Michigan's drive to renewable energy is generating concern about higher electricity prices. The issue: How, and at what price, will utilities or other energy providers build or purchase renewable power to meet a proposed state mandate that 10 percent of power come from renewable sources by 2015? "They really have to start going to town in a short period of time. And doing that, whether they're building or buying, there will be an additional expense that comes with it. And that's going to come back to the ratepayers," said Chuck Hadden, vice president of government affairs for the Michigan Manufacturers Association.

If Michigan is to join 25 states requiring that more electricity come from renewable sources, the Legislature must sort out all kinds of issues -including the price tag. Compared with existing power from old, already-paid-for coal plants, renewable energy is more expensive. The House is considering capping residents' extra costs at no more than $3 a month, or $36 a year over 20 years, which could let power companies off the hook for meeting the renewable energy requirement, known as an RPS. Under legislation pending in the House, commercial customers would pay no more than $190 a year more, while the cap for industrial customers would be $2,250.

Concerns about wind turbines include them toppling over and the noise they make. Baumann said the planning commission will likely address how close turbines can be to property lines, provide a decibel limit and may define in which districts they may be located. Developers for the Great American Sports Complex, a proposed $100 million sports facility in the township, have said they may use a turbine to power some of the facility. Mark Knudsen, director of the Ottawa County Planning and Grants Department, said he is monitoring how many townships have regulations about wind power.

Martin Lagina, a principal owner of Heritage with longtime business partner Craig Tester, said there are three necessities in creating a viable wind energy project. The first is a sufficient wind source, the second is support from the surrounding community and the third is proximity to major transmission lines. "All three of those things came together in Missaukee County at Stoney Corners," Lagina said. Michigan has sufficient winds to support numerous wind farms, but many of those sites are along the state's Great Lakes coastline, where wind tower aesthetics create concerns for some. "Along the coast is great, but along the coast is also controversial," Lagina said.

City officials say they are making strides in the quest to build one of the nation's first urban wind farms. This week, Wyandotte plans to submit results from a one-year avian study to the U.S. Department of Energy. The findings, coupled with results gathered from two meteorological towers, are encouraging for plans to construct five turbines near the Detroit River, said Melanie McCoy, the city's general manager of municipal services.

A downstate development company plans to find out how much electricity is available in the air above Stanton Township. Traverse City, Mich.-based Heritage Sustainable Energy LLC has been securing leases from property owners along the ridge that stretches from Liminga to Oscar Bay for the purpose of developing wind generation there. ...Wilson said lessors are receiving a "relatively nominal payment" at the outset of the lease. If a wind farm is developed, Wilson said, property owners would receive royalty payments for the power generated by turbines on their land. Wilson said Heritage Sustainable Energy is currently developing a wind project in Missaukee County. He said two 2.5-megawatt wind generators will be installed this year with six more planned for 2009. He described that development as a pilot project.

The provincial government of Ontario has lifted a ban enacted more than a year ago on offshore wind energy developments and will soon resume accepting applications for such proposals, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources announced. "This government is committed to developing clean, renewable sources of energy so Ontarians will have a sustainable supply of power now and in the future," Natural Resources Minister Donna Cansfield said in a statement Jan. 17. "Offshore applications we've received to date will be processed, and we are preparing to accept new applications for both onshore and offshore developments."

Supporters say wind energy is both plentiful and renewable, thereby reducing need for fossil fuels, while opponents cite inefficiency, threats to birds and bats, noise, and unsightly landscapes. Although energy companies, such as Heritage Sustainable Energy, have been casing the Ridge for nearly two years, actual construction of a wind farm is still years away, said Rick Wilson, project manager. "We are very close in the Fruit Ridge area to having enough land secured to put in a MET (meteorological evaluation tower)," he said. "We try to assemble a block of land of significant size, about 3,000 to 5,000 acres plus to accommodate a wind farm of several turbines." The next step is to test for adequate wind.

Wind testing is to begin soon in the south of Lenawee County, thanks to a $20,000 contribution approved Friday by Lenawee County commissioners. A motion to spend the money for wind power testing passed by an 8-0 vote after more than an hour of discussion with alternative energy consultant David Munson and members of the county's agricultural advisory committee. The committee asked for $20,000 from the county treasury to pay for setting up a single tower to monitor wind for one year. Private investors are to come up with money to establish a second test site approximately three months later. ...Having the county government involved in collecting data for a feasibility study will help allow a local, private enterprise to organize and develop a project, Munson said, similar to the ethanol plant in Blissfield that grew from a county government study. "We're trying to make sure the first wind power project is open to public investment," Munson said.

The former chairman of alternative energy company McKenzie Bay International Ltd. claims the alleged unauthorized stock transfer that precipitated his resignation this month was to pay a contractor. Gary Westerholm, 63, of Brighton, was replaced as chairman and resigned his board seat following a discussion with other McKenzie Bay board members regarding a stock issue of 30 million shares. ...The board alleges Westerholm obtained the shares of stock from a company transfer agent by claiming he had board authorization to issue shares, when he did not. But Westerholm said Friday he secured 28 million shares to pay Brighton-based MTI Energy Management Inc. on a contract involving a wind turbine project in Ishpeming.

Michigan’s first commercial wind farm –a collection of 32 towering turbines that conjure visions of H. G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds”—is scheduled to begin operating in a few weeks, spurring for some a near-gold rush mentality in this sparsely populated area. Thousands of dollars in a guaranteed annual harvest comes with each windmill placed on a farmer’s land, and that lure has gone a long way toward interrupting the horizontal sameness of vast corn and bean fields. “I can’t wait ‘til they get going,” said Bob Webber, who turned over easement rights to a portion of his property in Huron County for a proposed second wind farm, with 42 turbines. ...The support, however, is not unanimous. In the northernmost part of the county, along the shoreline of Lake Huron, critics have raised objections about the windmill’s potential impact on birds and property values. This is a lake resort area, popular in the summertime. It’s an eagle nesting site and part of the migratory path of thousands of tundra swans. “Our township is unique because it is resort and agricultural,” said Louis Colletta, the planning commission chairman for Lake Township. The township last month rejected DTE’s request to set up testing towers to measure the speed and consistency of the wind.

Port Austin area resident and New River Renewable Energy President Ron Belisle hasn't given up the fight for a community-developed wind farm.

Consumers Energy plans to develop as many as eight windmill farms in Michigan, officials say. The move is part of the utility's Balanced Energy Initiative, which aims in part to double the amount of renewable energy the company generates from 5 percent to 10 percent by 2015. ...''We need to add 3 million megawatt hours per year ... to go to 10 percent by 2015,'' Rasher said. For the wind farms, Consumers is looking at installing large turbines that generate up to 2.5 megawatts each. Each wind development will generate up to 100 megawatts. But Rasher said the wind farms can only be expected to generate power about 25 percent of the time. That's why Consumers also is planning to build an 800-megawatt coal-fired plant at its Karn-Weadock complex in Bay County's Hampton Township. ''We need some other resource that's dispatchable,'' Rasher said. ''You can't put all your eggs in one basket.''

Officials hope a bill proposing 10% of Michigan's energy be from non-renewable resources by 2015 can help stimulate wind development in Michigan's Thumb region. ...Anna Giovinello, vice president of Noble Environmental Power, said failure to pass the 10% benchmark would not affect the company's Thumb project, but it could have "a chilling effect" on future wind development in the Thumb. "These decisions are made by investors who have to commit hundreds of millions of dollars to build turbines," she said. "It just doesn't make sense to investors to commit that kind of money to a state that doesn't support their projects."

Neighbors of a proposed electrical substation are threatening the Elmwood Township trustee who plans to sell 10 acres to Wolverine Power Cooperative adjacent to a large windmill north of M-72. ...In an anonymous letter addressed "Dear Mr. and Mrs. Lautner," the Lautners were told by "concerned neighbors" that "our goal is to hold you personally and financially responsible for our hardship and we will pursue this relentlessly. We will expose this to the media, newspapers, television, etc." A story on the substation appeared in the Wednesday edition of the Traverse City Record-Eagle. The "neighbors" wrote that the substation would lower adjoining property values. "This scar is the legacy Terry and Kathy Lautner will leave their family," it continued. Concerns were also raised during public comment at the monthly meeting.

This small Saginaw Bay community describes itself as "the hidden treasure of the Thumb" for its sandy beaches, pristine woods and tranquil inland lake. And many here want to keep it that way. But there's a looming specter that some believe threatens to mar the rural landscape: wind turbines, the windmill-like structures that can tower to heights of 400 feet and use wind to generate electricity. Officials here are considering banning turbines within township boundaries, saying they disrupt the idyllic countryside and put wildlife at risk.

A wave of wind development blowing across Michigan's Thumb may be halted by tundra swans and other wildlife. DTE Energy has signed up 25,000 acres of farmland for as many as 250 windmills across the Thumb. But plans for up to 43 windmills on 4,300 acres in Lake Township have some residents and bird experts crying fowl - as in waterfowl. They believe erecting windmills in the township will result in bird kills and injuries, from birds being chopped up or injured by windmill blades.

After a lengthy debate, the Lake Township Zoning Board of Appeals on Tuesday denied a variance request submitted by DTE Energy to install a 197 foot meteorological tower on vacant property on the south side of Etzler Road just over a quarter mile west of State Park Road in Caseville. DTE officials at Tuesday evening's meeting said they will have to wait and see what the company's next move may be. ...The variance requested was to allow a meteorological tower with a height of 197 feet to be installed in Lake Township. DTE needed the variance because Lake Township's ordinance does not allow special structures (such as chimneys or smoke stacks, radio or television transmitting towers or antennas, wireless communication towers, microwave, relay towers or power generation towers) to exceed 175 feet in the agricultural district.

Schmidt's Sherman Township neighborhood is targeted by two developers for the setting of wind turbines. "This is going to make a dramatic difference to the personality of the neighborhood," he told a group of citizens gathered at Tustin Community Center Oct. 4 for a public discussion on the planned wind farms. Proposals by Heritage Sustainable Energy, LLC and Babcock & Brown Renewable Energy Holdings, Inc. call for the installation of dozens of 2.5 megawatt turbines across Osceola, Wexford and Missaukee counties. Turbine towers plus blades will each exceed 400 feet. "We're zoned residential and agriculture," Schmidt said. "This is industrial. These are big, bad boys."

With the area's first commercial wind turbine scheduled for installation in November, some people are beginning to worry about the potential impact of the development to their property and neighborhoods. ... One goal of the meeting is to unite and empower people in the ordinance development process. With no state or federal guidelines regulating wind farms, local government units must create their own ordinances.