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.

A previously announced wind power project in southwestern North Dakota around Gascoyne has grown to possibly include an area near New England and Elgin. Ryan Segley, project manager for Crownbutte Wind Power LLC, said the company is currently waiting to see if there is enough room on transmission lines in the southwestern part of the state for the energy generated by the wind turbines. "We're waiting for the queue process to see if they can get us on the transmission lines down there," Segley said.

As wind energy developers and state officials shot the breeze inside a tent late Wednesday morning, wind turbines surrounding the Langdon (N.D.) Wind Energy Center were producing some 10 megawatts of energy ...That was a lull, really, in terms of energy output at the very hour the 106-turbine, $250 million facility was being dedicated. At full capacity, the 159-megawatt Langdon wind farm is capable of powering about 39,750 homes — equal to, for example, the number of houses in Grand Forks, Traill, Walsh, Cavalier and Pembina counties. By the end of the year, the facility will expand by another 27 wind turbines and 40 megawatts of power.

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.

Otter Tail Power Co. wants to begin charging its North Dakota customers for the expense of building a new wind farm, a request that may be delayed until state regulators can review its electric rates. The Public Service Commission on Wednesday began considering an Otter Tail request to allow it to add a "renewable generation" rate to its North Dakota electric bills. ...The proposed rate would add about $1.45 monthly to the electric bill of a residential customer who uses 750 kilowatt-hours of power each month, the commission said. Many Otter Tail customers use more, and their potential bills would be higher.

Whooping cranes, one of the world's rarest birds, have waged a valiant battle against extinction. But federal officials warn of a new potential threat to the endangered whoopers: wind farms. Down to as few as 16 in 1941, the gargantuan birds that migrate 2,400 miles each fall from Canada to Texas, thanks to conservation efforts, now number about 266. But because wind energy, one of the fastest growing sources of renewable energy, has gained such traction, whooping cranes could again be at risk - from either crashing into the towering wind turbines and transmission lines or because of habitat lost to the wind farms. "Basically you can overlay the strongest, best areas for wind turbine development with the whooping crane migration corridor," said Tom Stehn, whooping crane coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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.

Denali Energy Inc. of Baxter, Minn. and Montgomery Energy Partners LP of Houston, Texas, have entered into a joint venture to develop Heartland Wind Farm, LLC. The first phase of Hartland Wind Farm is expected to produce 500 megawatts, using 333 turbines. A second 500 megawatt phase is in development. At 1,000 megawatts, this project has the potential to be one of the largest wind farm developments in the United States.

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.

Fearful of the possible loss of federal tax breaks, a company is rushing to complete a planned 150-megawatt wind farm in eastern North Dakota that would be financed partly by local investors. "It's going to be tight," said Warren Enyart, secretary of M-Power LLC, of Finley, which is developing the project. "We're scrambling. We're somewhat optimistic, but everything has to fall in place very precisely." The project will include between 58 and 100 wind turbines, depending on the design that is chosen, Enyart said. ..."However, the uncertainty of the federally authorized production tax credits has prompted the utilities to request an accelerated constructions schedule," the letter says. M-Power's goal now is to have the wind farms operational by Dec. 31, when the credits will expire unless Congress extends them, it says.