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Wind farms' spread fuels clashes with nearby residents

TEHACHAPI, Calif. -- Donna and Bob Moran moved to the wind-whipped foothills here four years ago looking for solitude and serenity amid the pinyon pines and towering Joshua trees.

But lately their view of the valley is being marred by a growing swarm of whirring wind turbines -- many taller than the Statue of Liberty -- sweeping ever closer to their home.

"Once, you could see stars like you wouldn't believe," Donna Moran said. "Now, with the lights from the turbines, you can't even see the night sky."

It's about to get worse.

Turbines are multiplying at blistering speeds as wind developers, drawn by the area's powerful gusts, attempt to meet an insatiable demand for clean energy.

Helo Energy plans to scatter 450-foot machines across hundreds of acres in nearby Sand Canyon. A few miles away, near the Old West Ranch enclave, Terra-Gen Power is building the nation's largest wind farm with hundreds of turbines, if not more. The project, Alta Wind Energy Center, is backed by hundreds of millions of dollars from Google Inc. and Citibank.

Federal and local officials hail the Tehachapi Valley, a harsh desert expanse about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, as an alternative energy mecca that will help wean Americans off fossil fuel. Kern County, home to the nation's largest concentration of wind farms, is looking forward to millions of dollars in much-needed tax revenue and has approved most proposed installations.

But wind projects aren't only proliferating in the region's outskirts. Nearly 3,000 turbines, many of them bigger than Ferris wheels, were installed across the country last year.

The growth is being propelled by federal incentives and state clean-energy mandates. In April, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that requires California utilities to get 33 percent of the state's electricity from renewable sources by 2020. As of the first quarter of 2011, they're at 17.9 percent.

But with thousands more wind projects on the drawing board, they're increasingly generating opposition among local residents. Less than 100 miles from Tehachapi in the Antelope Valley, proposed turbine developments are facing similar resistance. Across the country, Cape Cod, Mass., residents and political heavyweights such as Sen. John Kerry waged war against what could be the country's first offshore wind farm.

And the issue isn't just with wind turbines, said Tom Soto, an environmental activist and managing partner of Craton Equity Partners.

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