MANISTEE ? Duke Energy filed a proposal last week with DTE Energy to develop a $360 million wind power project in Benzie and Manistee counties that could generate up to 200 megawatts of renewable electricity to power about 60,000 homes. The project could eventually cover up to 16,000 acres.

The proposed wind farm, the Gail Windpower Project, would be built by Duke Energy Renewables, a commercial business unit of Duke Energy based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The project would begin once a long-term agreement with DTE is finalized. DTE should announce its decision later this year. If approved, construction would begin in 2013.

Harvesting the wind in Benzie and Manistee Counties makes a lot of sense, said Allan O?Shea, the former chairman of the Manistee County Commission. O?Shea is now an agent for Duke Energy. O?Shea said Benzie County and parts of Manistee rank second in the state for available wind, based on wind maps created by Michigan State University.

?The weather off Lake Michigan is swept up to a plateau where the Gail project will be sited,? he said. ?A lot of wind blows through Blaine and Arcadia Townships. It?s an energy source that has never been tapped before.?

Manistee and Benzie counties are north of Muskegon and south of Traverse City.

But more than just alternative energy production is at stake. Duke, among the world?s largest energy companies, said the project would generate 150 temporary construction jobs, 25 permanent turbine maintenance and operation jobs, and approximately $3.2 million in annual property tax revenue that would be split among the two counties and four townships.

The Michigan Land Use Institute estimates that the wind-royalty leases to landowners would generate from $1.34 million to $1.68 million in annual payments. Landowners could get from $12,000 to $15,000 a year in royalties per tower, MLUI estimates. But under a ?pooling? arrangement, income also will go to others living within the project?s borders who cannot have the 485-foot wind towers on their land.

Nena Girven, who owns a 200-acre family farm near Bear Lake, said the wind farm would be a boon for the hard pressed rural community.

?It will promote income,? Girven said. ?It will help spark the area again. It will bring in more jobs. I used to be on the school board here, so I?m concerned about the community.

Girven said she?s head all the concerns voiced by groups opposed to the wind farm. Those include excessive noise, bird kill by the blades, the shadow of the blades flickering across homes, and a decrease in land values.

?A lot of the criticism is false,? she said. ?A study was done that showed land values did not go down, but up when wind farms came in.?

But all these concerns will be reviewed carefully by a group called The Manistee County Alliance For Economic Success. Its goal is to help the region develop wind power properly. The community process, which will be completed by April, will provide expertise on wind-related zoning issues that largely fall outside the experience of local officials.

While the Michigan Land Use Institute takes no position on the Gail Windpower Project, its program director, Jim Lively, said that the Traverse City non-profit strongly favors wind-energy development in general as a key to local and statewide prosperity and regional and national energy independence and for curbing dangerous, climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions from electrical generators, particularly coal-fired power plants.

He said the new review process will identify questions that residents and decision makers have about utility-scale wind-energy development. The Michigan Association of Planners, based in Lansing, will provide written responses to those questions, based on input from experts and professionals in wind energy and policy.

This process will produce a report detailing questions and answers, and include references to relevant professional literature. The report will be presented to the community in forums to be held in both counties in the coming months.

The Understanding Wind Initiative will also provide technical assistance for assessing each township?s current ordinances and their ability to deal with various wind energy alternatives. The process will then assist in developing model ordinances.

Lively said most of the leaseholders are farmers, who have a right to the income their land can generate. He added that local governments also favor the wind farm given the sharp declines in revenue they are confronting during Michigan?s severe economic recession for most of the past decade. Benzie County?s tax base so eroded over the past 18 months that the county had to drop its own planning and zoning service.

Some local residents also oppose the project because, they say, it will produce more serious problems from turbine sounds that nearby residents won?t even be able to hear: ultra-low frequency ?infrasound waves.? The opponents claim that infrasound will cause unpleasant, even dangerous symptoms in nearby residents. And, they argue, because low-frequency sounds fade so slowly over distance, wind farms should be located 1.25 miles from residential property to protect their health.

Typically, turbine setbacks are 1,000 to 1,500 feet, and windpower advocates point out that mile-plus setbacks would drastically reduce, if not eliminate, future wind development throughout Michigan.

Two local groups opposed to the project, Citizens for Responsible Wind Development and the Arcadia Wind Study Group, base their push for mile-plus setbacks on a self-published book by New York pediatrician Nina Pierpont. She claims her ?natural experiment? shows that wind turbine infrasound causes serious health problems. She said a mile-plus setback is necessary to overcome it. But Dr. Pierpont?s theory has little research other than her own to back it up.

Her theory has drawn strong criticism from two panels of acoustic scientists and medical doctors who formally investigated her claims. A 40-year infrasound research veteran is urging policy makers to ignore her and concentrate on protecting people from the sounds they can hear.

But the opposition group did persuade Blaine and Pleasanton Township officials to impose, respectively, six-and-nine-month moratoria on turbine permitting in order to review their ordinances. Blaine Townships ordinance includes sound regulations, but does not deal specifically with infrasound. Now with the moratoria in place township officials must decide how far turbines should be set back from residential homes or property lines.

The other two townships in the proposed in the Gail Windpower Project, Arcadia and Joyfield have differing issues. Arcadia Township zoning has setback requirements that do not specifically address sound. Joyfield Township has no zoning ordinance.

The answers produced by these and other local officials around Michigan grappling with proposed wind farms could determine whether more Michigan farmers are allowed to partner with companies like Duke to earn income from the wind blowing across their fields.

Unreasonable setbacks could also hamper the state?s emerging wind turbine manufacturing industry. Manufacturers say they like to be close to their markets. They say a 1.25-mile setbacks would dampen what Michigan lawmakers hope will be a robust turbine market.

Certainly, wind power manufacturing is becoming big business in Michigan. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation estimated that there are now 25 companies in Michigan making turbine parts. The MEDC also said there are about 900 other Michigan companies now involved in the design, engineering, machining, and other services related to making turbines, blades, and towers.

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