BONE, Idaho — Forty-three wind turbines, each as tall as a 20-story building, rise from the rolling hills around Bone and stretch for nearly six miles across southeastern Idaho.

Steve Rhodes, whose family has ranched and farmed here for four generations, admits that the windmills "took some getting used to."

"They changed the landscape," he said. "But now I think they're kinda pretty. This is something I've dreamed about all my life. The wind blows most of the time out here. I've always thought somebody ought to do something about it."

Somebody is. Compared to the mass of a hydroelectric dam or the stacks of a coal-fired plant, the Wolverine Creek Wind Farm looks benign. And the pale-gray turbine blades spinning almost silently in the green hills around Bone provide enough electricity to power 12,000 homes.

Idaho's largest wind farm could be a harbinger of the state's energy future. A smaller commercial wind farm, Fossil Gulch, is operating near Hagerman in south-central Idaho, and a project three times the size of Wolverine Creek called the Cotterel Mountain Wind Farm is projected to be operating in 2008, also in south-central Idaho, near Albion. Its turbines would dot ridgelines for 18 miles and provide enough power for 40,000 homes. More than 40 other projects large and small are in various stages of planning.

Modern technology has brought wind power into the mainstream. Wind power doesn't pollute, it contributes jobs and tax dollars to rural economies and, unlike coal or natural gas, it has no fuel costs. Demand among prospective developers is great enough that wind turbines are back-ordered two years. Wind farms along the Snake River Plain could soon be as common as potato fields.

Not everyone likes wind power. Albion residents have signed a petition opposing the Cotterel project, which they say would dominate the landscape.

At the Idaho Division of Energy office in Boise, however, principal energy specialist Gerry Galinato says wind energy is likely to affect Idaho's near future.

"Wind is the renewable technology of today," said state Sen. Curt McKenzie, a Nampa Republican and co-chairman of a committee working to revise Idaho's energy plan. "And it's only going to be a more reliable source as we learn how to capture the energy and release it better. Of all the renewable energies, wind is where our largest supply will come from."

Wind and other renewable sources meet what appears to be a growing desire among Idahoans for green energy. A public outcry over emissions was a factor in the defeat of Sempra Corp.'s proposed coal-fired plant in Magic Valley this spring, and wind was the energy source of choice in a 2005 Boise State University study of energy policy issues.

Idaho's wind power potential is significant. A Northwest Sustainable Energy for Economic Development study estimates it at 1,800 megawatts. The state ranks 13th among states in potential wind power, according to the American Wind Energy Association. It would rank higher if not for an abundance of sites aesthetically off limits — no one wants wind turbines dotting the White Clouds, Sawtooths, Craters of the Moon or other iconic vistas.

Two wind-energy companies have moved their headquarters here from other states. One is the Exergy Development Group, which has offices in California and Montana but operates mainly out of Boise.

"Southern Idaho is one big wind machine," Exergy president James Carkulis said. "It starts in the west and slides up the western slopes to the northeast with few geographical factors to impede it."

Wind farms are built primarily in rural areas, bringing jobs and tax revenues with them. Wind can also be a source of income for local ranchers and farmers on whose land wind turbines are erected. Depending on the amount of power produced, they typically receive $4,000 to $7,000 per year per turbine. The turbines' effect on crops and livestock is minimal.

"I don't have any on my land," said Rhodes, whose farm lies a breath of wind away from Wolverine Creek. "But I wish I did."

© COPYRIGHT 2006 The Honolulu Advertiser, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
To subscribe or visit go to:  http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com