CA Ski Resort to Use Wind Power

The Kirkwood ski area plans to install 20 wind turbines to provide the resort with pollution-free power. Kirkwood chief executive Dave Likins says the windmills should generate enough electricity to end the resort's need to use fossil fuels during the eight-month offseason.

The Alpine County community has nearly 700 residents when skiers aren't in town. Wind power would meet about 20 percent of the resort's demand during the peak winter season. The windmills would make Kirkwood the nation's first ski resort to get a significant amount of its electricity from renewable energy generated on its own property.

The resort is near Carson Pass, east of Sacramento and south of Lake Tahoe. The 100-foot tall wind turbines should be running by 2010. Other resorts also are using wind power. But much of that is generated by turbine farms several states away.