The state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, or EFSEC, today resumes deliberations on whether to approve the 95-turbine, $330 million Desert Claim Wind Power Project proposed for eight miles northwest of Ellensburg. EFSEC's seven members were scheduled to gather again behind closed doors in Olympia at 1 p.m. today, according to EFSEC Manager Allen Fiksdal.

John Lodahl held the torpedo-like instrument steady while Max Holder calibrated it from inside a metal-skinned microwave station on this cold, windswept hill north of Sunnyside. Satisfied with the readings, Lodahl climbed down from the top of the 30-foot tower on a recent morning, marking the end of a tour that has taken the pair from Astoria, Ore., at the mouth of the Columbia River, to the Horse Heaven Hills in Benton County over the past five weeks.

Biomass growing on 2.1 million acres of state forests could be burned to generate electricity or converted to a liquid fuel called methanol, he said. Further, he endorsed the careful expansion of the state's burgeoning wind energy business to the west side of the Cascades - provided the massive towers won't imperil wildlife. ...Wind is not the only renewable energy resource on state lands, he said. Goldmark will sort through 30 proposals for two biomass pilot projects

Today the Bonneville Power Administration will install the first of fourteen anemometers to better track where and how hard the wind is blowing. The BPA, which markets power from the Northwest's network of federal hydroelectric dams, has struggled to incorporate increasing amounts of variable wind energy into the region's electric grid.

In the space of one hour last month, electricity generated at wind farms in the eastern end of the Columbia River Gorge shot up by 1,000 megawatts -- enough to power some 680,000 homes. Less than an hour later, it plummeted almost as much. In coping with the variations, the BPA has at times adjusted flows through dams at rates that exceeded guidelines established to protect fish. "It is stressful. You have the threat of fish issues on one hand you are trying to prevent, and at the same time you're trying to meet load," she said. The events of June 4 and 5 highlight the challenge facing the agency

A proposal to create a 200,000-acre, scenic-protection area to keep out most commercial wind turbines created so much public interest that planning commissioners had to cut their Thursday meeting short, with the promise to continue the public testimony at their next hearing. At the heart of the issue is an amendment to the Umatilla County Comprehensive Plan proposed by Blue Mountain Alliance.

Wind-powered generators dominate the landscape along the eastern Oregon reaches of the Columbia River. Managing their intermittent power output has become a major issue for the Bonneville Power Administration. ...By October, the agency intends to establish a system to knock wind farms off its transmission grid when they are operating so far outside their scheduled output that it threatens to exhaust the agency's hydro reserves.

Fire crews expect to have a wildland fire near a Kittitas County wind farm contained by this evening. ...She said the lack of significant wind has helped the 20-person DNR crew working on the fire. DNR is also using helicopters to drop water on the fire.

A state energy council will soon begin deliberations on whether to recommend approval of the proposed Desert Claim Wind Power Project now that formal hearings on the wind farm concluded Monday in Ellensburg. Members of the state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, or EFSEC, will take with them two main messages heard Monday at an evening hearing from citizens, property owners and group representatives.

The Maryhill Museum of Art has defied convention since it opened, with its utopian origin, eclectic collection and even its location making the green-lawned mansion an incongruous landmark on a desolate ridge above the Columbia River. Now the nonprofit museum's individuality extends into the realm of renewable energy.

The Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project, a wind farm planned for northwest of Ellensburg, is calling on a state energy council to reduce the number of its wind turbines and towers from 65 to a maximum 52. Major construction on the project is set to start in early spring 2010.

Kittitas County commissioners on Monday agreed to become an intervenor in the state's formal process to review the 95-turbine Desert Claim wind farm planned for eight miles northwest of Ellensburg. Gaining intervenor status from the state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, or EFSEC, means the county wants the right to cross examine expert witnesses and give its own expert testimony.

A Bingen-based company that hopes to build a 70-megawatt wind farm on a backcountry ridge near Underwood has asked the state to explore the expansion of the project north onto 2,560 acres of state trust land. The Saddleback Wind Project would rise on logged-over industrial lands behind Underwood Mountain, just outside the north boundary of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.

Local residents this year won't see wind farm towers going into the sky 12 miles northwest of Ellensburg, although site preparation work on the ground for the Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project may start this fall. ...Horizon also is seeking from Kittitas County right-of-way use for power lines from the wind farm.

Jewell's idea on establishing a wind-power royalty payment program, discussed in a separate meeting on Jan. 5, is on hold pending more research. The concept was a possible fee on electricity produced by wind farms in the county.

A Native American tribe in northeastern Washington is partnering with a California company to explore the potential for wind energy there. Clipper Windpower of Carpinteria, Calif, placed three wind gauges on the Confederated Tribes of the Colville reservation in July. Peter Stricker, a Clipper vice president, said Thursday that wind testing would continue until about midyear.

Kittitas County commissioners approved an agreement on Tuesday with a wind energy company that has the firm paying Kittitas County for the staff work required to deal with the development of its wind farm. Invenergy Wind North America LLC, through its subsidiary Vantage Wind Energy LLC, will pay the county $110,000 for handling county requirements for the planned 69-turbine wind farm proposed.

Avista Corp. will delay building a wind farm south of Reardan by at least two years, citing the high cost of the wind turbines. "This stuff is really expensive," said Hugh Imhof, a spokesman for the Spokane-based utility. "Why build a $125 million wind farm if we don't need it for another two years?"

The unanimous decision by the state's highest court that upheld the governor's approval of the Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project has stirred both disappointment and jubilation, depending on how one views the role of state and local government. Those opposed to the site of the 65-turbine wind farm 12 miles north of Ellensburg say the decision bodes ill for local governments.

Wind power advocates won a convincing battle in the Washington Supreme Court, which ruled Thursday that local county commissioners can't block the way for wind power turbine farms. In a unanimous verdict (one justice didn't participate), the court ruled that Kittitas County commissioners couldn't stop the construction of a wind power farm on Highway 97 about halfway between Cle Elum and Ellensburg.