Wind Power News: Nevada
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted.
Just put a moustache on the Mona Lisa
Imagine an elegant wedding, the bride in a beautiful gown starts down the aisle to a boom box playing a rap music wedding song, “The brides a h* and the grooms a p***…”. Not very appropriate is it? Neither are wind turbines in the Comstock Historic District. To spoil the 19th century charm of Virginia City with the mountains covered with turbines boggles the mind. Put a mustache on the Mona Lisa. I don’t live in the area where the . . .
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Companies seek Washoe sites for wind turbines
In the Virginia Range northwest of Pyramid Lake, the Pah Rahs east of Sparks and the Fort Sage, Dry Valley and Dogskin Mountains in northern Washoe County, scientific instruments are measuring wind strength and directions for potential turbine sites.
“This is serious stuff, and it’s coming our way,” said Bill Whitney, a county planner who conducted a workshop Tuesday night for about 100 people interested in wind energy in the county.
In the southern part of the county, as many as . . .
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Wind power plan stirs controversy
The first wind energy project proposed for the Virginia City area is stirring up more than just wind.
Several residents are expressing concern about the visual impact that as many as 70 of three-bladed turbines would have on the 1860s-era tourist destination that has been designated a National Historic District.
Ron Reno told the Silver City Town Board he is not organizing opposition but he doesn’t like Great Basin Wind’s new Comstock project along Virginia Range ridgelines from Geiger Summit . . .
Wind turbines proposed at Virginia City; some opposition
The first wind energy project proposed in Virginia City is stirring up some controversy. Some residents are expressing concern about the visual pollution the big turbines could bring to the Comstock Historic District.
Ron Reno says wind power is a wonderful thing, just not in the 1860s-era town that draws thousands of tourists a year. He says if the turbines are placed on ridge lines like Great Basin Wind proposes, they’ll be highly visible form Virginia City, Gold Hill and . . .
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Fighting for their life: Preservationists seek Sage Grouse protection
With 70,000 to 80,000 sage grouse scampering through thickets of high desert shrubs in Nevada, a casual observer might think the chickenlike bird is hardly a candidate for listing as a threatened or endangered species.
The Nevada Department of Wildlife estimates, however, are down this year from 100,000 grouse in 2005, and the ratio of chicks to hens is the lowest recorded since the early 1980s.
That gives weight to arguments by preservationists who succeeded last year in persuading a . . .
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Solar projects draw new opposition
What’s not to like about solar power? Sunlight is clean, quiet and abundant. If enough of it were harnessed and turned into electricity, it could be the solution to the energy crisis. But surprisingly, solar power projects are running into mounting opposition — and not from hard-nosed, coal-fired naysayers, but from environmentalists.
The opposition is particularly strong in Southern California. Aside from abundant sunshine and virtually cloudless skies, the California desert has altitude, so there is less atmospheric interference for . . .
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Blowin' in the wind
Silver City residents expressed mixed reactions after recently learning of a proposed wind turbine project for the nearby ridgelines.
Residents weighed the greenness of wind power with the amount of visual pollution that the tall towering structures could bring to the popular 1860s-era tourist destination communities in the Comstock Historic District, which is also designated a National Historic District.
Great Basin Wind, LLC’s New Comstock Project was discussed during the recent September Silver City Town Board meeting’s public comment segment. . . .
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Wind power raises questions from environmentalists; County officials welcome wind power projects—but still want to be able to stop them
Just as new wind power plans are being announced around Nevada, the state’s counties are seeking power to kill such projects.
Among the projects on various corporate drawing boards:
• Edison Mission Energy and Nevada Wind want to install wind turbines on 5,220 acres on Wilson and Table mountains in Lincoln County.
• Nevada Wind/Edison Mission Energy also plans a 5,030 acre in the White Rock Mountains in Lincoln County.
• Nevada Wind/Edison Mission Energy also has a 2,950 acre . . .
Washoe officials reviewing plans for state’s first large wind farm
Officials of a company called Nevada Wind want to build $300 million worth of turbines above Warm Springs Valley in the Pah Rah Mountains, the first large wind farm in the state.
If Washoe County officials approve, the 20 to 50 turbines on ridges near Virginia Peak could be under construction next year, generate power by 2010 and be completed by 2013, said Tim Carlson, a partner in the Las Vegas company. Slowly rotating blades as long as 125 feet . . .
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Many wind farm projects in the works
A windmill project proposed for the Virginia Range could be the first in Nevada when finished, but it’s not the only one in the works.
According to Sierra Pacific Power Co. spokesman Fay Anderson, there are several locations in Nevada being studied for wind-generated electricity projects, the farthest along outside of the Virginia Range project being in Elko County.
There also are projects proposed for Lincoln, Clark and White Pine counties.
U.S. Department of Energy officials have estimated that 20 percent of the . . .
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