Major wind project moves ahead

Friday, March 17, 2006

A story by Thomas Content in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel updates the progress of We Energies' Blue Sky Green Fields Wind Project:

High steel costs and a tight supply of wind turbines have driven up the cost to build a Fond du Lac County wind-power project by nearly $100 million, to $346 million, a We Energies executive said Thursday.

But the Milwaukee-based utility says the project still makes economic sense because the price of natural gas used to generate power has tripled in recent years. . . .

The state's largest utility will file an application with state regulators today to build a wind-power project in the Fond du Lac County towns of Marshfield and Calumet, on the southeastern corner of Lake Winnebago. The wind-power project would generate enough electricity to power 45,000 homes. A decision by the state Public Service Commission is expected by year's end.