Commissioners refused to make a hasty decision at Tuesday night's council meeting, and instead tabled a proposed contract with Chicago-based GSY Energy Inc. GSY provides renewable energy consultation, development and management, according to its Web site. The company wants to conduct a wind turbine feasibility study for the city - at a cost of $30,000.

Thirty-five of Horizon Wind Energy's 38 turbines under construction in Tazewell County are assembled, project manager John Fulton said Friday. ..."The first thing we did was the roads. The roads we started back in September. Then we started doing the excavation of the sites. Then of course we do the foundations and then we do what we refer to as the erection of the turbines."

Project organizers say that approximately 50 full turbines have been completed so far for the 67-turbine wind farm proposed for northwest of Lena, and that the goal is to complete the farm by the end of March. The EcoGrove Wind LLC wind farm is located just north of the Galena Road and Baker Road intersection outside Lena.

Farmers wanted to know how wind turbines influence aerial pesticide applications, while landowners sought advice on working with wind-farm developers. At a recent wind farm forum in Manito, some questions were answered easily; others weren't. About 150 attended the first of four meetings being coordinated by the Illinois Wind Working Group (IWWG) and University of Illinois Extension with assistance from local groups.

It's 16 degrees outside, but workers still are pressure-washing the 125-foot-long blades that soon will be spinning high above a Logan County farm. The spray looks particularly cold as it catches the sun on a clear and frigid morning. "If you buy a new car, you'd want it clean," says Bill Lotz as he washes off road salt and other grime accumulated when the blades were transported by truck to the Rail Splitter Wind Farm under construction northwest of Lincoln.

Chrisman-area farmer Joe Glick was contacted about a month ago about putting a wind turbine on his property ..."I was looking for an unbiased opinion," Glick said. He was one of about 120 farmers from Vermilion, Douglas and Champaign counties who filled the Vermilion County Farm Bureau auditorium Monday morning to hear from an attorney and an Illinois farmer who have plenty of experience with this quickly growing alternative source of energy.

A public hearing will be held next month for residents to offer input about a proposal from an energy company that wants to build a wind farm in DeKalb County. NextEra Energy Resources, formerly Florida Power & Light, is proposing to build and operate a wind farm consisting of 133 turbines in portions of Afton, Clinton, Milan and Shabbona townships, according to a public hearing notice.

The Bureau County Board has extended the conditional use permits for Crescent Ridge 2 for another 24 months. The Crescent Ridge 2 developers had requested the extension at the county board's December meeting, but a decision had been tabled at that time. At Thursday's meeting, the board heard from Princeton attorney Bob Russell, representing Crescent Ridge 2, who explained some of the reasons the extension was needed.

Representatives of Freeport-based EcoEnergy briefed the McDonough County Board's finance committee Wednesday on their desire to locate a $400 million set of wind farms in McDonough and Warren counties. "We're starting to get interest from local landowners and the wind resource looks pretty good," said Curt Bjurlin of EcoEnergy.

A wind-energy company official said the firm is committed to the Ford County project, regardless of the Paxton City Council's proposed restrictions on turbines around the city. "Unequivocally, we're committed to develop in Ford County," said Joe Borkowski, development manager for E.On Climate & Renewables. "If a larger buffer around Paxton is voted in (by the city council), some turbines - but definitely not all turbines - would be reallocated to Iroquois County, but we're talking right across the border."

The dozen people suing Livingston County over the Cayuga Ridge wind farm want to either consolidate their suit for both the northern and southern parts of the project or stay the County Board's approval for the southern part. In a motion filed Friday in Livingston County Circuit Court, People Protecting Cayuga Ridge contend that the northern and southern parts of the Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS) that Iberdrola Renewables plans to build are a single project. A hearing on the motion is set for Feb. 25.

Bill Durdan has farmed northeast of Grand Ridge for 43 years and often relied on crop dusters. Now, however, he has been told his proximity to wind turbine towers will prevent him from receiving that service. The cost to him could be lost crops and lost revenue, he told the La Salle County Zoning Board of Appeals Tuesday evening. ...Kim Schertz of Hudson, who works in her husband's crop dusting business, said the problem is pilots simply can not safely pull up and make the necessary turns in a wind farm area. "These guys are good, but they're not kamikazes."

Navitas, the Minneapolis-based wind energy company that recently received the green light for a wind farm near El Paso, has officially proposed another installation for the Minonk area. The 87-turbine project as proposed would generate 200 megawatts of electricity annually - enough to power 60,000 homes - and cross county borders, with 65 turbines in Woodford County and 22 in neighboring Livingston County.

The University of Illinois has canceled its plans to build wind turbines on campus, citing the university's "deteriorating fiscal condition." A contract for GE to build and deliver a 1.5-megawatt wind turbine for the South Farms was sent last week to the university from GE, but university officials did not sign it. Chancellor Richard Herman on Thursday notified GE and student leaders of the university's decision to halt the project.

At Tuesday's meeting of the Bureau County Board, Crescent Ridge 2 attorney Paul Scoma said the developers are having trouble getting their letter of credit/cash escrow in place before the conditional use permits expire for the proposed rural Tiskilwa wind farm. With the economy as it is, everyone is having trouble getting letters of credit, Scoma said. The developers also want the county to go ahead and issue the needed building permits for the project.

When the Bureau County Board voted to exclude a certain type of wind turbine from consideration for seven Walnut Ridge sites, the company was understandably concerned. ...On Nov. 17, Suzlon issued a statement regarding the S88. According to the statement, the problem with the S88 near Buda was with the V2 version, which has since been replaced with the V3 version.

Tuesday morning, county board chairman Dick Logan joined Railsplitter Wind Farm and Horizon Wind Energy officials at the official groundbreaking for the project that will place the first wind turbines in Logan County. The progressive date was accomplished when a special adjourned county board meeting was called on Oct. 30 in order to get the board's approval of the final document, a decommissioning agreement, that finished meeting all the county's requirements for the construction of the wind farm.

The Princeton City Council has approved an ordinance to expand the Bureau/Putnam Area Enterprise Zone to include the proposed Walnut Ridge wind farm in northwest Bureau County. The city council took its action at Monday night's meeting in city hall.

Trucks hauling giant wind turbines continue to trek through Lincoln - and some residents say they continue to cause problems. One such truck got off course Thursday and ended up stuck at the intersection of Keokuk and Logan streets, said Lincoln resident Morris Trent, who lives nearby. ...None of the turbines going through Lincoln are bound for the RailSplitter Wind Farm in northern Logan and southern Tazewell counties, according to that wind farm's project supervisor.

Horizon has also started work on access roads for construction and maintenance of the wind towers, Parker said. Although these roads are private, landowners who live within the wind farm property can use them for their farming operations, he said. Construction is progressing on electrical substations, overhead lines and underground cables, Parker said, and the erection of the wind turbines has also begun. Twenty-five foundations have been completed, he said, and two base sections have been installed on three towers.