Milwaukee-based WE Energies wants to build a 90-turbine, 234-megawatt wind farm located between the Columbia County villages of Cambria and Friesland. ... The project would gather power from up to 90 turbines, each with a half-acre footprint, by using up to 50 miles of 50-foot-wide corridors for collector cables. Twenty miles of permanent roads would be used to access the turbine sites, according to the application.

State Rep. Ken Tschumper, DFL-La Crescent, hosted a community forum last week featuring a panel of environmentalists. Tschumper and others question whether the project's estimates of demand are accurate. He also is concerned that ratepayers could end up financing a project that could harm the area's environment. Other worries include possible health effects and what the potentially 150-foot-high transmission towers would do to the region's scenery. "There are decisions being made here with this high-voltage transmission line ... that are going to impact people's lives for the next 30 or 40 years," Tschumper said.

Planning for EcoEnergy's 100 megawatt wind project in Magnolia Township will continue despite the town board's approval of what the wind developer says is a "very prohibitive" ordinance and non-supportive town leadership. "We're certainly not giving up," project developer Curt Bjurlin said. But he said as a business looking to develop projects in towns that help developers, "Magnolia could have acted in a way that was more enabling to allow us to build this project in a more efficient way." ...The board on July 3 unanimously passed an ordinance with turbine setbacks of a half mile from homes and 1,000 feet from property lines.

Alliant Energy is using the rail yard as a staging point for moving the large wind-tower components from rail to truck for the final leg of a trip that started in Europe. ...Wisconsin Power & Light, a subsidiary of Alliant, is building a 41-tower wind farm in the towns of Eden and Empire, southeast of Fond du Lac. Scott Reigstad, a spokesman for Alliant, said it will be the company's first fully owned and operated wind farm. The 41 wind generators have capacity to produce 68 megawatts of electricity.

Residents opposed to a wind farm project in Two Creeks have filed a complaint in Manitowoc County Circuit Court requesting a permit extension for the project be nullified. Jerome Hlinak, of rural Two Rivers, his neighbors and members of Wisconsin Independent Citizens Opposing Windturbine Sites (WINDCOWS) claim they are aggrieved by the Manitowoc County Board of Adjustment's decision to uphold the project's two-year extension.

Jim Congdon said two friends living in the town of Byron are experiencing significant sound problems and constant blade flicker since the $250 million Forward Wind Energy Center began operating. "It's extremely irritating," he said. "What is the company going to do with somebody like that?" Laura Miner, asset manager associate for Chicago-based Invenergy Wind LLC, said it's currently fielding all complaints . "What we did when we built the project was to have a 1,000-foot setback and try to prevent some of those things from happening," she said. "Now we're doing drive-by tests and going up to the houses to try to gauge what's going on."

The proposed Bent Tree Wind Farm in northwest Freeborn County could come under new ownership. Wisconsin Power & Light Co., a subsidiary of Alliant Energy Corp., created a letter of intent to purchase the 400-megawatt wind farm site from Wind Capital Group, according to a press release. ...The wind farm's total cost is estimated at $760 million, at $1.8 million per megawatt to build. The farm would have 150 to 270 turbines ranging in size from 1.5 to 2.5 megawatts. Each turbine must be located 1,000 feet from every residence.

The status of the Blue Sky Green Field Wind Farm has generated a lot of hot air from locals, but operator We Energies said the 88 turbines haven't started generating power. Blue Sky Green Field remains under construction as We Energies tests the turbines, said company spokesman Barry McNulty. ...Manthey also said We Energies has come to a resolution with landowner Bill Winkler regarding a turbine that was placed 36-feet too close to his home. Ordinances require wind turbines be placed at least 1,000 feet from homes.

Three developers are interested in building hundreds of wind turbines offshore on Lake Michigan, the state said. ...The projects are being discussed as a study group of the Public Service Commission, state Department of Natural Resources and the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands looks at offshore generation in Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. Gov. Jim Doyle's global warming task force recommended the study.

Three developers are floating plans to erect hundreds of wind turbines in Lake Michigan as interest in the construction of wind farms surges around the country. The Lake Michigan plans are all in the very preliminary stages, and how they would be financed is unclear. The projects are being discussed as several state agencies have launched a study to determine the feasibility of erecting wind turbines on the two Great Lakes that border the state - Superior and Michigan. ...interest in offshore projects has increased in part because of opposition to land-based wind farms.

Wisconsin Power and Light Co. said Tuesday that it has executed a letter of intent to purchase a 400-megawatt wind farm site in Freeborn County in southern Minnesota. The Bent Tree Wind Farm site, to be purchased from Wind Capital Group LLC, a St. Louis-based developer of wind energy assets, has the potential to produce up to 400 megawatts of emissions-free energy if completely developed, ...Wisconsin Power and Light (WPL), a subsidiary of Alliant Energy Corp. in Madison, expects the site purchase to be completed by October.

Given Wisconsin's reputation as a "green" state, it would seem that a proposal to construct wind farms in Lake Michigan and Lake Superior off the state's shores would easily be approved. But opposition to land-based wind farms and the slow development of wind power in the state have some wind power advocates gearing up for a fight with those expressing concern about humming noise, flickering shadows and ruined views. ... But opposition to wind farms runs deep. Last month, the state Senate let die a bill by Plale that would have curbed municipal and county governments' ability to ban wind turbines. ...A 133-turbine wind farm by the Chicago company Invenergy Wind LLC near Horicon Marsh in central Wisconsin is partially constructed and operating despite vociferous opposition. "You've got to hear these things, they drive you nuts," said Joe Breaden, a retired high school ecology teacher who says he was mocked 20 years ago for warning about global warming. "It's a droning sound mixed in with a woo-woo-woo. It reminds me of the 'Twilight Zone.' "

Green energy might be trendier, but it's old-fashioned black coal that will drive the state's new energy production in the next three years. Three coal-fired plants are scheduled to go online in the state by 2010, generating an additional 1,730 megawatts of power. Wisconsin Public Service Corp.'s Weston 4 power plant will go online first. The 500-megawatt plant is running, but will not go live until sometime this summer, according to spokeswoman Kelly Zagrzebski. The state's Public Service Commission approved the $752 million project in 2004. ...She added construction of the power plant helped central Wisconsin's economy. Washington Group International, the project's general contractor, used several local companies and skilled laborers on the job. Nearly 1,000 employees worked on construction of the plant, Zagrzebski said, adding that the expansion created 42 new full-time positions with the utility.

There are a lot of engineering and economic questions that need answering before turbines sprout from Lake Michigan. But one thing's for sure: The wind out there dwarfs anything found on Wisconsin's land, said Robert Owen, wind energy consultant, mechanical engineer and meteorologist in Middleton. Owen studied the data collected by the wind sensors set up by the Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab off the coasts of Milwaukee, Kenosha, Chicago and Muskegon, Mich. "We can't do gigawatt-scale wind farms in Wisconsin," he said. "We can do them in Lake Michigan." ...Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, said there's nobody in the middle of Lake Michigan to start campaigns opposing wind farms. However, building on water is a good 10 years away, he estimated, and there's plenty of space left on land to build turbines in Wisconsin. "It'll probably have an important part to play in the future," he said of off-shore wind farming. "I don't know when that future will arrive."

The sites under consideration are in the town of Kaukauna and Freedom, and a recent open house sponsored by the three partners in the project drew about 100 people to see displays in the old gym at Freedom High School. The project was initiated by Kaukauna Utilities and Wisconsin Public Power Inc., and all of the power generated by the wind towers will be used locally by Kaukauna Utilities customers. The project, as envisioned, would have up to five wind towers generating 7.5 megawatts of electricity. ...The president of the Kaukauna Utilities Commission, Lee Meyerhofer, said the project is seen as fulfilling part of Gov. Jim Doyle's initiative to have renewable energy sources provide 25 percent of the state's electricity by 2025.

Lake Michigan might give Wisconsin the edge it needs when competing with other states for wind farm developments. The state goes head-to-head with other states for wind farms, just as it does for manufacturing plants or offices, so Wisconsin is seeing if developers can make more money building wind turbines in the lake than they could on land in Iowa or Minnesota. Studies show Lake Michigan is windy in the right way: Its gusts pick up at the same times during the day that residents use more electricity, said Alex Depillis, engineer-wind monitor for EcoEnergy, Madison. But wind farm developers must balance the increased wind against the cost of construction, which is higher in the middle of a lake than on land, Depillis said.

Farmers considering whether to install a wind turbine to generate their own electricity likely will face prohibitive county laws and opposition from area residents, a wind energy expert said on Thursday. With a few exceptions, "if there has been controversy in your neighborhood about a wind farm, people are not going to let you put up a 100-foot tower," said Jenny Heinzen, an instructor specializing in wind turbines at Lakeshore Technical College. ...Emerging Energies is proposing a seven-turbine wind farm in the town of Mishicot. The plan has been met with criticism, and in April 2007 the project was derailed after an opposition group won a civil suit filed to void a county conditional use permit granted to Emerging Energies.

Proposals to build the turbines were floated five years ago, and the projects became controversial. Some homeowners worried that the towers would dramatically change the rural landscape, and they raised concerns about noise and other potential problems. ...Former resident Mike Winkler has a different view. A vocal opponent of what he calls a "windustrial park," he lobbied hard against construction of the wind farm. He considers wind towers to be eyesores that have wrecked the landscape on the family farm where he grew up. His experience prompted him to write a novella called "Wind Power . . . It Blows!" Winkler moved to Malone, eight miles away from the Town of Marshfield. "Now I avoid the area altogether," he said. "Instead of it being a trip down nostalgia lane, I just don't want to even see it."

It can fight all it wants, but Calumet County will get a wind farm, said Peter Dorn. "It's just a matter of time," said Dorn, a member of the county's Planning, Zoning and Farmland Preservation Committee. "Any time the state government steps in and recognizes its dealing with a big industry, local control is going to end." The state recognized it with wind farms, and even though legislation to establish statewide standards for approving wind farm development failed to survive the State Senate last week, Dorn said he knows it will be back when the new legislative session starts in January. "It just delayed it a year," he said. "That's all."

High Country Energy LLC, a community-based wind energy development located in Olmsted and Dodge counties, announced on Friday that it has sold a 150 megawatt portion of its wind farm to Wisconsin Public Service Corporation, based in Green Bay, Wis. The High County Energy project, which is managed by National Wind LLC and will be located in both Dodge and Olmsted counties, allows landowners to invest in the project. Since National Wind is a minority owner, most of the proceeds from the sale will go to High Country Energy landowners, National Wind co-chairman Patrick Pelstring said.