Community leaders in Fredericksburg say a major power corporation is exploring the possibility of building a wind farm in their county. Thursday morning, a special meeting was held to answer some questions. Residents want to know what could happen to the area if giant wind turbines are built north of town. Most windmills in Gillespie County pump water to irrigate farms and ranches.

In the next several years, foreign companies plan to invest more than $1 billion in two large wind energy farms on a remote portion of the 400,000-acre Kenedy Ranch bordering the Laguna Madre. "We'll build 157 turbines along about 10 miles of coastline. We're starting construction in early 2008, and we'll be generating by 2009," said John Calaway, chief development officer for Babcock & Brown Ltd., an Australian company. An adjacent project by PPM Energy, now owned by the Spanish giant Iberdrola, is on a similar timetable, with a plan to operate 84 turbines. A second phase could double PPM's output. "We've been talking about 400 megawatts, and we hope to do more," said Jan Johnson, a spokesperson for PPM in Portland, Ore.

T. Boone Pickens and his Mesa Group are working on a wind energy project that would tower above any other in the world. The multi-billion dollar wind energy project, they are working on cover's a four county region. Mostly of the development will be seen in Gray and Roberts counties, with a little Hemphill and Wheeler counties.

While offshore wind-energy projects have been slow to get off the ground elsewhere in the United States, two Louisiana businessmen quietly have been making history off the Texas coast. Herman Schellstede and Howard Schoeffler and their company, Wind Energy Systems Technologies LLC, have received the first permit issued in the United States to build offshore wind towers to produce electricity. Last month, the company finished putting up a 280-foot tower with 17 instruments to test, among other things, the wind, waves and bird deaths.

There is yet another plan to get wind power to the people who need it. In testimony filed with the Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday, that group's director of transmission oversight backtracked on a previous plan he proposed. T. Brian Almon said the Panhandle Loop plan is still a bad idea, but sending power to the Dallas area via Oklahoma by the X Plan is not such a good idea either. "I believe that there exist at this time uncertainties related to how the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would react to a very large export from Texas and then import into Texas of power," he said.

To help Fredericksburg area residents learn more about wind-powered electrical generators, a public information event has been scheduled here for June 21 by the Gillespie County Economic Development Commission. Scheduled from 9 a.m. until 12 noon that Thursday in the Hangar Hotel Conference Center, the three-hour session will feature a presentation by Terry Argotsinger, accredited farm manager and accredited rural appraiser from Iowa. Greg Snelgrove, EDC executive director, said the June 21 meeting is intended as a public education activity for any interested individuals, including landowners, who want to learn more about the impact of wind-powered energy on land ownership.

An older generation of about 150 people from Stephenville and surrounding areas turned out for Bill Ladd's anti-wind farm meeting at Henderson Junior High School last night. Property owners Charles and Nell Kennedy, of Eastland, said they had come just to see what it was all about. "We're here to find out about it just in case we are approached by anybody," Nell Kennedy said. Charles Kennedy said they owned property and had already heard of a wind farm that might be introduced near them. Ladd lined up five speakers opposed to wind farms.

"It's too early to know what will happen, so let's focus on this one and make it clear it can be integrated with others," said Jolly Hayden, vice president of transmission development for FPLE and president of Lone Star Transmission. Until the Public Utilities Commission identifies the Competitive Renewable Energy Zones where wind energy can be best developed, there are a lot of questions about exactly where new wind farms will go up and what transmission system will be needed.

Steven DeWolf, president of Wind Tex Energy, L.P., presented county commissioners with information concerning a proposed wind power project in Nolan County. DeWolf said the first project by Wind Tex Energy was the original development of the Camp Springs Wind Energy Center in Scurry County. Construction of the farm began in 2006 and commercial operation is expected to begin in June. When complete, it will consist of 87 General Electric 1.5 megawatt wind turbines. Blattner & Sons was hired as the construction contractor and Invenergy Services LLC serves as project operator.

Local and federal officials exchanged concerns in a closed-door meeting Tuesday about potential encroachment issues involving wind farms, but left the meeting on a positive note, officials said. U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock, hosted the meeting Tuesday at Dyess Air Force Base for representatives from the city of Abilene, Taylor and Nolan counties, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy and the Federal Aviation Administration. At stake is the future coexistence of two major economic players in the Abilene area: Dyess, the city's largest employer, and the burgeoning wind energy industry.

Local and federal officials are hoping to head off future encroachment issues as the expanding wind energy industry creeps toward the Dyess Air Force Base flight path. U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock, is hosting a meeting at Dyess Tuesday for representatives from the city of Abilene, Taylor and Nolan counties, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy and the Federal Aviation Administration. At stake is the future coexistence of two major economic players in the Abilene area - Dyess and the burgeoning wind energy industry.

MELISSA, Texas - An orange flag marks where Gary Lisle planned to put up a 33-foot windmill behind his house. But that's about as far as his green idea got in this Dallas suburb. Denied a building permit in March, Lisle joined the growing ranks of frustrated homeowners across the U.S. whose hopes of harvesting wind energy in their backyards have been dashed. Some communities have outlawed residential turbines. Others entangle applicants in so much red tape that they simply give up.

Tom Green County commissioners scrambled Tuesday to get on board the wind energy express before it leaves the station. They voted unanimously to lobby the Public Utility Commission for an upcoming designation as a Competitive Renewable Energy Zone (CREZ).

Meanwhile, as the nation considers options for future energy development, environmental questions have emerged as important considerations, the NRC report states. Proponents point out that wind-energy facilities emit no atmospheric pollutants and are driven by a renewable source, addressing multiple environmental concerns such as air quality and climate change. However, the NRC report also points out that the expansion of such facilities can carry adverse environmental impacts.

Wind turbines produce none of the pollution that contributes to climate change, a top priority among many environmentalists. But wind turbine projects in Texas have run into opposition from birding groups, who say the giant windmills kill birds, and from some ranchers, who worry that they could hamper hunting and tourism activities. Although the report found "no evidence of significant impacts on bird populations," it suggests that policymakers consider aesthetic, cultural, human health and environmental impacts before approving wind power projects.

The possibility that giant wind turbines could someday find homes on Gillespie County hills is drawing notice among landowners, business interests and area residents. Some landowners in a north-central section Gillespie County say they have been contacted by representatives of a company called AES Wind Generation about the possibility of signing lease agreements to allow construction of the large energy-generating towers on their individual properties as part of a larger wind farm operation. Meanwhile, AES is also reportedly engaged in a preliminary stage of studying whether or not the wind currents in that part of the county would make such a wind farm practical.

A new study could put 10 Texas counties in front of the pack to lure wind energy companies and related industries to them. The city of Childress, along with 10 counties and Harmon County in Oklahoma, have formed the Rolling Plains Rural Partnership and are applying for a $150,000 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development Office. The yearlong study, if funding is approved, would place about nine or 10 anemometers around the partnership's area. The anemometers collect and record wind data for the entire year. The exact areas the towers will be located will be determined by a meteorologist and based on elevations and current and future transmission lines. What the group is banking on is the creation of the Panhandle Loop, an electrical transmission system being debated that would transmit electricity from West Texas to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas's grid, which provides electricity to a majority of Texas residents. The $1.5 billion loop is in the planning stages, but is awaiting the outcome of June hearings by the Public Utilities Commissions to approve wind energy areas in West Texas.

In a letter to Gov. Rick Perry last year, James Clement Jr., chairman of the board of the fabled King Ranch, vowed that the ranch will fight a new threat to its land as it has all others: "We have been here for 150 years fighting droughts, border raiders, and unstable commodity markets. . . . We are here to stay." The new threat, unlike the others, is a recent phenomenon: wind power. King Ranch Inc., the agricultural holding company that owns the South Texas ranch and other properties, is backing legislation that could choke off the boom in Texas wind energy by requiring new state regulations of wind turbines.

Wind Energy Systems Technology's Gulf of Mexico wind farm is competing with Massachusetts' Cape Wind to be the first U.S. offshore project. The Louisiana company is getting a 120-foot meteorological tower ready to be towed into the Gulf of Mexico near Galveston, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. The tower will take round-the-clock and monthly wind readings as well as track the flight patterns of migratory birds crossing the coastline so that the right location is chosen for the turbines.

Big Country landowners who lost a lawsuit last year against FPL Energy over the company's Horse Hollow wind farm plan to file an appeal soon. In December, a jury ruled against about ten plaintiffs who said the wind farm created a public nuisance near their homes, siding instead with FPL Energy. Patricia Lapoint, who lives near Tuscola, said an appeal is being drafted, and most of the original plaintiffs are participating. It will likely be filed in the 11th Court of Appeals in Eastland. A judge recently decided the plaintiffs do not have to pay FPL Energy's legal fees from the original lawsuit, which amount to $30,000 to $40,000. Lapoint said the plaintiffs will have a better chance of winning the appeal because more information will be taken into consideration during the process. "The scope of the district trial was very limited," Lapoint said.