Ian Elliot wanted to raise the issue of turbine density in the state's review of the Desert Claim Wind Power Project, but couldn't. The issue wasn't officially entered into evidence by an intervener in the Desert Claim review process, nor was there any expert testimony, studies or other data submitted on the issue by an intervener or the project applicant. ..."I believe the process is flawed because the rights of the local citizens and the obligations of EFSEC do not align," Elliot stated

A state energy council on Monday recommended approval of the 95-turbine Desert Claim Wind Power Project but also put conditions on its future construction and operation eight miles northwest of Ellensburg. The approval is a recommendation to Gov. Chris Gregoire who will make the final decision on the project, which has been sought since January 2003 by the French-owned firm of enXco USA Inc. Gregoire is expected to formally receive the recommendation in early December and has until early February to make her decision.

The state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, or EFSEC, will meet at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the Hal Holmes Community Center to consider a recommendation to Gov. Chris Gregoire on whether to approve the 95-turbine, $330 million Desert Claim Wind Power Project. EFSEC officials estimate a final decision by the governor could come in early February 2010 at the latest. The wind farm, proposed by the French-owned firm of enXco USA Inc., is planned for eight miles northwest of Ellensburg spread on 5,200 acres north of Smithson Road.

A proposal to build the first wind farm in Western Washington may stall, and may even be doomed, because of concern that turbine blades would kill members of an endangered bird species, a state lawmaker says. "I'm just not feeling real confident that this is going to grab hold and move forward very fast," Rep. Dean Takko, D-Longview, said last week. "There are key players who aren't very supportive, and I think it's going to hold this up. Is it going to kill it? I don't know."

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

Wind energy and hydropower have a see-saw-like relationship: When one goes up the other goes down. But the Bonneville Power Administration is hoping a small device that looks like a model rocket and weighs a few pounds can help ease the tricky synergy. BPA on Wednesday installed an anemometer to help the power-marketing agency better forecast oncoming wind at the Horse Heaven substation just west of Paterson.

The Washington Department of Natural Resources is no longer considering leasing 2,560 acres of state trust land to SDS Lumber Co. for possible future expansion of the proposed Whistling Ridge Energy Project in Skamania County. A notice released by the DNR's Ellensburg office on Aug. 10 says the agency "is no longer considering a lease" but could reconsider the option at some future date. "The reason it was withdrawn was because of issues with endangered species," DNR spokesman Aaron Toso said Friday.

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.

Jason Lowe, a biologist with the Bureau of Land Management's Eastern Washington office in Spokane, ...conducted two field surveys this spring and summer, which confirmed what he feared: The hawks are fewer and farther between. Where there were 17 nesting pairs in 1987 in the Juniper Dunes area of Franklin County, only four were spotted last year and just one this year. ...Wind farms are proliferating in Southeast Washington and Northeast Oregon, which is a concern, he said. "Information is not complete, but there have been reports of hawks being hit by the (rotating windmill) blades," he said. While ferruginous hawks are unlikely to nest on ridges where windmills are located, they typically forage for food over a 17-mile radius, and that can include wind farms.

Green power, green jobs, renewable energy collide with the Endangered Species Act in a proposed wind farm in Southwest Washington. The project calling for between 48-60 megawatts of power is proposed for 3,359 acres of Washington Department of Natural Resources land northwest of Naselle, Washington. ...The DNR has the power to stop the project if it deems the project endangers Murrelets.

Today DNR has 24 active wind power leases in various stages. Five wind farms with 65 turbines operate on state trust land, all in Eastern Washington. The leases yield $670,000 a year. However, the DNR failed to consider whether allowing wind turbines on state land might conflict with the compact the state made with the federal government in 1997 when it promised to manage its land in a way that would minimize harm to threatened and endangered species. And Sutherland didn't foresee that some uses might not be compatible with the giant spinning turbine blades that feed renewable energy into the power grid.

The Bonneville Power Administration in the Pacific Northwest has run smack into an issue that may well be repeated elsewhere as wind power gains a larger share of the electric power generation mix. The issue is wind integration and, more to the point, how to manage operational and cost allocation issues that arise as wind power projects come into service. It also touches on public perceptions about wind and what role it can and can't play in meeting electricity demand.

A proposal by an Eastern Washington utility consortium to build the state's first coastal wind farm by 2011 has run smack up against the habitat requirements of a threatened seabird. Energy Northwest, based in the Tri-Cities, has signed a lease with the Washington Department of Natural Resources to build a wind farm on 3,359 acres of state trust land near Naselle, in Pacific County.

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.

A Washington wind farm that its developer calls “one of the premier wind sites in the Pacific Northwest” has been sold to a group of California utilities. ...Why is California buying made-in-Washington wind power? California has much higher electricity rates than Washington, so the wind power premium is proportionately cheaper.

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.