There has been quite a bit of wind energy news in the headlines the past week. Here is a quick round-up:

VIDEO: A forum on the potential wind farm on Lake Michigan near Ludington was attended by roughly 500 people.

7&4 News has this report and 9&10 News filed this report on the forum.

The Record-Eagle has this newswire on increased personal use of renewable energy:

The Michigan Public Service Commission shows that the number of net metering customers in the state more than doubled in the fiscal year running from July 1, 2008, through June 30, 2009.

The PSC says the number of net metering customers statewide increased from 53 in the 2007-2008 fiscal year to 137 in 2008-2009. Wind installations increased from 29 to 96 and solar installations increased from 23 to 39.

Crain's Detroit Business has this story on a commercial wind farm being built outside Cadillac:

The Detroit Edison Co. and a Traverse City-based wind power company have started commercial operation of a northern Michigan wind farm. The Heritage Sustainable Energy wind farm near Cadillac will supply the utility’s customers with enough electricity to power about 2,000 homes.

Detroit Edison announced in 2009 that it had entered into a $90 million, 20-year agreement with Heritage to purchase wind power and renewable energy credits. Heritage installed seven wind turbines on the 2,000-acre wind farm to fulfill its agreement with Detroit Edison. The turbines can produce about 14 megawatts of power.

Here is video by Cliff Olivero that gets up close and personal to two turbines near Cadillac (note: video is shaky in parts)

Exploring a Wind turbine in Cadillac, Mi from Cliff Olivero on Vimeo.

The Detroit Free Press has this story on Michigan's lagging efforts to invest in wind energy:

Data released Tuesday by the American Wind Energy Association show that Michigan's efforts to diversify into wind energy face some significant headwinds.

Orders for new wind turbines have slowed dramatically and the state lagged far behind others last year in the installation of wind turbines, the association's report shows. And any hope that production of wind turbines and parts will pick up this year largely depends on what happens in Washington.

"The manufacturers are not at all that optimistic," said Kathy Belyeu, AWEA's manager of industry information services. "There's a possibility 2010 could be a good year, but it could also be a slow year."

Though installation of wind-generating capacity hit a record in 2009, Michigan only added 14 megawatts of capacity last year, ranking 26th out of 28 states. Michigan has only 143 megawatts of total wind-generating capacity, compared with 1,809 megawatts in Minnesota. This year, the state is supposed to gain 20.2 megawatts of capacity.

And here is a story on Leelanau County's Centerville Township Planning Commission's commercial wind ordinance.

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Photo: Wind Farm at Sunset by ChaunceyDavis818.