Initially, the 44 planned turbines had been scheduled to start spinning by the end of the year, but an overhaul of the company planning the project has delayed it for six months, said George Hardie, senior developer for Pattern Energy Group.

"Everything always takes longer than you want it," Hardie said.

Pattern Energy had been the Northern American development division of Australia-based Babcock and Brown, but was sold during a bankruptcy of the worldwide energy company. Hardie, who held the same title with Babcock and Brown, said the development division of the new company retains the same management.

"It's the same team," he said.

That team has built 21 projects worth more than $3 billion over the past five years, Hardie said.

New York-based Riverstone Energy, an energy-focused private equity firm, purchased Babcock and Brown's wind developments to form Pattern Energy at the end of June. Hardie said Riverstone has put forward $400 million to fund the new companies' wind projects.

First among those will be the $200 million Hatchet Ridge wind project, which will produce 102 megawatts of power, Hardie said. The company started grading work earlier this summer, and the 20-story towers to hold the turbines should be built next spring.

Although the Shasta County Board of Supervisors approved the use permit allowing the project to be built on Nov. 4, critics said the towers will be a blight to Burney's skyline and a danger to birds.

On Feb. 27, protesters, many members of American Indian tribes, gathered in front of the Shasta County Administration Center wearing red shirts to represent the birds they say will be killed by the turbine blades. Although there was talk of a lawsuit by protest organizers then, none has been filed against the company or the county.

"We are working on it," said Radley Davis, co-chair of the Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites, one of the American Indian groups opposed to the project.