Invenergy LLC, which is seeking state approval for a wind farm in southern Brown County, also questions Holland's toughened setback requirements for wind turbines. "Regardless of the town's desire to enact such a moratorium or setbacks, it has no power to do so," Invenergy attorney Peter Gardon wrote in a six-page letter dated Feb. 4.

Opponents of a proposed wind farm in southern Brown County hope the town of Holland is just the first municipality to set a one-year ban on wind farm construction. Chicago-based Invenergy LLC submitted an application to state regulators in October for permission to develop the Ledge Wind Energy Project within four neighboring towns in southern Brown County. The

In an emerging battle over a major wind farm development in southern Brown County, officials in the town of Holland have approved a one-year moratorium on wind farm construction. But whether the action taken Monday night will derail plans by Chicago-based Invenergy LLC remains to be seen.

Late this summer, about the time that We Energies starts construction on Columbia County's first wind energy farm, the people of southern Columbia County might know whether the towns of Leeds and Arlington will be the site of the county's second wind farm. Officials of the Madison-based Wind Capital Group came to County Board's planning and zoning committee almost 18 months ago.

The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, which approved the project, is unlikely to settle with Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group and the Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin, said Steven Heinzen, an attorney in the Madison office of Godfrey & Kahn SC representing WIEG and CUB. The groups sued the PSC because of the way in which the commission approved the project.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported Thursday that major state agencies now get 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources like wind farms but paid a premium for it of $1.4 million last year - 29 percent more than expected. Rep. Brett Davis, R-Oregon, sent a letter Monday asking Administration Secretary Michael Morgan for more details on the deals.

Long after it began operating south of Fond du Lac with more than 80 wind turbines, the Forward Wind Energy Center divides residents as sharply as it did when the project was announced five years ago. Opponents of the operations insist that wind turbines are jeopardizing people's health and destroying the area's peaceful aesthetics. Supporters [are] certain that wind energy is liberating the United States from air pollution and dependence on foreign oil.

Dozens of homeowners and others in the wind farm development site have joined forces under the name Brown County Citizens for Responsible Wind Energy. The group is urging local officials to impose moratoriums on wind farm construction in an effort to slow or stop Invenergy LLC, a Chicago-based developer planning to erect 100 wind turbines south of Green Bay.

Within days, the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin will finalize its list of conditions for the construction of a wind farm in northeast Columbia County. But officials of We Energies already are planning where the turbines will go and determining whether the PSC's conditions will allow erecting all 90 of them.

The multimillion-dollar construction projects to get the blades spinning won't mean much if there's no way to transmit wind farm electricity. So far in Wisconsin, transmission has been less of a problem than local approvals and harnessing the wind, but that could change as the state reaches farther west for renewable energy.

The Glacier Hills Wind Park, which could be the largest in the state, will rise from the farm fields of eastern Columbia County, the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin decided Monday. But the three-member commission called for We Energies to meet several conditions in building the 90-turbine wind farm, including a minimum of 1,250 feet of distance between the turbines and the buildings on nonparticipating property; limits on the noise generated by the turbines; and the possibility that people whose property is surrounded by the turbines might have their property bought out.

State regulators will approve We Energies' proposal to build the Glacier Hills Wind Park. At the opening of the commission meeting Monday afternoon, commission chairman Eric Callisto and commissioner Lauren Azar said they will vote to approve the project.

Residents of eastern Columbia County should learn today whether wind energy turbines will be rising from the farm fields in the towns of Randolph and Scott. Discussion and a decision about the proposed We Energies wind farm is on the tentative agenda for the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin when the three-member body meets at 1 p.m. today.

We Energies can build the 90-turbine Glacier Hills Wind Park in Columbia County without a requirement to buy power from Chicago-based Invenergy LLC. The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin on Monday approved the We Energies' proposal, expected to be the largest wind farm in state history. Commissioners denied a request by Invenergy that the project only be approved if We Energies agrees to also buy power from Invenergy's yet-to-be-built, 100-turbine farm near Green Bay.

We Energies will be allowed to build the Glacier Hills Wind Park northeast of Madison, but conditions imposed by regulators Monday make it unclear whether the project will be the largest wind farm in the state. The state Public Service Commission voted to authorize construction of the project, which consists of up to 90 turbines ...the commission imposed restrictions that require turbines to be built at least 1,250 feet from the homes of local residents who don't host wind turbines on their land.

Although state and local officials aren't confirming it yet, there were strong indications Friday that a Spanish manufacturer of wind-turbine generators may locate its new factory in Milwaukee - an investment projected to create 100 to 200 jobs. The Obama administration announced that Spanish energy company Ingeteam was awarded $1.66 million in clean-tech manufacturing tax credits to make wind turbine generators.

State regulators on Monday will rule on We Energies' $413.5 million proposal to build the largest wind farm in the state. The Milwaukee utility is proposing a 90-turbine wind power project, the Glacier Hills Wind Park. ...The proposal has run into opposition from local residents as well as a Chicago wind-power developer that is proposing an alternative project.

Wisconsin's business community is divided over Gov. Jim Doyle's clean energy plan that calls for increasing the use of renewable fuels and opens the door to nuclear power, with opponents saying the new mandates will weaken Wisconsin's already struggling manufacturing sector.

The people who live in Pleasant Springs have no choice but to trust that an estimated $220 million transmission line will not get too close to a subdivision. ...Public Service Commission of Wisconsin earlier this month chose not to reconsider Waukesha-based American Transmission Co. LLC's proposal for a 345-kilovolt line between Rockdale and west Middleton near Madison.

Gov. Jim Doyle has backed off a campaign promise that four University of Wisconsin campuses will be energy independent by 2012 after determining it was not practical as proposed. ...Some university officials say the original plan never made much sense because "going off the grid" would have required them to start producing their own electricity instead of buying it from utilities, which was not feasible or cost-effective.