Aug 11 - McClatchy-Tribune Business News Formerly Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Cyndy Cole The Arizona Daily Sun, Flagstaff

A large wind park 36 miles east of Flagstaff has likely been delayed at least another year because backers haven't been able to seal a deal with an electricity customer.

Construction crews were to finish Sunshine Wind Park in 2005, along Interstate 40 near Meteor Crater.

That estimate was pushed back to 2007 a year ago. Now 2008 is looking more likely, said Amy LeGere, a spokeswoman for Foresight Wind Energy.

The state's largest electric utility, Arizona Public Service, has met its needs for renewable energy with less expensive supplies in California, New Mexico and elsewhere in Arizona, said Barbara Lockwood, of APS.

"We fully expect to do additional requests for proposals in the future, but we don't have any time frame for that right now," she said.

Forty turbines, each 405 feet tall, are planned for the wind park, which would generate enough power to supply the equivalent of two-third of the homes in Flagstaff .

Sunshine Wind Park's proposals came in too expensive but negotiations continue, Lockwood said.

The wind quality -- measures of how consistently and precisely when the wind blows -- at the park's site was also not as good as some other sites in Arizona, Lockwood said.

That's because winds can die down amid the monsoon while Phoenix power demand surges strong.

Whether or when the wind park gets up and running largely hinges on what the Arizona Corporation Commission requires for renewable energy in the future.

Earlier this year, commissioners gave preliminary approval to a requirement that at least 15 percent of the state's electricity used by 2015 come from renewable sources, but a final vote hasn't happened.

There are no fatal flaws that would keep the wind park from being built, just minor hurdles, LeGere said.

"Sunshine's going to get built," she said. "We have no lack of confidence on that. It's just a question of when."