It seems like an idea any environmentalist would embrace: Build one of the world's largest solar power operations in the Southern California desert and surround it with plants that run on wind and underground heat. Yet San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and its potential partners face fierce opposition because the plan also calls for a 150-mile, high-voltage transmission line that would cut through pristine parkland to reach the nation's eighth-largest city. The showdown over how to get renewable energy to consumers will likely play out elsewhere around the country as well, as state regulators require electric utilities to rely less on coal and natural gas to fire their plants -- the biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S.

Speculators have filed applications to develop more than 1 million acres of desert in Southern California with solar, wind and geothermal power plants, setting up a classic clash over land use with environmentalists and off-road enthusiasts. They have submitted at least 130 proposals with the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees all of the territory, in recent years and especially since 2007. The interest is so hot that even if many of the projects fall through, the remaining ones would change the look of the arid landscape. ... "We have worked for decades to protect the desert. . . . Let's not trash what we've saved," said Elden Hughes, who has worked with the Sierra Club and other environmental groups for decades.

A rush to build environmentally friendly renewable energy in the windy, sunny Inland region has stirred up some unlikely foes: environmentalists. They say the projects mean new transmission lines and towers across some of the very mountains and desert vistas people have fought to protect. ...It's not just environmentalists who are objecting. A Riverside County supervisor said he opposes plans to erect 400-foot-tall wind turbines for the first time on the 4,000-foot elevation of Mount San Jacinto, near Palm Springs. And a San Bernardino County supervisor has strongly urged Los Angeles to abandon plans to string new transmission lines to carry renewable energy through the Morongo Basin east of Joshua Tree National Park.

On Friday morning, elected officials, environmentalists and energy company representatives heralded the unveiling of the Dillon Wind Power Project, a group of 45 turbines towering more than 300 feet above the Coachella Valley. ...The Palm Springs wind farms have been built out, and there are few options other than upgrading their aging turbines. A number of proposals have been submitted to the state Bureau of Land Management, but one - a proposal that would build up to 28 turbines six miles east of Apple Valley and is the farthest along in the approval process - could be San Bernardino County's first wind farm. ...The proposal's 410-foot ridgeline turbines, however, have created controversy.

They are an environmentalist's dream but possibly a neighborhood nightmare. Clean and renewable, wind power turbines from 30 feet to 300 feet tall could pepper the Sonoma County landscape, especially at higher, visually prominent locations. ... "You're not going to ignore them," said Alexandra von Meier, associate professor of energy management and design at Sonoma State University. Von Meier said the county is speckled with prospective wind turbine sites and suggested that local governments should "make it easy" to tap the wind with whirling machines.

Fire caused an estimated $750,000 in damage to a windmill on Thursday, the Palm Springs Fire Deparment said today. ...The top portion of the windmill was on fire and several small spot fires happened because of falling debris. The fire is under investigation.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power says it has yet to pick a preferred route for Green Path North, a proposed electrical corridor running from Desert Hot Springs to Hesperia. ...But folks from the California Desert Coalition and a local chapter of the Sierra Club say a route has been chosen, and they intend to show people where the agency intends to install the high-tension corridor. "I think it's important to educate people about what the landscape looks like and how pristine the conservation lands are," said April Sall, one of the organizers. "It's extremely sensitive habitat." ..."Green Path North, which will be our transmission corridor serving Los Angeles will transfer renewable energy from the Salton Sea," Nahai said.

From the early 1980s through the early ‘90s, California was the national leader in wind energy development and power produced by wind farms. ...Are the turbines benefiting one aspect of the environment at the expense of another? Longtime Snow Creek resident Les Starks calls the wind farms "industrial slums" - claiming the windmills have displaced wildlife and degraded the quality of life for nearby residents. "There was a canyon near Whitewater Canyon that used to have thousands of bats," says Starks, "and now you don't see any." He's also noticed a decline in turkey buzzards migrating through the pass. ...With wind energy having been harnessed in the Desert for nearly three decades, the next few years will determine its future here. Presently, it accounts for just two percent of California's portfolio. That number surely will rise along with new and bigger windmills - love them or hate them.

The Solano County Board of Supervisors shot down a proposal Tuesday to place a temporary ban on wind turbine projects in the Montezuma Hills near Travis Air Force Base. The supervisors voted 4-1 against a motion by Supervisor Barbara Kondylis to ban future wind turbine projects until Travis can install a new radar system. Although the current 700 or so turbines already cause radar issues, the Solano County Planning Commission recently approved adding 75 new turbines because it was discovered they would not cause additional problems. ..."If it is moot, then what's the harm?" Kondylis said. "I prefer to err on the side of safety. I'm very disappointed we aren't taking these steps.

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.

After watching and learning from the year-long process of approving new wind turbines in the Montezuma Hills, one county supervisor will ask Tuesday for a temporary ban on such projects. Supervisor Barbara Kondylis will present the issue at Tuesday's Solano County supervisors meeting. The discussion comes after the Planning Commission recently approved 75 new wind turbines in an area east of Travis Air Force Base. ...Now, Kondylis wants to see the approval of similar projects stopped until the kinks of the new radar system are worked out. "I really think it's time for us to stop and give Travis a chance to get their radar in place," she said. "Hopefully they will be able to resolve the problem.

As wind power becomes more common, its unpredictability becomes more of a problem. Sudden drops in wind speed can send grid operators scrambling to cover the shortfall and even cause blackouts; unexpected surges can leave conventional power plants idling, incurring costs and spewing pollution to no purpose. ...When wind farms were less common, grid controllers could essentially ignore their varying output, as it was all but indistinguishable from natural fluctuations in consumer use.

It's not a question of whether the state should pursue clean-air strategies -- but rather which ones, and at what cost. Who stands to save money and who stands to pay more? Is nuclear power part of the solution? ...The solar-power industry already lags far behind wind in Texas, which recently leapfrogged over California to become the largest wind-power-generating state in the nation. And many more wind turbines are expected ...solar power enjoys several advantages over wind -- advantages that increases the value of sun power for those paying the bills. For instance, because the wind typically stops blowing during the middle of hot summer days, Texas won't get much use from those expensive new transmission lines when it needs the power the most. Obviously, that's not a problem with solar. Wind also presents tough -- and sometimes expensive -- technical challenges. Because wind turbines will stop spinning without a moment's notice, engineers at the power grid must sometimes have more expensive standby power ready and waiting.

A change in the city's development code that would allow for wind turbines in rural residential areas of the city received the Planning Commission's blessing Wednesday. The Planning Commission approved it 4-1, with commissioner Tom Butler voting no because he said he believed the requirements placed on having the turbines, which are energy generating windmills, would be too restrictive. The commission is recommending that the City Council consider allowing wind turbines on properties as small as 1 acre and that the wind turbines would be allowed to be as high as the already existing height requirements in the zone where they would be allowed. The height limit In rural residential zones is now 40 feet. ...Currently, the city has nothing in its codes that would allow for the use of the turbines, which have been determined to be an "abundant, renewable and nonpolluting energy resource," according to the California Development Code.

Should two Arizona billionaires tell California, arguably the nation's greenest state, how to run its electricity business? They're going to try. University of Phoenix founder John Sperling and his son, Peter, are backing a ballot initiative that would force the state to more than quadruple its production of solar, wind and other alternative energy sources by 2025. But the state's major alternative-energy companies and environmental groups say the Solar and Clean Energy Act of 2008 is poorly drafted and riddled with loopholes, and they plan to oppose it. "It could slam the brakes on renewable energy development in the state," asserts a letter signed by the California Solar Energy Industries Assn., the American Wind Energy Assn., labor unions and environmentalists.

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.

San Bernardino County has pushed back the deadline for the public to weigh in on a proposed wind farm near Apple Valley. Under the proposal, the Granite Mountain Wind Energy Project would be constructed 11 miles east of Apple Valley in the Granite Mountains. Up to 28 wind turbines could be erected on a 3-square-mile parcel, according to Bureau of Land Management documents. ...The deadline was extended after residents expressed concerns in March that their property values would be affected, views would be lost and wildlife corridors would be blocked by roads, according to the statement.

This article provides a good explanation of some of the key issues pertaining to industrial wind energy development including capacity factors, the unpredictability of the winds, and the impacts on birds and wildlife.

Firefighters rescued a windmill maintenance worker who was having chest pains as he worked more than 150 feet above the ground this afternoon. Palm Springs firefighters were called to the 5400 block of North Indian Canyon about noon regarding a man having chest pains, Battalion Chief Mark Avner said.

The next step is for the applicant, enXco, to receive building permits and then begin construction, said Greg Blue, regional manager of external affairs. He said the process went a little longer than normal. However, he is happy all the correct steps were taken. "We were glad to come to a final resolution where Travis and the wind farm can co-exist," Blue said from his San Ramon office. "Every project has issues that need to be resolved and we try and be proactive. We asked for the continuance, because we knew we had to come to a positive resolution." One detail that remains to be resolved is enXco's offer of up to $1 million to Travis that the base may use to offset any potential radar issues caused by the turbines.