The Calumet County Board of Supervisors meeting last Tuesday, May 20 drew a crowd of about 80 people who were there not so much to listen to the regular proceedings of the meeting but to the presentations given by individuals on both sides of the wind turbine issue. ...Between the public participation speakers and the formal presentations, the controversy over wind turbines appears to be continuing. ...No official action was taken at the meeting concerning changing Calumet County's wind ordinance as it presently stands.

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.

Without regulations, the county could find itself caught between residents who object to the giant turbines and the developers who want to build them. If a permit is requested before rules are in place, "I'd say to you, 'Yeah, go ahead,' " Zoning Administrator Steve Rannenberg told the county's zoning committee Wednesday. Although current ordinances limit structure height to 35 feet, they allow certain types of structures to exceed that limit. "Those regulations need to be in place before we're confronted with an application versus after the fact," Rannenberg said. "You can't then go back and regulate. ... The regulation has to be in place first."

Attorney James Sickel recommended that the Town of Holland adopt the same ordinance developed by the neighboring Town of Morrison to regulate wind energy developments. "It is very well done and thorough," Sickel said. He said it deals with all of the issues on concern to Holland: setback, noise, vibration, shadow, flicker, safety and removal.

With wind energy, he said there are two issues: individual landowners seeking a wind turbine for personal power and large, industrial wind farms. "This is ... considered to be a major land use issue," Rannenberg said. "As you can imagine, there are two sides to this issue as there are two sides to any issue." Some counties have adopted wind farm ordinances, but Douglas County isn't one of them. ...In coming months, the zoning committee plans to review other counties' ordinances and develop regulations of its own before being confronted by issues members are ill-prepared to address now. Without regulations, the county could find itself caught between residents who object to the giant turbines and the developers who want to build them.

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.

A new proposal for a wind energy law in Eau Claire County is being presented to rural leaders after a previous draft had been criticized for making windmills too expensive to build. The county's Planning and Development Committee reviewed the draft Tuesday night and agreed to have it brought to town leaders before coming back for a public hearing on the evening of May 27. "The revision you gave us was a vast improvement," said Will Fantle, a member of the Planning and Development Committee. "This is considerably different."

Farmers considering whether to install a wind turbine to generate electricity likely will face prohibitive county laws and opposition from area residents, a wind energy expert said. 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. ...Heinzen said some residents are afraid installing a wind turbine on their property would "ruin their relationship with their neighbors." She said it would take a property owner willing to fight the ordinance in court after being denied a project to change the county law. But most property owners aren't willing to take the risk, she said.

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.

The Town Board and Plan Commission on April 16 directed town staff to begin amassing information from communities throughout the state that have enacted controls on such towers. Gromacki says the intent is for Dover to adopt its own ordinance. The impetus for Gromacki was a recent return trip from a town government convention when he happened upon part of the We Energies wind farm project in northeast Fon du Lac County east of Lake Winnebago. ... Gromacki said he does not believe the state Legislature has taken sufficient steps to regulate wind turbines.

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.

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit from a wind farm developer that argued Manitowoc County's wind turbine ordinance violates state law and makes the company's proposed project "cost-prohibitive." Manitowoc County Circuit Judge Darryl Deets on Wednesday dismissed the case, which was filed by Emerging Energies LLP of Hubertus, in May 2007. ...In an interview, Deets said the company would have to apply for a conditional-use permit under the most recently amended ordinance before the court could determine if the ordinance's restrictions violate state law.

Two brothers-in-law, a country road in northwest Missouri, a fistfight ...Surely it's happened before, but probably never over wind energy. ...At the heart of the dispute: Just how healthy is the noise from wind turbines? ...In Rock County, Union Township residents studied medical and scientific research for months before drafting their wind ordinance, which says a setback of at least a half-mile from inhabited structures is needed to avoid health problems. Tom Alisankus, chairman of the committee that drafted the ordinance, said committee members found in their research that the state of Wisconsin had no medical or scientific data to back a model ordinance with a 1,000-foot setback. Proposed legislation that would have allowed the state's Public Service Commission to set statewide siting standards failed to reach a vote before the session ended last month. Doctors in other countries, including Canada, England, France, Australia and New Zealand, have written papers about similar illnesses in people who live near wind farms. ..."Does noise bother people differently? Absolutely," said Smith, the area audiologist. "It can have a very debilitating effect." But, he said, before anyone can conclude that the wind turbines are harmful, a major study must be done.

The approval means that WPS customers will be asked to pay higher prices than those the utility announced this month. WPS had earlier sought to raise rates by $107 million, or nearly 8%, in 2009. But wind farm costs are expected to add another $20 million to customers' bills in 2009 and $34 million in 2010, WPS said in a filing with state regulators. ...The Crane Creek project, which still faces regulatory approvals in Iowa, would consist of 66 turbines over 29 acres. The project would be built in 2009 by enXco, a subsidiary of EdF (Électricité de France) Group, then sold to WPS.

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.

The Town of Magnolia Planning and Zoning Board voted 5-0 tonight to table its discussion on a draft ordinance that would regulate wind turbines. More than 30 people turned out for the meeting, which included a public hearing on the draft ordinance. The draft ordinance proposes wind turbines be placed at least a one-half mile from homes and other inhabited structures and at least 1,000 feet from property lines.

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."