Just three months after starting electrical production, the blades on the wind turbines at the Flat Ridge Wind Farm in Barber County are developing small surface cracks. Clipper Windpower of Carpinteria, Calif. provides the wind turbines that are produced by another manufacturer. The problem was discovered at another Clipper project site, said Mary Gates, director of global communications for Clipper Windpower. ..."It was a quality control deficiency with the suppliers process," Gates said.

A blown transformer that has idled scores of wind turbines at the Smoky Hills Wind Farm for about four months is expected to be replaced soon. "If all goes well, it should be online in the next couple weeks," said Cinthia Hertel, a spokeswoman for Sunflower Electric Power Corporation, one of the utilities with contracts to receive power from the wind farm, which is located along Interstate Highway 70 at the Ellsworth/Lincoln county line.

LINDSBORG -- Rose Bacon, member of the Governor's Energy Task Force and a rancher who owns property in the Flint Hills, spoke about the vulnerability of communities facing proposals from international companies that want to build commercial wind farms in rural areas. She pointed to the lack of “teeth” in regulations, and the attractive tax write-offs granted to wind energy companies, and the inexperience of local officials in dealing with such monstrous deals, depicting a state-wide scenario akin to the “wildcatter days in the oil business.”