ELLENSBURG - A 500-square-mile zone on Kittitas County's east end was approved by county commissioners on Wednesday as an area pre-identified as compatible for wind farm development. The zone stretches along the Columbia River and the county's southeast border. Final approval of the new zone is expected to come 3 p.m. July 19 when final documents are signed. Commissioner Chairman Alan Crankovich on Thursday said commissioners approved the addition of wording to the zone that would indicate that wind farm developers also must gain approval for their projects from private, state and federal landowners in the area. This includes the U.S. Defense Department that owns Yakima Training Center lands administered by the U.S. Army and Fort Lewis. "I'm not as optimistic as my fellow commissioners are on the availability of state, federal and military lands for wind farms," Crankovich said. He said he doesn't want creation of the zone to give wind farm companies "false hope" that they can easily site a project in the zone.

A state siting board will hear comments today to consider whether new setbacks should be required for the Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project. The Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council will hold two sessions today, from 3-5 p.m. and 6:30-9:30 p.m., at the Teanaway Hall, Kittitas County Event Center, in Ellensburg. In May, EFSEC recommended Gov. Chris Gregoire to approve the project, allowing up to 65 wind turbines to be built by Horizon Wind Energy of Houston along ridges on either side of Highway 97 outside of Ellensburg. The turbines would be the size of old-growth firs and have propeller blades up to 145 feet long. However, the governor asked for the setbacks to be reconsidered by EFSEC, which had required setbacks of four times the height of the turbines for non-participating residences.

Renewable energy has muscled its way onto the 2009 Legislature's agenda. As of Wednesday, lawmakers had introduced 16 bills to amend Initiative 937, the voter-approved 2006 measure that requires utilities to ramp up their purchase of solar, wind and geothermal energy beginning in 2012. The reason for the intense interest: This is the first session since its passage that the law can be amended by a simple majority vote.

Construction is proceeding on the 205 megawatt (MW) White Creek Wind Project in Klickitat County, Washington, due to the successful completion of financing. All local and state permits have been issued for the windfarm, which is located on 9,500 acres of ranchland, 21 miles east of Goldendale. Operation is expected in late 2007 or early 2008.

Four proposed towers in Yakima County may soon reveal whether the Rattlesnake Hills near Sunnyside are suitable for wind turbines. Goldendale-based Northwest Wind Partners LLC has received tentative approval from a Yakima County hearing examiner to install four anemometers, or instruments that measure wind speed. Hearing Examiner Gary Cuillier will issue a written ruling sometime next week, after giving a verbal go-ahead in a hearing last week. ...Information gained from the towers will determine the possibility of putting turbines on the hillside, he said. Windmills on Rattlesnake Mountain in Benton County have drawn some controversy in recent months, but Cuillier wasn't worried about that yet.

The United States is expected to be home to an anticipated 49,000 MW of installed wind-power capacity by 2015, making it the world's largest wind-power producer, according to a recent report. Developers are expected to invest more than $65 billion between 2007 and 2015 in wind-power facilities, researchers say.

If approved, I-937 would require the state's utilities to produce 15 percent of the their electricity from renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power. Hydroelectric power, which supplies about two-thirds of the state's power, isn't included as a renewable energy source under I-937.

Three agencies, including Kittitas County, want to intervene and affect the future of the Desert Claim wind power project north of Ellensburg. The Washington state Energy Facilities Site Evaluation Council will consider the requests during a council meeting scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

ELLENSBURG -- The wind blows so hard over these desert ridges that it topples outhouses. It whistles through the high steel towers strung with cables that carry electricity west to light the cities of Puget Sound. The hills west of Ellensburg, then, would seem an ideal spot for giant wind turbines to help quench the Northwest's thirst for clean, home-grown energy. Instead, they have become a battleground as some locals and Kittitas County officials square off against environmentalists and wind-power companies over putting towering generators near rural homes that dot these hills and valleys. Now the fivc-year-old debate has reached all the way to the governor's office, elevating this beyond a classic not-in-my-backyard tale in a sparsely populated county. The outcome of this fight could set a precedent for future fights over wind power in the state as demand continues to mount.

Denver-based Invenergy Wind LLC has options to lease or buy land 20 to 25 miles east of Ellensburg for a wind farm project, located between Vantage Highway and Interstate 90. The company, part of the larger Chicago-based power-generation company Invenergy, has environmental, wind, habitat and wildlife studies under way at this time at the site, according to Doug Carter, vice president of development for the company's western region. “We have, so far, viewed the location as a good site for wind-power generation,” Carter said. “We intend to keep developing the site.”

Chicago-based Invenergy Wind North America applied on Wednesday with Kittitas County to construct a $250 million, 69-turbine wind farm sandwiched between Vantage Highway and Interstate 90 southeast of the existing Wild Horse Wind Power Project on the east end of the county. ...By utilizing the county's pre-identified wind farm zone, the company will likely expedite the approval process. "I'm estimating that public hearings before the county commissioners on the project could come as early as December," Piercy said.

Kittitas County officials have declared complete the application for the 64-turbine Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project, a wind farm proposed for 13 miles northwest of Ellensburg.

For a second time, a Washington state agency has recommended that the governor approve a proposed central Washington wind farm over the objections of Kittitas County citizens and officials. The state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council had recommended that Gov. Chris Gregoire approve the Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project in March, but Gregoire asked the council to reconsider whether the turbines should be set farther away from land owned by others. Neighboring landowners and local officials have argued against the project for five years, saying it will have negative environmental and visual impacts.

On Aug. 21, when afternoon temperatures in Washington state soared, Avista Corp.’s (AVA) utility division asked customers to cut their electricity use while it scoured the region for power supplies. Utility operators were frustrated, in part, because the company’s supply of wind power was producing nothing, thanks to a lack of wind. Avista wasn’t alone. Throughout the West during that August heat wave, a growing fleet of windmills met triple-digit temperatures with impotence. California’s grid operator was serving up a record amount of power that afternoon, too, while its 2,850 MW of wind turbines were churning out just 112 MW.......What can all these windmills do to help prevent a blackout in a heat wave? Utilities’ estimates of that range widely. When figuring out how to keep the lights on during the coming summer’s hottest day, PJM pencils in 20% of wind capacity for serving peak load. The California Independent System Operator figures 5% will be there. For Texas, which has more windmills than any other state, Ercot counts on just 2.6% of capacity. Avista, like many utilities operating their own grid, doesn’t count on any wind power during the summer peak. As more windmills come on line, overestimating could mean a blackout, while underestimating could mean paying a lot of money for unneeded standby generators.

VANCOUVER, Wash. - The Port of Vancouver has unveiled a new $3.3 million mobile harbor crane. The crane is capable of lifting 140 metric tons. Port officials say it was purchased in part to unload the blades and hubs of giant wind turbines for Pacific Northwest wind farms.

Cost issues aside, Avista has no choice but to add new renewable sources of electricity to its portfolio. Initiative 937, approved by Washington voters in 2006, requires utilities to acquire new renewable energy resources or to buy so-called renewable energy "credits" from others so that they supply at least 15 percent of their retail load with renewable energy in 2020. I-937 requires utilities to meet biennial conservation targets beginning in 2012, and because wind-turbine farms take only about six months to build after construction begins, Avista doesn't have to erect its wind turbines right away, Silkworth says. "Our needs don't really start until 2012; so, we're not thinking of building this thing for a few years," he says.

Power company Avista Corp. (AVA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it opposes an initiative in Washington state requiring 15 percent of power supply to come from renewable sources, saying the measure would boost prices and that it fails to count existing hydropower.

Avista Corporation is looking to rural Lincoln County for their next big power project. But they aren't going to install a big electrical sub-station, or some high tension power lines, they're going to harness the wind. ..."Unfortunately wind is expensive, it's much more expensive than hydro, it is however cheaper than solar," said Hugh Imhof, spokesperson for Avista. But "greener" energy comes at a cost, something that will be reflected in rate increases. "It will be something that will be incorporated into the rate raise and it will probably mean an increase," said Imhof. "None of these things are cheap anymore."

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?"