How big a deal is two cents? Well, it's a big deal if you're trying to produce wind energy. A federal production tax credit of 1.9 cents per kilowatt hour is set to expire at the end of the year. Wind energy producers generally expect lawmakers to renew the credit, but Congress has yet to act. With time running out, the wind power industry is scrambling. ...Xcel's Frank Prager said the end of the tax credit on December 31, is rippling through the wind industry. He said many U.S. companies are rushing to finish projects before the deadline.

Like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, the elements needed to put together a 5-megawatt wind energy farm northwest of New Ulm are all coming together for the New Ulm Public Utilities Commission. Giant steps were taken at the NUPUC meeting Tuesday as the commission approved the land and wind easement leases with three landowners in southwestern Nicollet County to provide space for the wind turbines needed to generate that amount of "green" energy. In all, New Ulm Public Utilities would be leasing a total of 237.03 acres just off Highway 7, about 5 miles northwest of Klossner.

White Pines Wind Farm, a subsidiary of BP Alternative Energy, has applied for a special land use permit with the U.S. Forest Service to place 20-28 wind turbines, each 420 feet tall, in the forest north of Forest Trail. The road leads from U.S. 31 to the Lake Michigan Recreation Area. Huron-Manistee National Forest spokesman Ken Arbogast said the number of wind turbines depends upon further investigation by the company and the forest services. "Basically it will depend on how many they need to make the project economically viable," Arbogast said.

Mark McConnell is close, but not close enough. He owns 3.44 acres of property and wants to install a 51-foot wind turbine. Unfortunately for McConnell, his property happens to fall in Presque Isle Township, where 4 acres are required and turbines can only be 40 feet high.

The ordinance allows wind towers of up to 30 feet in residential and open space zones. Anything taller, up to 60 feet, in those zones would require a special-use permit from the Planning Commission. In commercial and office zones, towers of up to 45 feet are allowed. Anything taller, again with a maximum of 60 feet, requires a permit.

In a 3-2 vote Aug. 7, Elbridge Township officials approved a zoning amendment to allow for wind turbine generators. ...The move wraps up a whirlwind of activity in the township over the last six weeks. Michigan Wind LLC in conjunction with John Deere Wind Energy proposes a $150 million, 30 turbine generator wind farm for the western side of the township on a north-south line approximately one-half mile east of 116th Avenue. The units would be owned and operated by John Deere Wind Energy.

Michigan's Thumb sprouted the first on-shore commercial wind farm last year. Are windmills over the water next? Saginaw Bay would sport the state's first offshore windmills under a plan by Steve Smiley, the self-described stepfather of wind power in Michigan.

State Rep. Ken Tschumper, DFL-La Crescent, hosted a community forum last week featuring a panel of environmentalists. Tschumper and others question whether the project's estimates of demand are accurate. He also is concerned that ratepayers could end up financing a project that could harm the area's environment. Other worries include possible health effects and what the potentially 150-foot-high transmission towers would do to the region's scenery. "There are decisions being made here with this high-voltage transmission line ... that are going to impact people's lives for the next 30 or 40 years," Tschumper said.

The deadline for public comment in the controversial power line project known as CapX2020 has been extended to Sept. 26. Minnesota Rep. Ken Tschumper, DFL-La Crescent, along with members of several nonprofit groups encouraged residents to take that extra opportunity to voice their concern about high-voltage power lines coming through or near La Crescent. ...Joseph Morse, a member of the Bluff Land Environment Watch based in Winona. cited risks to people's health and to wildlife. "This is my community, and I'm concerned about it," Morse said.

By Friday, Taylor expects to review the latest data from a pair of 50-foot-tall meteorological towers in the city's north and south ends to determine if the city will move ahead on a $3 million plan to install up to five wind turbines as early as next year. The towers, at the northwest corner of Monroe and Ecorse and at Racho near Interstate 75, have been recording wind speed, direction and temperature since installed in August and October.

The DeWitt City Council doesn't expect a lot of wind turbines to be raised in the next month or so, but that didn't stop it from placing a 90-day moratorium on the construction of the structures, said city administrator Brian Vick. After participating in a planning and zoning training session at Michigan State University last month, Vick said he and other city officials are trying to keep ahead of the curve in regards to renewable energy.

Residents in Anoka and 10 other cities across the state could soon be looking up to the whipping blades of a wind turbine towering over their communities. The turbines are part of a project by the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (MMPA), an electricity cooperative made up of metro and outstate cities that hopes to bring wind power off large turbine farms in rural areas and into homes. While plans for the turbines are in the early stages, the project's leaders are beginning to approach the member cities to determine appropriate sites.

Lynden Township has denied a landowner's request to erect a wind turbine. The township board voted 2-1 this week not to approve a conditional-use permit for the 120-foot tower. Russ Pearson had proposed installing the wind turbine to produce electricity for his property in the Hidden River addition.

A 197-foot tall meteorological tower would have a 380-foot diameter footprint and measure wind speed, duration and other information to determine whether an industrial grade wind turbine should be installed on Windmill Island Gardens. DeZwaan windmill is 125 feet tall. The island has its own zone tied to a fizzled-out plan for a village there with homes, businesses and other amenities. The zoning there would allow a structure up to 160 feet tall. The Holland Zoning Board of Appeals approved a variance to allow the 197-foot tower Thursday, July 24.

The first several towers for the new 99-megawatt Elm Creek Wind Farm have been put up just southeast of Bergen and all 66 of the project's wind turbines are expected to be built and operational by the end of the year. Construction of the Elm Creek project, an expansion of the 100-megawatt Trimont Area Wind Farm built late in 2005, was announced July 12 at the Trimont Chocolate Festival by developer Iberdrola Renewables and electric utility Great River Energy.

High Country Energy L.L.C. is going to Minnesota investors for as much as $3.1 million to help finance the early stages of its project in parts of Olmsted, Dodge and Mower counties. Eventually, the project could take in as many as 200 turbines generating electricity from the wind. Such wind projects typically are financed by large private investors. However High Country Energy has registered an in-state public offering, which allows the company to sell shares of stock to the general public living in Minnesota.

Construction has already begun on a second 99-megawatt wind farm, which will double the size of the current Trimont Area Wind Farm, officials announced Saturday in Trimont. The Elm Creek Wind Power Project will add another 65 wind turbines and is expected to be online by the end of this year.

They were made by more than 80 construction workers who have come to the Ubly area to build the Noble Thumb I Windpark, a project of Connecticut-based Noble Environmental Power. The prints lead to 46 holes that have been dug in farm fields in Bingham and Sheridan townships, where the wind usually blows about 15 mph. Each hole will be the site of a 1.5-megawatt General Electric wind turbine, towering more than 300 feet over the skies of Huron County. The development, being constructed by RMT WindConnect of Wisconsin with local and out-of-state contractors, should begin spinning later this year, officials say. It's southeast of the Harvest Wind Farm, a 32-turbine park constructed last year near Elkton by John Deere Wind Energy.

The manager of Land Use Informatics at the Michigan State University's Land Policy Institute cautioned local officials and residents last week about signing and zoning away their land, saying wind developers are eyeing agricultural areas such as the Thumb in the same manner 49ers did during the gold rush. "And there's an awful lot of people selling shovels," said Charles McKeown on Wednesday during a four hour-long Lake Township Planning Commission meeting at the Sleeper State Park's Outdoor Center.