A proposal to build the metro area's first major wind power project reaches an important turning point this week, with proponents and opponents lining up to be heard.

The state of Minnesota is accepting public comments through the end of today on a proposed wind farm in southern Dakota County that has many residents in the rural farming community in an uproar, even as renewable energy advocates keep their fingers crossed.

The plan calls for up to 11 large wind turbines - each at least 230 feet tall - to be placed in Greenvale Township, just north of Northfield. If the Public Utilities Commission approves a site permit, the 11-megawatt wind project from Medin Renewable Energy and Sparks Energy LLC would generate enough energy to power 3,000 homes.

The wind farm would occupy 15 to 20 acres in an overall plot spanning 830 acres, at a cost of $22 million to construct, with electricity distributed to homes in Farmington, Lakeville and Northfield. The companies hope to begin operation as early as 2010.

The private partnership has no powers of eminent domain, however, and must negotiate voluntary land purchases with Greenvale landowners.

Anna Schmalzbauer, a partner in Sparks Energy, said they've already secured enough leases, provided they hold the plan to six or seven turbines generating 1.5 mega-watts each.

Project organizers say the wind farm will provide a clean, affordable alternative to fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, and will pave the way for similar community-based projects by proving the viability of wind energy within the metro area.

"Wind energy is most efficient when it's produced and used locally," Schmalzbauer said.

She noted that Minnesota is under state mandate to generate 25 percent of its energy from renewable resources by 2025, and it currently produces less than half that amount.

"This is a project that helps the state meet its goals," she said. "It offsets 18,552 metric tons of carbon. That's the equivalent of taking almost 4,000 cars off the road or planting 17,000 acres of trees each year the wind farm is in operation. It has a very positive impact on our environment."

But some residents wish the project would buzz off.

"The proposal that they're offering now does not even come close to being in compliance with the zoning requirements in our township," said Gregory Langer, pointing to construction restrictions such as height and density.

By state law, permitting falls under the jurisdiction of the Public Utilities Commission rather than the township, as long as the wind farm produces at least 5 megawatts of electricity, said state officials.

Dozens of residents attended an informational meeting held Sept. 22 by Greenvale Township at Greenvale Hall, which followed a presentation from Sparks Energy and Medin Renewable Energy.

"People aren't against wind energy. They're against the location," said Langer, a township supervisor who joined the three-member township board in March.

"The general feeling is that people are opposed to this project," Langer said. "It's going to be in a location with a pretty tightly clustered group of country homes. This isn't the right place to put (the turbines)."

Dan Hron, who has owned a home in the township for 28 years, has recruited opponents to the project through his Web site, www.aplacetohelp.com , and posted opposition yard signs along his property.

Kris Henry, who has lived in the township for 18 years, said it was common knowledge throughout Greenvale that the utility partnership wanted to place a single wind turbine on land the companies already owned.

It wasn't until an article ran in the Northfield News this summer that residents learned the proposal had grown considerably.

"They had an application before the Public Utilities Commission, and it wasn't until August that we realized what that meant," Henry said. "We had to learn about this all on our own."

On Aug. 4, Leone Medin, the chair of Medin Renewable Energy, signed a sworn statement indicating she mailed a notice of the PUC application to 24 residents - every landowner within the boundaries of the proposed site. Notices also went out to the Metropolitan Council, the Dakota County auditor, the Greenvale Township clerk and more than 30 additional city and township offices throughout the county.

Individual schools, cities and counties throughout the metro area have experimented with wind power using a single small turbine, but no one has proposed so extensive a project before, said Deborah Pile, supervisor of energy facility permitting for the state Office of Energy Security, a division of the Minnesota Department of Commerce.

In Dakota County, a 110-foot-tall turbine powers the Schaar's Bluff Gathering Center, a conference hub along the Mississippi River Bluffs in Nininger Township, northwest of Hastings. Other turbines operate in North St. Paul, Maple Grove and Apple Valley and at Macalester College in St. Paul.

Some Greenvale Township residents have questioned why the utility partnership doesn't shift its focus to Buffalo Ridge in southwestern Minnesota, one of the highest locations in the state. More than 200 wind turbines there already generate power from the currents flowing through the open prairie.

"Buffalo Ridge is tapped out," said Sparks Energy's Schmalzbauer. "The power lines down there can handle no more energy to bring to populated areas ... unless there's a major grid enhancement."

She noted that even famed wind energy advocate and billionaire investor T. Boone Pickens has embraced the concept of smaller, community-based wind farms as more readily achievable, efficient and cost-effective than larger ones.

Schmalzbauer said Minnesota benefits from heavy wind but relies on coal - a heavy polluter - to a greater degree than many other states.

"Most energy in Minnesota is coal-powered," she said. "We have the second-highest carbon footprint in terms of how we get our electricity, but we're among the windiest states. There's a mismatch. People refer to Minnesota as the Saudi Arabia of wind."