Fremgen said by increasing the setback from landowners not under contract you force the wind farm developer to get contracts from any landowner that would be close enough to the turbine to have their wind resource affected. "The other issue is roads," Johnson said. "These towers take about 360 tons of concrete and are put up with 280-ton cranes. The companies always reassure the people that they will recondition the roads but how do we make sure?" The board agreed to continue with the development of an ordinance.

A public hearing on wind facilities is slated for 5:30 p.m. Thursday before the Morton County Planning and Zoning Board at the commission room of the Morton County Courthouse. In preparation for the meeting, a Planning and Zoning Subcommittee sifted through a wind generator policy and the application process this week. According to County Auditor Paul Trauger, no applications for wind facilities have been received for generators, but there have been five inquiries.

The Public Service Commission, which regulates and approved the wind farm's associated transmission line, could end up fining the company as much as $200,000, said commissioner Susan Wefald, president of the commission. ...The order approving the line said the company would have to ask for permission to move any towers. In June, the company notified the PSC it had changed the location of about 50 of the 102 towers without seeking formal approval for the changes from the agency. "For a company to just ignore that is unfortunate," Wefald said after the PSC's Wednesday morning meeting. "Our orders include requirements that are important to meet."

After three years of waiting, the Rugby community is looking forward to construction of a 149-megawatt wind farm. The North Dakota Public Service Commission approved the re-siting of turbines east of Rugby for Iberdrola Renewables, formerly PPM Energy, Wednesday in Bismarck. ...Iberdrola plans to move forward with the project regardless of the status of any agreement for purchase of the power. ...it appears the company is willing to commit to building even if it means selling the power on the open market

State regulators are planning a hearing next month on a proposed 368-megawatt wind farm in south central North Dakota. The project is called Just Wind. It includes 160 wind towers in Logan County, near the community of Napoleon.

The PSC reissued state certificates Wednesday to Iberdola Renewables Inc. to take over the Rugby Wind farm project from PPM Energy. PPM got the original certificates in 2005 to build 100 turbines that would put out 150 megawatts of wind power near Rugby. Iberdola proposes to 71 larger turbines, which would still put out 150 megawatts. Construction is to start around Oct. 1.

Backyard wind towers would be limited to 35 feet in height under an ordinance proposal being considered by the Minot Planning Commission. An ad hoc committee of the commission reported Monday on its recommendations for wind towers. The commission formed the committee in response to a turbine request from landowners in a rural subdivision that falls within the city's zoning jurisdiction. The commission voted 10-1 to recommend the Minot City Council deny the request from William and Sandra Carlson for a turbine of up to 100 feet in height at 5408-6th St. SE.

The Luverne Wind Farm may have to wait until November or later for final approval. The North Dakota Public Service Commission indicated Monday that the 157.5-megawatt wind farm may not be approved until M-Power, LLC, the community-owned developer, completes archaeological and wetlands surveys - and that may not be until after the fall harvest. M-Power asked that the wind farm siting be approved, contingent on cultural and wetlands survey results and other data meeting state regulations.

Jeff Metzger, president of Just Wind, wants to see a set of rules put in place for wind farm development in Stutsman County. "We're looking at 400 turbines in two projects in Stutsman County," he said. "We're not the only people looking at coming to North Dakota. We need your support to put a zoning ordinance in place for wind farm projects." ...Zoning regulations would define things like setbacks from residences, roads and property lines. The regulations would define where wind turbines could be constructed.

A 13-mile 230-kilovolt electric transmission line connecting the proposed $300 million community-owned 157-megwatt Luverne Wind Farm with a Minnkota Power Cooperative transmission line took a step closer to reality Monday. But the approval process for the wind farm itself stalled, as developers asked the North Dakota Public Service Commission to continue the public hearing at a later date. It seems the exact locations of the 72 wind turbines in the south half of the project have not been determined yet ...

Public Service Commissioner Kevin Cramer says a 1,000 megawatt wind energy project will show how much North Dakotans support wind development. ..."There is no way that 667 turbines won't have some impact. Certainly there is some favorable impact -- but this will be an intrusion on the landscape. And I believe it will be a test of just how much of this type of investment North Dakotans are willing to tolerate.

North Dakota regulators have approved construction of North Dakota's largest wind project, a 200-megawatt development north of Valley City. Its backers plan to spend $350 million on the wind farm and a new power transmission line. The Ashtabula Wind project, so named because the turbines will be located just east of Lake Ashtabula, should be operating by year's end, members of the state Public Service Commission said Friday. It includes 133 wind turbines, which will be spaced over 77 square miles in Barnes County.

While public hearings are meant to air both the positives and negatives about a project, the Public Service Commission heard nothing but good about the Ashtabula Wind Farm during a hearing held Friday at Valley City. The PSC hearing concerned the citing of a proposed 200-megawatt wind farm planned for Barnes County. During the same session the commission also took testimony on a route permit for about 9.5 miles of electric transmission line associated with the wind farm. Both are projects of Ashtabula Wind, LLC, a subsidiary of Florida Power and Light, and are planned for Barnes County.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative will cut out the middleman and go directly to the wind on its own. The cooperative, long associated with lignite power and gasification plants, has formed a subsidiary to build a 77-turbine wind farm along Highway 83 south of Minot, where it installed two turbines in an earlier project. Public scoping meetings were held Wednesday and construction is scheduled to start next year. The $240 million wind farm will add 115 megawatts of electricity to Basin's power portfolio when it goes on line in 2010.

Two competing wind projects for a high glacial ridge northeast of Valley City found little relief for their differences at a zoning meeting Thursday night. Florida Power and Light plans to install 80 turbines starting late this spring, cranking out 200 megawatts for an as-yet unnamed purchaser, though Otter Tail Power plans a transmission project there. These turbines would be the biggest in the industry at 2.5 megawatts and stand 420 high at the blade tip. A local group under the name Peak Wind also is planning a project on the same ridge line and wanted the Barnes County Planning and Zoning Commission to set FPL's turbines enough back from property lines so they don't take wind from the Peak project area.

State regulators have agreed to shorten a wind developer's waiting time before it may submit plans to build North Dakota's largest wind energy project. FPL Energy wants to build 133 wind turbines in northern Barnes County in eastern North Dakota. The wind project would generate up to 200 megawatts of electricity and cost an estimated $350 million to build.

Most of North Dakota’s wind turbines have barely begun operating, but state regulators have started drafting rules that would apply if the massive towers quit producing electricity. ...North Dakota’s proposed rules say the property that hosted a wind turbine site would have to be restored to ‘‘substantially the same physical condition’’ as existed when the site was built. ‘‘To the extent possible, the site must be restored and reclaimed to the topography and topsoil quality that existed just prior to the beginning ... of construction,’’ they say. A wind turbine would be targeted for decommissioning if it had not produced electricity for at least one year, the proposed rules say. Removing a wind tower and its associated equipment would have to be done within 18 months after it reached the end of its use.

North Dakota's largest wind farm already has growth plans, state regulators said as they approved a shortened application period for siting 27 new wind turbines near Langdon. ...The commission approved the present wind farm's site plan, and its president, Susan Wefald, said regulators' familiarity with the area may help siting work for the expansion. "There is not a lot of new land that's going to be added," Wefald said. "A number of the turbines are going to be placed on land that has been sited already."

The location of nine turbines in the Oliver Wind II project will be altered from the original plan, requiring a return of the project to the Oliver County Planning and Zoning Commission next week. Oliver Wind II will go into full-blown construction soon, but changes with landowners and design mean that some of the wind turbines will be moved outside of the previously approved project area. County land use administrator John Wicklund said the change is a relatively small tweaking of the project and that the new locations will be adjacent to the land that was originally zoned for the project.