Western Wind Energy Corporation has reviewed the wind energy marketplace across the United States and has determined to seek new wind energy development opportunities in California. The strategy is focused at 30 sites totaling over 1,200 Megawatts.

A massive wind power facility proposed for the Tehachapi area, if approved by state regulators, would become the largest project of its kind in the nation. The $3 billion Alta Wind Energy Center would involve installing as many as 750 wind turbines over a 50-square-mile area east and south of Tehachapi. It would generate as much as 1,500 megawatts — more than twice the power of the largest existing wind energy facility in the United States. It also would more than double the wind energy produced in the Tehachapi area.

A "wind farm" that would take advantage of the gusts that have been blowing through the Central Coast at 30 to 50 mph is moving right along despite a lawsuit filed against the county's approval of the project. Construction won't begin for at least a year, but in the meantime officials of the developer say they are working to meet all the requirements imposed by the county with the intention of protecting the environment surrounding the "clean energy" project.

Up to 49 wind turbines could line 6½ miles of ridgeline near Burney -- and might be visible from parts of downtown Redding. If approved, the $180 million Hatchet Ridge Wind Project would harness up to 125 megawatts of electricity at the site of the 1992 Fountain Fire, seven miles west of Burney and north of Highway 299. The turbines could reach 500 feet tall.

For the first time in more than a year, a group other than the Solano County Planning Commission will be discussing a proposal to install up to 88 wind turbines in the Montezuma Hills. The Solano County Airport Land Use Commission will hear the issue Thursday night, a year after voting against the issue the first time around for fear of the turbines affecting the radar system at Travis Air Force Base. The difference this time is that officials at Travis are no longer objecting to the proposal, as stated in a letter written by Wing Commander Col. Steven Arquiette earlier this month. ...The company proposing the project, enXco, has offered Travis a gift of up to $1 million that the base may use anyway it wishes.

Peter Gross of Babcock and Brown presented a request for a permit to put up another meteorological tower in the town of Westfield. According to Gross, after the public meetings about the possibility of wind farms in the Westfield-Ripley area, several families approached him about how they could become involved in the project. "They came to us which started us looking at the possibilities in that area," Gross said. "We won't know for sure until we have the readings from the met tower but we're proceeding with hopeful caution."

The environmental impact report (EIR) for a proposed 80-turbine wind farm near Mojave is adequate, an appeals court has ruled, clearing the way for construction to begin. In approving the EIR, the 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno rejected the arguments of the Kerncrest and Los Angeles branches of the Audubon Society. The court also ordered the Audubon society to pay legal bills incurred by the Los Angeles City Department of Water and Power (LADWP).

The Apple Valley Town Council is adamantly opposing the 27 wind turbines proposed for Granite Mountain. The council is scheduled to vote Tuesday night, and is expected to recommend the San Bernardino County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors deny the project. "My concern is are we really looking at how this effects our desert environment?'" asked Councilman Scott Nassif. "All the sudden there seems to be a mad rush to the desert. We need to be smart about how we manage that resource in balance to alternative energy." ...Since the majority of the project will be on Bureau of Land Management property, the county is currently processing an Environmental Impact Report.

Gary Hatfield feels like Don Quixote in "Man of La Mancha." However, the avid chukar hunter from Mountain Home Village is battling to stop the building of actual windmills on some of the best chukar and quail hunting habitat in the West Mojave Desert. This week the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the county of San Bernardino have agreed to extend the comment period for the Granite Mountain Wind Energy Project to May 5.

PALM SPRINGS - Out here in the desert two hours east of Los Angeles, the weather is so blustery that NASA once declared the San Gorgonio Pass "one of the windiest spots in North America." No wonder it's also the birthplace of many of the world's first power-producing windmills. Today, 3,000 of the so-called wind turbines have sprouted up from the desert floor and lined many of the mountain ridges along the freeway that ushers the rich and the famous into the legendary California oasis, Palm Springs. The sprawling wind farm generates enough electricity to light up a city the size of San Francisco. But there's trouble on the horizon. A plan to erect even more windmills is meeting with vocal opposition here.

Two appeals filed against the approval of the Lompoc wind energy project are on the board's agenda, but the project applicant requested Friday that they be postponed. The supervisors received the letters from Acciona Energy asking for a 60-day continuance, because it would provide more time to work with the appellants - Lompoc area residents George and Cheryl Bedford and the California Department of Fish and Game.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a request Tuesday to the California Public Utilities Commission for a 60-day extension of a comment period regarding a Southern California Edison power line project in the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys. Edison's project would construct additional high-power transmission lines and towers from the Antelope Valley to the Pardee power station in Santa Clarita. The power provider has proposed a 500 kilovolt transmission line from Tehachapi to its Antelope substation. The second-stage, 25.6-mile segment would stretch to Santa Clarita from the Antelope Valley.....Alis Clausen, Edison's northern region manager, said the project was part of a Utilities Commission request to Edison to find a way of sending wind energy from Kern County into the electric grid.

Highlighting the environmental pitfalls of harnessing "green" energy, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's push to import nonpolluting power to Los Angeles could require building power lines and transmission towers through a national forest, two desert wildlife preserves and a rustic hamlet used in countless westerns.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has under contract all of the renewable power it needs to meet state mandates by 2010, if the promised power systems can be built in time. It's a big if. Expiring tax credits, the lag in building utility-scale renewable energy and increased competition for renewable power sources are potential roadblocks for the Northern California utility and the state's two other major utilities. ...Another issue for PG&E and the other utilities is that costs are rising 20 percent per year for renewable power.

The number of power towers behind homes on Paseo Del Palacio Street will be increased by 50 percent. The street is just one example of a densely populated residential area that will be affected by the proposed power line project. For every two existing power lines, a new one will be added in between, said Chuck Adamson, Southern California Edison's senior project manager, about Paseo Del Palacio Street on Tuesday.

CHINO HILLS - The City Council voted Tuesday evening to help its residents fight Southern California Edison's proposal to expand transmission lines, some of which border homes in the city. The 3-0 vote was anticipated by the nearly 150 residents who showed up to gain the city's support. As a result, authorization was given for the city manager and city attorney to spend $600,000 to hire a consultant to review Edison's project and propose alternatives. The consultant will also assist the city in preparing a protest to the project, which may include the request for a hearing. The protest must be filed within 30 days from Edison's application.

The Solano County Airport Land Use Commission voted Thursday in favor of 75 wind turbines to be built in the Montezuma Hills, reversing its decision from nearly a year ago. The project will now head March 20 to the Solano County Planning Commission, where it had stalled for nearly a year after officials at Travis Air Force Base raised concerns that the turbines may affect radar systems. The change in vote came after officials at Travis indicated they are no longer objecting to the proposal, as stated in a letter written by Wing Commander Col. Steven Arquiette earlier this month.

At a Riverside County Planning Commission meeting Wednesday, officials approved a project to have 40 wind turbines proposed by Portland-based developer PPM Energy on county land. "We're going to continue to fight it," said Michele McNeill, a Desert Hot Springs resident who lives near the proposed site.

Sometimes the vagaries of county government even can confuse folks who attend and participate in a meeting - and maybe even the decision-makers themselves. A curious case in point - The Tuesday, Oct. 2 Lassen County Planning Commission meeting where an application for a meteorological tower on private land was up for approval. Opponents of Invenergy's Horse Lake Wind Farm project claim they won a round at the meeting because the commission failed to approve the permit application. ...Anderson said while none of the other commissioners apparently wanted to approve the permit application, the commission did not make and carry a motion to disapprove it before moving on to other business.