. Those turbines were removed a few years ago. The roughly 50 new wind turbines will provide more than twice as much power than the 600 windmills did.

They also will provide less noise than what the city requires, according to the developer.

Caffery voted against the project because he said the steel windmills should be painted gray or left unpainted. He said the proposed off-white color will create an "eyesore."