The South Washington County School District has abandoned its interest in a large wind turbine as Woodbury officials are near prohibiting that type of project. East Ridge High School will not be the site of a utility-scale wind turbine ...The decision was influenced by a pending alternative energy ordinance that would restrict the size and location of wind turbines in Woodbury.

A proposed 40 turbine wind farm in Otter Tail County is causing local landowners to take their concerns straight to the otter tail county board. Each farmer and business owner gave a different reason why the board should reconsider allowing the turbines to move in or even create laws to make sure each are put in the right place. Fred Liljegren is one of many who live close to where a proposed 40-turbine wind far may be put up by Prairie Wind LLC. Board members listened to 20 solid minutes of concerns.

Residents expressed concerns about potential problems that could be caused by a proposed commercial wind farm. The concerns raised during Tuesday's Otter Tail County Board meeting were a noise level that could impact residents' health, safety, a negative economic impact for land owners and an inability to spray crops. Prairie Wind Energy LLC is proposing a 40-turbine project to be located in Parkers Prairie, Elmo, Effington and Folden Townships, according to a June letter written by Prairie Wind Energy President Terry Carlson.

The Otter Tail County Board is scheduled hear from a property owner regarding a proposed wind farm near Parkers Prairie. ...The discussion on the wind farm, proposed by Prairie Wind Energy LLC, is scheduled to take place at 9:45 a.m. The company is proposing to build a 40-turbine wind energy project.

"We thought we found our Shangri-La," Schulte, a rural Goodhue landowner, told about 90 people gathered Wednesday for an informational wind energy meeting. "If I would have known the (wind) project was in the works, I would not have bought this property." Schulte bought land four miles west of Goodhue more than two years ago. He said many landowners like himself - those who don't own enough property to house wind turbines but will live directly in their shadows.

As 37-mile-per-hour gusts blasted downtown Minneapolis on Thursday, hundreds of wind-energy executives were inside the Minneapolis Hilton, discussing the challenges their industry still faces. Chief among those challenges: weather-related down times and - perhaps more surprisingly - utilities unwilling to accept energy from wind farms because their high-voltage transmission lines can't accept any more power.

Minnesota regulators on Thursday approved a 200-megawatt wind farm in southern Minnesota that would be paid for by Wisconsin utility ratepayers. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission said Wisconsin Power & Light Co.'s project can be built just north of Albert Lea in Freeborn County. The utility received a permit for a 200-megawatt wind farm, the first phase of what officials hope will eventually become a 400-megawatt project. The first phase would generate enough energy to power 50,000 homes.

The Afton City Council continued its wind turbine talk during a work session last month. During a Sept. 8 work session two experts in the field, Brian Ross from CR Planning and Sean Wagner from the architecture firm Meyer, Schere & Rockcastle, spoke to the council about wind turbines and turbine ordinances. “We need to hear how the community feels about this issue,” Afton City Council member Bill Palmquist said.

Wisconsin Power & Light Co. won approval Thursday from regulators in Minnesota to build a wind farm in southern Minnesota to supply renewable energy to its Wisconsin customers. ...Exactly when construction on the project will begin remains unclear, because of uncertainty about the Wisconsin lawsuit.

Officials from the two wind energy companies quelled rumors at an informational meeting Thursday and said they continue competing for landowner support to build wind farms in the Goodhue area. "It's a competitive industry," said Goodhue Wind's Charlie Burdick. "We're on separate tracks and we're each pursuing our own individual projects."

The two local companies behind a proposed, 11-megawatt wind farm in Greenvale Township, may reduce the number of potential turbines in the wind farm to address concerns expressed by township residents. But fewer turbines might not mean a lower power output, according to Sparks Energy CEO Anna Schmalzbauer.

An old gravel pit in Lyon County could end up providing metro area counties with wind power if a long-awaited plan to wire renewable energy from southwestern Minnesota to the metro area materializes. But finding investors to help erect the tall white towers has proved difficult, and plans were scaled down significantly since rural and Twin Cities area counties established a joint committee to build up to a 150-megawatt wind farm.

Shirley and Jon agreed to purchase the $68,000 turbine from Farm Boy, giving the company about $50,000 in payments as work progressed. By late November 2008, the tower was up and the turbine mounted at the top. Underground power cables were trenched to the couple's home. But that's as far as work got. Ten months later their investment should be paying off, spinning out free energy. Instead it sits idle, a source of grief.

Minnesota's power grid would bump up against its limits fairly quickly if wind power developers started building bunches of small wind projects scattered across the state, according to a new study released Tuesday by the state Office of Energy Security. The study looked at whether the transmission system could absorb 600 megawatts of renewable energy from projects that generate between 10 megawatts and 40 megawatts of power.

With their organic gardens and ample land, Andy and Jessie Welsh had the perfect plan. Living in rural Stearns County, the young couple had hoped to be energy self-sufficient and green. ...From the start, the installation was delayed and marked by setbacks. Electricians had a hard time getting the turbine wired to run properly. When it finally did, the turbine ran for just a few days before they received a call from the company instructing them to shut it down.

Plans for Woodbury's first large wind turbine have sputtered to a halt. Officials say odds are good that the turbine - which would have provided half the power for East Ridge High School - will never be built. "Quite frankly, I'd say there is less than a 50 percent chance," said Mike Vogel, director of operations for South Washington County Schools.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission unanimously decided Thursday to table a decision on whether to grant a Site Permit for the New Ulm Public Utilities Commission (NUPUC)'s Large Wind Energy Conversion (LWEC) project in Lafayette Township, Nicollet County. ..."I've not seen a wind turbine project with such acrimony," [State PUC member Betsy] Wergin said. "A heavy hand always creates this result."

Winona County is about to enter the wind-energy business and become the first county in Minnesota to develop renewable energy to benefit taxpayers. County commissioners capped four years of planning on Tuesday night, endorsing a $3.6 million plan to partner with private investors in a corporation to build commercial wind turbines north of Altura, Minn.

Austin Energy, a publicly owned power company and a city department of Austin, Texas, has found itself stuck with surplus renewable power as city residents have declined to sign up for higher rates under the city's voluntary GreenChoice program. Contracting with renewable power providers and offering the service to customers sounded like a good idea to city officials until the price tag came in at up to three times the cost of conventional power.

In as little as one year, Duane Frederickson's rural home could be ground zero for three, 230 ft.-tall wind turbines. ...According to preliminary turbine siting, Frederickson said, one wind generator could be located as little as 500 to 600 ft. away from his home, with the other two within a quarter-mile of his property.