An amendment to the city's zoning ordinance regarding additional rules and regulations for wind energy systems was recommended to the mayor and council Tuesday in order to help protect the city's character and integrity. "In a nutshell, (the amendment) says that only small wind turbines will be allowed as an accessory use in most zones, subject to a public hearing and approval by the Zoning Board of Appeals," said City Planner David Umling.

The would-be developer of a $500 million electricity-generating wind farm at CSU is financially "overextended," facing construction liens from its vendors and in danger of seeing its deal with the university cancelled, officials said Tuesday. ...According to its contract with CSU, Wind Holding is to build a wind farm at the university-owned Maxwell Ranch near the Wyoming border. But Wind Holding has not yet submitted its construction permit application to Larimer County and has already made a $50,000 payment to CSURF as a result of delays. The company also paid CSURF $50,000 when the lease was first signed.

The would-be developer of a controversial $500 million wind farm to serve CSU has been notified it's in default of its agreement with the university, officials said today. ...Wind Holding has 60 days to remedy the default, although CSU did not immediately specify the exact nature of the problem. Under its contract with CSU, Wind Holding is to build a wind farm at the university-owned Maxwell Ranch, near the Wyoming border.

Wind farms and solar power plants may offer free fuel costs and no carbon-dioxide emissions, but don't assume there's universal support from environmentalists, according to industry observers. "The world is changing," said Andrew Spielman, a partner at the Denver office of Hogan & Hartson LLC who works on renewable-energy projects. ..."There are more complexities with renewable projects," he said, "and it's no longer an assumption that the environmental community will approve and support renewable projects."

Rural electric cooperative managers told the Public Utilities Commission on Thursday to keep its hands off their power supplier. Clean-energy advocates, however, urged the state to take a greater role in regulating Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, saying the coal-heavy company's power plants affect everyone, not just its customers.

A showdown is shaping up as state regulators consider whether to increase oversight of Colorado's second-largest electric utility, a wholesale power provider owned by several rural cooperatives. ...the PUC said more oversight might make sense given Colorado's emphasis on developing more renewable energy and concerns about climate change.

A wind turbine manufacturer with sales offices in Boulder has been ordered to pay its former Canadian employees the back wages they're owed, according to Prince Edward Island's labor department. Entegrity Wind Systems, which operates two manufacturing plants in Canada, laid off 35 employees in June, the majority of its workers.

Xcel Energy and the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association have filed with the commission for a certificate of public convenience and necessity for the lines, which the companies say will increase the reliability of the grid in the valley and increase their ability to export electricity generated from wind and solar farms in Southern Colorado. ...An administrative law judge will hold a pre-hearing conference Friday in Denver to consider the intervention requests. The utilities commission has until Jan. 26 to decide on the applications by Xcel and Tri-State.

A plan to erect an array of windmills in eastern El Paso County won't be blowing a yearly windfall the county's way. That's because wind energy facilities are considered business personal property, and the county ditched its personal property tax about a decade ago.

But the project -- which comes with a $400 million to $500 million price tag and is pending large amounts of research to determine its viability -- is not without skepticism. Jackson and the 35 other local residents formed the group to protest the initiative because, they say, preliminary preparations for the project herald a largely unattainable goal, pitting the university's contractor against a mychallenges. The group cited a number of problems that threaten the legitimacy of the project.

Area residents got to air out their opinions on small wind turbines during a public forum last week. About 50 people attended the April 30 forum to ask questions and voice their opinions regarding small wind generators. Several homeowners in the community have installed or are thinking about installing, small wind turbines to generate electricity at their residences. Community Development Director Bob Joseph presented a slide show of small wind turbines that are being installed in Europe.

Former Colorado State University President Larry Penley garnered national headlines when he announced the plan March 29, 2007, declaring the CSU Green Power Project would be under construction in two years, providing all of the university's power needs and a valuable teaching tool. But today, the university's partner in the project has not yet requested the permits necessary to build the facility at Maxwell Ranch north of Fort Collins and is still determining how to get the power to CSU and other customers.

Despite its high-minded claims of providing research opportunities and powering the entire CSU campus, she contended, the Green Power Project actually is a massive commercial enterprise focused on raking in revenues. The claim of powering CSU is a sham unto itself, Milligan maintained, because it's impossible to deliver the wind farm power directly to the university. Instead, she noted, it will go to the substation where the power can be transported anywhere in the nation.

Danish company Vestas is catching some head wind. The world's largest wind-turbine maker on Wednesday said it might reduce jobs and scale back capital spending in Colorado and the United States, unless orders pick up, according to Bloomberg News. Vestas CEO Ditlev Engel said orders from the U.S. "came to a standstill" after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September tightened credit for wind energy developers.

U.S. Forest Service officials had a tour scheduled Wednesday afternoon to show off to journalists a pair of recently installed wind turbines. But they had to cancel the tour when 100 mph winds damaged one of the turbines Tuesday night. "We were kind of tickled" by the irony, acknowledged Maribeth Pecotte, a spokeswoman in the Forest Service's Boulder Ranger District office. ...The turbine project is costing the Forest Service $171,568 over a 15-year financing contract, Pecotte said.

Xcel Energy (XEL), the largest utility in Colorado, is trying to settle a case with the state over allegations that it oversold wind energy credits between 2005 and 2007. An administrative law judge is looking at the $2.6 million proposed settlement, reported the Associated Press. Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission said Xcel sold more credits for wind energy generation than what it actually produced from wind farms in its Windsource program.

Xcel Energy will use $2.6 million in shareholder money for a proposed settlement following a state investigation into the utility's voluntary wind- energy program. Under the pending agreement, Xcel will refund $1.6 million this year to Windsource customers and spend another $1 million to purchase renewable-energy credits that will ensure customers receive the alternative power for which they pay a premium price.

Xcel Energy oversold wind energy credits as far back as 2000 for a program in which customers voluntarily pay a premium for wind-generated power, according to an investigation by Colorado Public Utilities Commission staff. A settlement is looming related to Xcel's excess collections for the Windsource program from 2005 to 2007, which was disclosed earlier this week.

Xcel Energy overcollected more than $1.5 million from customers who voluntarily pay a premium for wind- generated electricity, according to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission staff. From 2005 to 2007, the state's largest utility sold credits for more green power than it generated at the wind farms in its Windsource program. Xcel knew it would have a production shortfall in the program but "failed to act".

The city of Durango is pulling the plug on green power because of problems with green -- or money. ...The La Plata Electric Association charges 80 cents more per 100 kilowatt hours for electricity from solar and wind power. LeBlanc says that adds $45,000 to the city's annual electric bill.