San Diego’s U-T reported today (Wind farm plan irks activists) that “a remote corner of East County is shaping up as a battleground between companies pushing wind farms as clean and cheap power generators and activists who view them as a blight on the landscape.”

East County was shaping up as a battleground over wind power quite a while ago, as reported in a well-documented three-part account from East County Magazine last February (Part I, Part II, Part III). That report thoroughly explains what’s already done, what’s in development, and what’s being proposed from a variety of perspectives.

One of those the newer projects being planned, the Invenergy Campo Project was announced June 11 with Invenergy’s press release coinciding with a U-T story on the project.

The latest U-T article mentions Iberdrola Renewables as having the plan “drawing the most attention” but doesn’t clarify if that means there are other proposals for that specific site and Iberdrola is getting the most attention, or if Iberdrola’s project is just drawing more attention in comparison to the other completed or in development projects (Iberdrola’s website has no mention of its own plans either).

I’m also curious about the possibility of alternative-style wind turbines such as those produced by Helix Wind and described in this SD Daily Transcript article (a design that greatly reduces the risk to birds). Are alternative designs such as these being considered in any of the new proposals?