Wind energy opponents would like to see strict regulations while land owners hoping to earn up to $6,000 annually for housing a turbine say they prefer more liberal ordinances. As a result, Logan-Union-Champaign Regional Planning Commission has taken steps to bring the two sides together to discuss zoning issues and reach a consensus, said Jenny Snapp, commission's executive director. In addition, Champaign and Logan counties recently adopted ordinances - and are working on others - that will regulate where turbines can be placed. The ordinances are the first of their kind in Ohio.

The Union Twp. Zoning Commission has drafted preliminary zoning regulations for proposed wind turbines. Everpower Renewables, a New York-based developer of wind energy projects, has met with the zoning commission and township landowners to propose constructing at least 10 wind turbines on the east side of Champaign County. Each turbine can produce 2 to 3 megawatts of energy, which could power about 8,000 homes annually, the company said. Zoning commission members said they do not have authority to approve the project, but had to create guidelines for possible construction. The commission modeled its regulations on Monroe Twp. in Logan County, which has spent a year preparing for the installation of wind-energy towers. Discussion March 14 focused on the required distance between the 400-foot wind turbine and a residence. Initially, the draft stated a turbine would have a 500- foot buffer, but Linda Gordon, a homeowner, said that was too close, and urged that it be at least 2,000 feet away. "It's like looking at a Twin Tower," Gordon said. "Every time I look out my picture window, I'll have to see that thing humming outside my property." Commission members said that distance would not only prevent farmers with only 80 acres of land from placing a turbine on their property, but make it impossible to construct them within the township. The commission reached a consensus on having the turbines set 1,000 feet away from a residence and 500 feet from a roadway. Everpower representative Michael Speerschneider said this could ease some concerns because the height could be imposing in some residential areas. The commission will hold a public hearing on the draft regulations at 7 p.m. April 18 in the Union Twp. Building.

Brown's lawyer, David Watkins, represents three landowners and is negotiating with two companies that he says will pay at least $8,500 each year plus a share of their profits for every turbine they can put on Logan County land. Brown says he knows of 22 property owners with a collective 2,000 acres interested in such a deal. Another group of landowners, however, opposes the plans and says the green-energy benefits of wind energy don't outweigh the negatives of noise and aesthetics. Mike Stolly lives in Jefferson Township, not far from Brown's farm. He said since word spread this winter that power companies were serious about moving in, "It's like we're in mourning. People are devastated that this will ruin our countryside." In the heat of the debate, boards of township trustees are scrambling to decide how, or whether, to change zoning laws to control placement of the turbines. "It's like the adult entertainment business. You cannot prohibit it, but you can regulate it," said Jenny Snapp, director of the Logan-Union-Champaign Regional Planning Commission.

More than $1 million could be spent in the coming months pursuing offshore wind power in Lake Erie, even though the region just lost out on a bid to have East Toledo host the nation's first testing laboratory for offshore wind turbine blades. A $250,000 wildlife study, funded by a grant the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority obtained from U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo), recently began along the western Lake Erie shoreline. The goal of that study is to get the region's clean energy and wildlife proponents on the same page over the risks posed to birds and bats. The next phase would involve putting two or three wind turbines along the western Lake Erie shoreline as early as the summer of 2008 to see just how lethal the devices might be. Sites have not been selected, but they likely would be between Toledo and Lorain, Ohio.

The Union Township Zoning Commission has drafted preliminary zoning regulations for proposed wind turbines. Everpower Renewables, a New York-based developer of wind energy projects, has met with the zoning commission and township landowners to propose constructing at least 10 wind turbines on the east side of Champaign County.

Proponents call wind power an environmentally advantageous energy source. Opponents in Logan County, where giant turbines may be placed, disagree. The state’s only wind farm, as seen in 2004, is near Bowling Green. Logan County is home to the highest point in Ohio, so maybe it was just a matter of time before someone realized it is windy there. And maybe it was just a matter of time before someone decided to build giant turbines to convert that wind to energy. At least one power company says it aims to put up at least 20 turbines there. That many turbines would dwarf the only wind farm in Ohio, and some local landowners are saying, "Go away." The critics say wind farms aren’t green enough and don’t really help reduce reliance on other forms of power.

A few landowners in Logan County might have the opportunity to lead the way in Ohio with the largest wind power operation in the state if the plans of a few green-energy companies prosper on properties in Jefferson, Monroe and Rushcreek townships. However, the proposed construction of up to 120 wind turbines in as soon as a year, each up to 550 feet tall, might be a bad move the community will have to live with for a long time, opponents say. Nearly 100 local residents met Tuesday afternoon at Marmon Valley Farm to discuss the implications of turning Logan County into what would fast become the largest wind power community in the state, while several posed the question: Are developers and landowners moving too quick with a decision that will affect the local community and disturb Logan County’s historic and scenic landscape for generations to come? After extensive research, Tom Stacy of Zanesfield, and others, believe so. “This is a way to shelter big company profits from taxes,” Mr. Stacy said. “It’s a symbol; it’s a monument that we’re doing something to conserve energy. The only thing is: It’s not conserving energy. They want to put up at least 100 to 120 of these things soon and it’s going to devastate the property values and scenery around them for miles.”

Joe Short, a Fulton County commissioner, said the county is already looking at how they could use the parcels. “What we are doing is actively pursuing alternate sources of energy such as wind power,” he said. The commissioners recently asked the regional planning department to get a wind map of the county to find the best places to put wind mills. That map was then overlaid with the map of unused/underused state land parcels to see if those sites were viable. “We’re seeing if those areas will be a good place to put windmills,” he said.

State incentives aimed at developing wind energy in Ohio could mean a breath of fresh air for Rock Creek’s plan to erect a electricity-producing turbine in Conneaut. On Thursday, Gov. Ted Strickland announced $5 million in grants will be available to communities and others who develop wind-based energy programs.

Wind turbines on Lake Erie could blow the rust off the region and mark it as a world leader in alternative-energy development, officials say. A Cuyahoga County task force on Thursday proposed the Lake Erie Wind Energy Center, featuring up to 10 wind turbines on the lake and a research center on land spurring new businesses and jobs. “We can change the entire image, from a rust-belt city to a city of the future,” Ronn Richard, head of the Cleveland Foundation, told a crowd of 60 at the Great Lakes Science Center. “This kind of push would help Cleveland reclaim its place as a major economic and cultural force on the world stage.”

Champaign County officials began phase one of a proposed $30 million project to supply residents an alternative energy source. Everpower Renewables, a New York-based developer of utility grade wind projects, wants to construct at least ten 300-foot wind turbines beginning at Yankee Hill Road traveling north about 20 to 30 miles toward Mingo.

Three more signs of northwest Ohio’s budding interest in wind power emerged yesterday. They were: •Bowling Green’s utilities director saying that his city is contemplating more commercial-sized wind turbines. •Fulton County commissioners saying that they might want to explore their county’s potential as a host site. •Gov. Ted Strickland saying that he was following through with an incentive program for wind power production and manufacturing. The program stems from a bill passed by the General Assembly in late 2006 and signed into law by former Gov. Bob Taft during the waning hours of his administration.

UNION TWP., Champaign County — County officials have begun the first phase of a proposed $30 million project to supply residents an alternative energy source. Everpower Renewables, a New York-based developer of utility-grade wind projects, wants to construct at least 10 300-foot wind turbines beginning at Yankee Hill Road traveling north about 20 to 30 miles toward Mingo. The company applied for and was granted a building permit to install a test tower that will sit near North Mutual Road to measure wind velocity, said Jene Gaver, building regulations chief inspector. The Union Twp. zoning commission will gather public input before drafting an agreement with the company.

Some of that windiness felt at City Hall lately might be put to a good use: powering a city-owned building. But neighbors around a Walnut Hills site where a wind turbine will be installed weren’t too happy about the choice.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources opposes open lake wind turbines such as the ones that an energy task force has urged Cuyahoga County commissioners build on Lake Erie, a state wildlife biologist said. Mark Shieldcastle, who spoke to the Greater Akron Audubon Society on Tuesday night at the Sand Run Metro Park in Summit County, said it would be nearly impossible to monitor the mortality rates of migratory birds killed by open water turbines. “We’re trying to get land-based studies first,” said Shieldcastle, a wildlife biologist with the Crane Creek Wildlife Research Station between Sandusky and Toledo. “There are a lot more ramifications and challenges to look at the risks to birds in open water. I wouldn’t know where to start.”

Local leaders propose a windy addition to the Lake Erie horizon - massive wind turbines that would crank out megawatts and spin off research, development and jobs. An energy task force will recommend to Cuyahoga County commissioners next month that the region pursue a demonstration project of four to 10 turbines, spinning at least three miles out on Lake Erie. It would be an unprecedented venture - while European countries have water-borne windmills, the United States has none, task force officials said. And there are no freshwater wind turbines in the world, they said.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Advocates of wind energy sought to get a step ahead of Ohio's new political climate Monday, urging the newly elected governor and Legislature to include windmills in the state's future energy plans. "While wind energy may not solve all of our energy needs - in fact, it likely won't - it is a key part of an overall strategy to diversify our energy sources, increase our energy efficiency, and I think this is a good start," said Battelle senior vice president Dennis McGinn, manager of the research institute's energy, transportation and environment division.

The practicality and ecological consequences of erecting a wind turbine on the Maumee Bay shore will be the subject of a study for which the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority board of directors yesterday approved hiring two consultants. The port board also took a procedural step that will allow a local preservation group to assume ownership of the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse.

Two power sources that lost their luster in recent decades will be increasingly important in meeting the growing demand for energy in this country, the leader of one of the nation’s largest utilities said. "We need to look at King Coal and . . . nuclear," Michael G. Morris, American Electric Power’s chairman and chief executive, said yesterday at the Columbus Metropolitan Club.

PORT CLINTON — A wind-turbine company is trying to get City Council to invest in exploring the possibility of joining an alternative energy experiment with the federal government at Camp Perry. Representatives of North Coast Wind & Power LLC told council Tuesday night that the U.S. Air Force might install a wind turbine at Camp Perry as a possible source of supplying electricity to the military installation and local municipalities.