BEULAH ? Duke Energy, which had planned to develop a $360 million wind power project in Benzie and Manistee counties, has instead decided to discontinue development of the 16,000 acre project that could have generated up to 200 megawatts of renewable electricity to power about 60,000 homes.

In a press release, the North Carolina-based company said it couldn?t get a Purchase Power Agreement from DTE Energy to buy the electricity generated. Duke also said the timing no longer was right for the Gail Windpower project due to changes in the Michigan wholesale energy market.

Duke said it committed to build five large-scale wind power projects in 2012 ? two in Kansas, two in Texas and one in Pennsylvania. ?The company intends to focus its efforts on constructing these projects and investing in the communities that will host them,? the company said in its press release.

Duke spokesman Alanya Schofield said the company will continue to develop the $160 million Hillsdale Windpower Project that would generate 100-megawatts of electrical power over 12,000 acres in Reading, Cambria and Allen Townships, enough to power 30,000 homes.

She also said Duke is negotiating with ?other parties? to sell the project. She declined to elaborate or provide a time table. She also declined to say how much Duke spent over the past two years trying to get the Gail project operational.

Allan O?Shea, the former chairman of the Manistee County Commission, who became a consultant a year ago to Duke Energy, said Duke decided, ?It could not keep throwing good money at a situation that was not going to fly.? He said a small, well financed faction that did not want the Windpower project to be completed, ultimately was the deciding factor.

Citizens for Responsible Wind Development and the Arcadia Wind Study Group both earlier claimed wind turbine infrasound causes serious health problems. Spokesmen for either group could not be reached for comment.

?Duke is a big corporation and they?re not going to go where they are not wanted,? O?Shea said. ?Such a vitriolic backlash by some folks made them back off. Now we have to put it behind us and hope our community will heal itself.?

Added O?Shea, who is the president of Contractors Building Supply, a wind and renewable energy contractor: ?Renewable energy is a new concept. It?s a hard thing for some people in the community to get their arms around. It?s hard enough for them to understand it for their homes, let alone a big wind farm in their own backyards.?

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