The Gentry County wind farm's turbines are undergoing refurbishment in a national retrofitting program initiated after manufacturer Suzlon Energy Limited found cracks in the blades of its S-88 wind turbines. ...The national retrofit program calls for the strengthening of 1,251 wind turbine blades, 930 of which had been installed by March, according to a press release. During repairs, Suzlon will employ temporary replacement blades to minimize the time wind turbines stand inoperable.

A committee charged with determining what kind of tax incentives Sullivan County should offer a wind energy committee has been delayed. They were supposed to offer their recommendations to the county commission late last month, but scheduling conflicts got in the way. Presiding Commissioner Chris May tells KTVO he expects to hear from the committee in the next few weeks. May hopes wind energy will help with economic development in Sullivan County, it the same way it's benefitting other rural communites.

Landowners in Sullivan and Adair Counties stand to make a lot of money if Tradewind Energy decides to go ahead with the Shuteye Creek Wind Project and build wind turbines on their land. However, the company won't build if it doesn't win a contract with Ameren UE, and the development manager says they can't win the contract without some big tax breaks. Wednesday the Sullivan County Commission held a meeting to discuss just how many tax incentives it wants to give the company. Some elected officials were torn between bringing in the new business and giving away the tax base.

Here in this northwest Missouri farm town, 27 industrial wind turbines have been generating more than electricity -- health concerns, a federal lawsuit and a family feud, for starters. The wind industry, which produces about 1 percent of the nation's energy, has gained considerable purchase in the U.S, growing by 45 percent last year. ...Now come claims that industrial windmills cause what one researcher calls "wind turbine syndrome," a range of symptoms that include headaches, anxiety, sleep problems and dizziness in some people who live close by. "It's like someone swinging a rope over your head," says Gentry County horse breeder Charlie Porter of the several wind turbines within about 2,000 feet of his home near King City.

At 265 feet tall, four gleaming white wind turbines tower over the tiny farm town of Rock Port, Missouri, like a landing of alien intruders. But despite their imposing presence and the stark contrast with the rolling pastures and corn fields, the turbines have received a warm welcome here. ...Last year, a record 3,100 turbines were installed across 34 U.S. states and another 2,000 turbines are now under construction from California to Massachusetts. In all, there are about more than 25,000 U.S. turbines in operation, an investment of $15 billion. On May 12, the U.S. Energy Department said wind power could provide 20 percent of U.S. electricity by 2030, or 304 gigawatts, up from the current 16.8 gigawatts. Achieving that will require that wind turbine installations rise to almost 7,000 a year by 2017, the department said.

It's going to be a longer commute for people heading out of town Friday evening. A truck carrying part of a large wind turbine damaged some girders at the Highway 60 and 65 interchange around ten Friday morning. It was traveling westbound on Highway 60 and cleared the first overpass on 65. But it hit the southbound bridge because the clearance is slightly lower on that side.

Kacprowicz said the city is on a learning curve with implementing renewable sources of energy and is still finding out how much the wind power fluctuates and what to expect. Added to the uncertainty is that Columbia wasn't guaranteed transmission of the power it was contracted to purchase from the wind farm until Feb. 1 because of overloaded transmission lines, Kacprowicz said. Once the city was guaranteed transmission of its wind power in February, it was notified that 11 of the 27 turbines at the wind farm were out of service because of cracked blades, which reduced the amount of power Columbia received.

The wind energy company founded by Tom Carnahan is getting a $150 million investment from Ireland-based NTR PLC - a financial boost that Carnahan says will help transform Wind Capital Group LLC. NTR will provide cash and supply 150 megawatts of wind turbines for delivery to Wind Capital in 2010, Carnahan said in an interview. In return, NTR will get an undisclosed stake in the company. ...Earlier this week, Wind Capital agreed to sell a 400-megawatt wind farm site in southern Minnesota to a subsidiary of Wisconsin-based Alliant Energy Corp. In December, the company sold a 200-megawatt wind farm site in Iowa to Alliant.

Two brothers-in-law, a country road in northwest Missouri, a fistfight ...Surely it's happened before, but probably never over wind energy. ...At the heart of the dispute: Just how healthy is the noise from wind turbines? ...In Rock County, Union Township residents studied medical and scientific research for months before drafting their wind ordinance, which says a setback of at least a half-mile from inhabited structures is needed to avoid health problems. Tom Alisankus, chairman of the committee that drafted the ordinance, said committee members found in their research that the state of Wisconsin had no medical or scientific data to back a model ordinance with a 1,000-foot setback. Proposed legislation that would have allowed the state's Public Service Commission to set statewide siting standards failed to reach a vote before the session ended last month. Doctors in other countries, including Canada, England, France, Australia and New Zealand, have written papers about similar illnesses in people who live near wind farms. ..."Does noise bother people differently? Absolutely," said Smith, the area audiologist. "It can have a very debilitating effect." But, he said, before anyone can conclude that the wind turbines are harmful, a major study must be done.

The Gentry County Commission will rely on a technicality in its fight against a civil lawsuit surrounding a new wind farm. Charles Allen Porter filed the federal court lawsuit in late March against the commission and Associate Commissioner Gary Carlson. Mr. Porter alleged that Mr. Carlson assaulted him over his opposition to the Bluegrass Ridge Wind Farm located near King City. He also said the facility has harmed his family, destroyed his property and caused him to lose sleep. Several wind turbines are located within 2,000 feet of Mr. Porter's property. ..."Because plaintiff has failed to properly serve process upon the county, the court is without jurisdiction over the county," Mr. Coronado said. The only other means of proper service would have been through the county clerk, he said. Attorney Charles Speer said he intends to serve the county, this time ensuring Mr. Dollars and the county clerk's office receive the paperwork.

Last year, 400-foot-tall wind turbines were erected near King City, some less than 2,000 feet from Charlie Porter's house on his small acreage. Soon the sounds from the blades swooshing through the air and other noise were driving Porter and his family crazy, he said. "The sound gets in your head like a saw and you can't get rid of it," Porter said. "Some people compare it to a train that never arrived." Porter's complaints upset his brother-in-law, a Gentry County commissioner who helped bring the wind farm and new economy to the area, as well as others. In February, it spilled over into a fistfight between them, then a lawsuit. At the heart of the dispute: Just how healthy is the noise from wind turbines? ...One researcher calls it "wind turbine syndrome," a collection of symptoms that include headaches, anxiety attacks and high blood pressure. Doctors in some other countries have done research on people who live near turbines and say the sounds they emit make them sick. Several researchers suggest that turbines should be set back from homes, schools and hospitals by more than a mile.

Charles Speer, a Kansas City attorney representing Mr. Porter, noted the family relationships involved and offered his initial goals for the case. "My intent is to calm tensions" and find a resolution to the dispute, he said. He said his client opposed the wind farm from the very start and has researched the health impacts of the facilities. According to the lawsuit, Charles Porter and his family - including an 11-year-old daughter - have suffered from a strobe light the towers emit twice daily, loud noise caused by the turbines, destruction of property, loss of sleep, and other factors linked to the project.

Five petitions that would change Missouri law concerning renewable energy resources have met the standards for circulation, according to Secretary of State Robin Carnahan's office. ...The full text of all the proposed ballot measures will be available on the Secretary of State's website at www.sos.mo.gov/elections/2008petitions/08init_pet.asp.

Kansas City Power & Light has tabled plans to build in 2008 its second 100-megawatt wind farm, citing difficulties in getting financing. The wind farm was promised by KCP&L as part of a comprehensive energy plan that included the coal-fired Iatan 2 plant, under construction near Weston. The plan, announced last March by the utility and the Sierra Club, was hailed as the first of its kind and included building 400 megawatts of wind energy by 2012. The utility, which this week acknowledged construction cost overruns at Iatan 2, is putting off the wind project at a time when other utilities are stepping up their wind-energy construction. The decision also means KCP&L won't take advantage of federal wind energy tax credits that expire at the end of the year.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife technically has no authority over the use of the surrounding land, but the group requested that Wind Capital take a one-mile setback for all wind turbines to avoid disrupting migratory birds and other wildlife that live near the lake. "The federal government has no right to place a buffer zone on private land," state Rep. Jim Guest said. "But Wind Capital Group is going to listen to them because there are federal tax credits involved." Many environmental and wildlife activist groups have taken pro-wind power positions because the turbines produce electricity without emitting greenhouse gases. ...Despite the allure of green energy, environmental groups have stipulations about where wind farms should be placed.

They're there to see the Bluegrass Ridge Farm, the first commercial wind farm in Missouri. It's enormous, a commanding and surreal presence that changed the landscape of the northwest Missouri town. ...As the turbines' massive blades cut through the wind, it sounds a bit like a rumbling jet passing overhead. It's way more than Charlie Porter bargained for. Porter, who owns 20 acres in King City, has no turbines on his property but several near his home. Those turbines, he said, "have ruined our lives." "If you don't live underneath one of them and you drive down the highway, they look kind of neat," Porter said. "But for us, it's been a nightmare. They've ruined the equity in our home. The noise keeps us up at night. The shadows invade our home." Other concerns about wind farms include disruption to the land, visual blight and the risk they pose to birds.

Wind's contribution as an energy source will remain limited for now, because it's an inconsistent resource. Wind, for example, typically blows the least during the summer, when demand for electricity is greatest. ... Cost is another major challenge; Southworth estimated that wind power typically costs up to three times as much as coal power to generate. Its costs, however, are comparable to the expense of power produced using natural gas.

Jim McCarty of the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives said he doesn't expect the wind to really start humming until fall and spring. "That's actually one of the drawbacks of wind energy," McCarty said. "It's going to work best when you really don't need power that much. When you think of springtime when the wind is blowing and people are out flying kites, that's when you have windows open, and you're not running your furnaces as much." ..."It's never going to shut down the big power plants," McCarty said. "It's always going to be supplementary power, but when it blows, it's great."

Wind power was supposed to become part of Columbia's energy mix on Sunday, but delays at the wind farm providing the electricity and ongoing bureaucratic holdups stand in the way. Wind turbines at the King City farm in northwest Missouri are up and running, but the electricity is not yet available for Columbia to purchase because of testing delays, said Nancy Southworth, a spokeswoman for Associated Electric Cooperative. Columbia, meanwhile, continues to negotiate with the regulatory body that oversees power transmission in the Midwest about whether there is enough space in the regional electrical grid to get the wind power to Columbia.

COLUMBIA - The City of Columbia is looking for new ways to generate electricity. The search is part of a new plan to add a little green to the city's power. The City of Columbia wants to start working with the University of Missouri to measure wind speed so local wind energy might someday be used to power parts of the city. The City Council gave the green light to install wind measuring devices called anemometers to track wind speed in the area.