Calumet County supervisors jumped the gun on new wind turbine rules this summer even while asking the state Supreme Court to consider whether its old ordinance met legal muster. A denial from Wisconsin's justices will now require the county to put that early work to action. The state Supreme Court on Friday denied Calumet County's petition for review of an appeals court decision that invalidated the county's wind turbine rules. The ordinance dictated setbacks and maximum heights and sound levels for all turbine construction within its zoning jurisdiction.

Business has been slow, so dairy farmer Bernie Kozlovsky could use a little extra cash as much as the next guy. But a developer's offer of $6,000 annually for access to his property has Kozlovsky - and many of his neighbors - conflicted about whether to welcome a wind farm into southern Brown County. The proposal by Chicago-based Invenergy LLC would be Brown County's first major commercial wind farm and would be larger than any currently operating in the state.

Walter Wiersma considered introducing a photo of his children - 5-year-old Spencer and 3-year-old Rianna - into the written record of Wednesday's Public Service Commission of Wisconsin hearing to illustrate his opposition to electricity-generating wind turbines in northeast Columbia County. Wiersma, of Friesland, was one of many people at the standing-room-only hearings who said worries about the health effects, safety and noise from wind turbines, in a 17,300-acre area in the towns of Scott and Randolph, should lead the commission to reject the We Energies proposal for Glacier Hills Wind Park.

We Energies has run into some headwinds in its bid to build the biggest wind farm in the state. The Glacier Hills Wind Park project in Columbia County would consist of 90 turbines rising at least 400 feet above corn fields near the village of Friesland, northeast of Madison. The Milwaukee utility proposed the project, its second large wind farm, as part of an expansion of renewable energy to comply with a state law that passed with bipartisan support in 2006. The law calls for wind turbines and other renewable energy systems to power 10% of the state's electricity by 2015.

As the blades of the 86 turbines on the Forward Wind Energy Center remain still, rumors have been circulating faster than the wind as to why the wind farm has been offline since Sept. 29. Invenergy LLC officials attributed the shutdown to scheduled maintenance of the wind farm's substation. However, the latest buzz that a major utility pulled out of its power purchase contract and has left Invenergy without a new customer to fill the void simply isn't true.

The potential effects of a wind energy farm proposed for eastern Columbia County were outlined in a final environmental impact statement, released this week by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin. The document - composed of more than 100 pages, plus a second volume of maps, diagrams and photo simulations of how the wind turbines might change the vista in the farmland of the towns of Randolph and Scott - addresses issues such as noise, the turbines' effects on birds and bats, potential effects on agriculture and health and safety issues.

A 90-turbine wind farm proposed for northeast Columbia County, in Scott and Randolph townships, would have little impact on wetlands or birds but neighbors may not like the way the structures stand out against the rolling hills, according to the final environmental impact statement on the project.

Minnesota regulators on Thursday approved a 200-megawatt wind farm in southern Minnesota that would be paid for by Wisconsin utility ratepayers. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission said Wisconsin Power & Light Co.'s project can be built just north of Albert Lea in Freeborn County. The utility received a permit for a 200-megawatt wind farm, the first phase of what officials hope will eventually become a 400-megawatt project. The first phase would generate enough energy to power 50,000 homes.

Even though gusty winds howled through the area earlier this week, the 86 wind turbines on the Forward Wind Energy Center have remained still since Tuesday. ..."The reason the plant was down was due to preventative maintenance being performed at the substation," Miner said.

Wisconsin Power & Light Co. won approval Thursday from regulators in Minnesota to build a wind farm in southern Minnesota to supply renewable energy to its Wisconsin customers. ...Exactly when construction on the project will begin remains unclear, because of uncertainty about the Wisconsin lawsuit.

State regulators set a bad precedent for other energy projects when they gave the go-ahead to Alliant Energy Corp. to build a $497 million wind farm in Minnesota, two energy customer groups say. The groups filed suit in Dane County Circuit Court on Friday to protest the vote by the state Public Service Commission to approve the project under a less rigorous review procedure than is typically required of major energy projects.

Members of the village of Friesland's planning commission Tuesday shared horror stories of a wind farm in a nearby county, but said that the prospect of another wind farm near the village is only one of many reasons why Friesland wants to extend its zoning authority up to 1.5 miles from the village limits.

Calumet County officials are awaiting word on whether the state Supreme Court will review a decision that invalidated its restrictions for wind turbine construction. While they wait, supervisors are working on ordinance changes they say would make their rules valid should justices decline to take the case.

Among agenda items that moved quickly through the docket during the July 21 Calumet County Board of Supervisors meeting was verbal discourse on the moratorium on wind energy development. As reported previously in the Tri-County News, the District 2 Court of Appeals in Waukesha ruled that local governments cannot make broad-based rules controlling wind turbine projects. Given the July 15 decision ...the board voted to postpone development of wind energy facilities in Calumet County.

As if falling power sales and record cold July weather weren't enough challenges for Alliant Energy Corp., the company's wind-power construction business is also seeing sales slide. A downturn in the wind power industry led Alliant to reduce its earnings forecast Thursday ...So far this year, wind development has slowed as developers have had trouble getting financing for new projects.

American Transmission Co. has won another round in a legal battle with Dane County over the county's ability to make the utility apply for local permits for power-line projects. ...The appeals court ruiling found that local units of government don't have jurisdiction over power lines in areas where the PSC has exercised its authority.

Calumet County officials are one-upping an appeals court ruling overturning a wind farm ordinance by slamming the door on all such projects until further notice. The County Board of Supervisors has passed a moratorium on all new wind farm projects until the end of the year or until the county passes zoning ordinance with turbine setback distances and noise limits.

A public hearing on a wind energy project proposed for northeast Columbia County that had been scheduled for last week has been delayed to late October or early November, to give the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin more time to study the project's potential environmental effects.