Broken Bow and Custer County residents can learn about route options for a Nebraska Public Power District transmission line to link a current substation to a wind farm expected to go into operation in 2012.

Wind currents and the harvesting of those turbulent Nebraska breezes are hot topics in this state. Wind may be one of the best rediscovered assets Nebraskans have, and there are a lot of people interested in trying to put some of those assets into their pockets.

The Nebraska Power Association Board of Directors has released the results of a yearlong, statewide study that determined various cost and operational impacts of adding large amounts of wind-powered generation to the state's electric power grid.

A wind-energy advocate is facing resistance form his west Omaha neighbors over a plan to install a turbine in his backyard. ..."He was going to put one up first, then I was going to put one up second, because we have the blessing of the Omaha Public Power District," Walker said. But he lacked the approval of his Eagle Run neighbors.

It has been somewhat of a secret in Grand Island for sometime. And that secret involved the possibility of about 300 new jobs coming to that area. But Friday we learned those jobs will not be coming. It was called Project Amada. About 2 years ago a wind energy company expressed interest in expanding in Grand Island. Then 6 months ago, the area's economic development corporation learned the company decided not to expand.

Look south from Interstate 80 in Nebraska's Panhandle and you will see a nearly endless string of wind turbines on the horizon. But none of the nearly 340 bright-white towers is in Nebraska; they're all across the border on the scrubby, high plains of Colorado. The sight of multimillion-dollar wind farms in adjacent states - but not in Nebraska - has been a constant irritant for many lawmakers and their constituents.

Concerns about cost and preserving the strength of the state's public power system could limit any new wind-power incentives. In a survey, many senators appeared reluctant to do anything that might jeopardize the state's relatively low electricity rates and some expressed doubts about whether Nebraska's electricity grid is ready to deliver wind power from rural areas, where it would be generated, to urban areas, where the demand is higher.

Stahr said counties' interest in regulating wind power picked up after two events last spring. First, the state's first commercially developed wind project, Elkhorn Ridge near Bloomfield in northeast Nebraska, went online in March. Second, the state Legislature passed a bill in May enabling net metering, which allows residents who generate their own power to sell the excess back to public utilities.

Larry Walth thought he was seeing green when he put up a small wind turbine in his backyard on the edge of Wishek's city limits. ...The Walths put up the 39-foot tower with a 2.6-kilowatt turbine motor in June. Now, because of failure to conform to city zoning codes, he's been told to take it down by Friday, or face possible fines of up to $500 a day.

People listening to policymakers debate the nation's energy future might think: Just erect a lot of wind turbines, and problem solved. Or install a bunch of solar panels, and let the sun do the work. But renewable energy alternatives present costs and challenges just like traditional energy sources - coal, natural gas, nuclear and hydropower.

Two 197-foot tall ‘meteorological towers' erected recently on the Nebraska-South Dakota border northwest of Chadron could be the harbingers of a wind energy boom for Dawes County, but one landowner involved with the development says not to expect to see big turbines going up anytime soon. "One thing they told us-'If you are in a hurry, forget it," Dawes County Zoning Commissioner Ed Perrine said at a zoning meeting last week. "It can take up to five years after they set a met tower (before a wind generating installation is complete)."

The future of an 80-megawatt wind farm near Broken Bow depends on the Nebraska Public Power District's ability to find buyers for half of the energy it would generate. NPPD Renewable Energy Development Manager David Rich of Columbus said at Monday's "Wind Power 2009" conference in Kearney that NPPD-approved projects at Petersburg, north of Albion in Boone County, and Broken Bow in central Nebraska would generate a total of 160 megawatts of electricity.

Two agriculture heavyweights, the Nebraska Farm Bureau and Nebraska Cattlemen, are joining the fight for increased development of wind energy in the state. ...State Sen. Chris Langemeier of Schuyler, said one key issue is who would pay the estimated $20 billion needed to build the transmission lines needed to export wind power to major population centers in the East and South. Right now, Langemeier said, Nebraska ratepayers would be on the hook for building those lines "for someone else to profit from wind energy".

It's coming. Wind energy is making it's way across the country and throughout Nebraska. Now, there's a good chance it will be coming to Hamilton County. While there aren't any large wind farms in the area to date, there are some individuals in the area looking to make use of the renewable energy resource.

When Congress adopted higher standards for the use of corn-based ethanol, a gold rush of ethanol plant construction in Nebraska and the Great Plains resulted. A similar decision concerning wind energy, which will soon face federal lawmakers ...Shelley Sahling-Zart, a lobbyist for the Nebraska Power Association, said utilities have varying abilities to meet such mandates. She said they should be free to pursue renewables as "they make economic sense for our customers."

A landowners association in this community has set its sights on doing whatever needs to be done to establish a wind farm in Banner County. The Banner County Wind Energy Association held its first membership meeting Wednesday night, filling the Banner County Fire Hall with people interested in plans by two companies to establish a wind farm in the rural county.

City council members want to take some time to think about allowing wind energy in the community. Following a 20-minute public hearing on June 2 about zoning and subdivision regulations which included wind energy systems, the council decided to introduce the proposal and amend language at the June 16 meeting.

The bill would allow Nebraska's public power districts to waive their eminent-domain power when signing a contract with a private, wind-farm developer, which proponents say was a roadblock to some wind projects. It also allows the state's public power districts to build wind farms larger than 80 megawatts to take advantage of economies of scale.

Entrepreneurs who dream of building small-scale wind, solar, methane or other renewable energy projects could sell their power to the Nebraska Public Power District. The Columbus-based utility is interested in receiving request for proposals for projects of fewer than 10 megawatts that meet Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act guidelines.

Nebraska Public Power District's goal of providing 10 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2010 will be met in part through wind generated power, a company representative said Monday. But, in a presentation to the Chadron City Council, account representative Terry Rajwich emphasized the challenges involved in creating and using electricity from wind, and concluded that customers can find more savings by conserving power than by erecting small scale wind generators.