The North Dakota Public Service Commission has filed a complaint that Tatanka Wind Farm changed the location of some transmission towers without notifying the commission. A possible fine of up to $200,000 is by no means a certainty. "We are just putting the company on alert that our staff is concerned about this," commission President Susan Wefald told the American News on Wednesday.

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."

Death comes from above and below for birds on the causeway that separates Lake Audubon from Lake Sakakawea along the Missouri River. Biologists believe overhead electrical power lines and car collisions make the two-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 83 through the Audubon National Wildlife Refuge one of the world's deadliest places for birds, on land or air. Recently, biologist Darren Doderer located casualty No. 373, a mangled and bloodied double-crested cormorant that appeared to have hit one of the dozen or so unmarked overhead power lines.

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.

Construction on a new 149-megawatt wind farm in north central North Dakota should begin this fall, a company spokesman said, almost three years after state regulators approved the project's location north of Rugby. The Public Service Commission voted Wednesday to reissue siting certificates for the Pierce County project to Iberdrola Renewables Inc., a unit of Iberdrola Renewables S.A. of Madrid. The commissioners first approved the certificates in October 2005. The wind farm was initially developed by PPM Energy Inc. of Portland, Ore.

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 ...

Facing a huge increase in North Dakota's number of wind towers, state regulators promised to pay close attention to projects' potential effects on the whooping crane, a huge bird is in danger of extinction. "We generally aren't happy until you are," Public Service Commissioner Kevin Cramer told Jeffrey Towner, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife field supervisor in Bismarck, and Terry Ellsworth, an agency wildlife biologist, at a commission meeting Tuesday. Most of North Dakota's wind energy projects are outside the normal migratory path that whoopers take from Canada to Texas each year, wildlife officials say.

With wind energy towers rising around the state, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials worry about rare whooping cranes that pass through on their migration route betweem Canada and Texas. Representatives of the Fish and Wildlife Service plan a meeting this week with the North Dakota Public Service Commission and a separate meeting with officials of some 30 wind companies working in the Great Plains. They want to discuss a habitat conservation plan for the big white birds. "It's on the table now because we're seeing such a rapid increase in the number and size of wind power projects.

A world's-largest scale wind farm proposed for Oliver and Morton counties could snare and kill a migrating endangered species. Whooping cranes pass through those counties flying between northern Canada and Texas and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is concerned that an explosion of wind farms up and down the Great Plains' flyway will further endanger the rare birds. The agency charged with protecting the enormous white cranes will meet with the Public Service Commission next week to talk in general about the problem. It will meet in Denver later in the week with 30 wind companies working the Great Plains region.

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 are planning for two large new wind energy projects, costing an estimated $2.3 billion, that should be capable of generating up to 1,150 megawatts of electricity. The state Public Service Commission on Wednesday formally accepted letters of intent from FPL Energy LLC, of Juno Beach, Fla., to build a 1,000-megawatt wind farm in west central North Dakota and a 150-megawatt project in Dickey County, in the southeastern part of the state.

North Dakota's biggest wind developer is proposing a $2 billion wind turbine farm in the west-central part of the state. It would be capable of generating 1,000 megawatts of electricity. FPL Energy wants to build the wind farm over 250 square miles in Oliver and Morton counties. Its 667 wind turbines would be located in a region of North Dakota that is better known for coal mining and coal-fueled power plants.

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.

North Dakota regulators have granted Otter Tail Power Company`s request for a special charge to cover the utility`s investment in wind energy. Otter Tail owns part of a new wind farm south of Langdon in northeastern North Dakota. Otter Tail gets 40-and-one-half megawatts of the wind farm`s output. It`s capable of generating 159 megawatts of electricity. Otter Tail asked for a special renewable energy charge to cover its North Dakota wind energy development expenses.

Over 100 people turned out for a wind farm development meeting in Strasburg Thursday night to learn about Just Wind's plans for the area. Jeffrey L. Metzger, Just Wind's Chief Manager, of Mound, Minn., reported on the project which could involve 400 wind generators spread across 64,000 acres in southwestern Emmons County (primarily west of Strasburg). Estimated cost of the project is roughly $1 billion based on the $3.7 million cost per turbine. ...Metzger said the Strasburg operation would be the nation's largest community-owned wind farm.