This story incorrectly identified the cost of Noble Environmental Power's wind turbine construction project. The actual cost is $90 million. This story also mistakenly described the second phase of the project. It should have said the second phase has added seven leases, bringing the total number of wind turbines to 39. Correction Appended

TRAVERSE CITY - Fossil fuels provide the vast majority of Michigan's electrical power. While people may complain about rising energy costs, it's the environment that is paying the highest price. After all, your electricity bill doesn't account for pollutants like carbon dioxide affecting climate change, or for particle soot, toxic mercury, nitrous dioxide and sulfur dioxide, which contribute to acid rain and overall air pollution.

But there's a lot Michigan can do to reduce its dependence on these fossil fuels.

In a promising step forward, by the end of this year, Michigan's wind-power generation capacity will increase to 20 times its current capacity of 2.4 megawatts. At that point, 48 megawatts of power will be available, capable of producing enough energy for about 16,000 homes.

Noble Environmental Power is building 32 wind turbines in the first phase of its Ubly wind farm, located in Bingham Township. Each turbine is capable of generating 1.5 megawatts of electricity. The company plans to have all 32 completed by the end of the year.

Currently only three large-scale wind turbines operate in Michigan. Traverse City Light and Power, a community-owned electric utility, runs a 0.6 megawatt wind turbine, and Mackinaw City runs two rated at 0.9 megawatts.

NEP has already begun work on the next phase of its Ubly wind farm, with seven more leases signed, bringing the total cost of the project to about $90 million. The second phase will add 7 wing turbines, bringing the total to 39. The company's ultimate goal is to have approximately 250 wind turbines scattered along 40-miles of glacial ridge in Michigan's Thumb. This would add more than 300 megawatts of capacity, propelling Michigan to the forefront of wind power.

NEP spokeswoman Julie Harker-Leigh said the wind turbines will be very spread out: with only one turbine per 150 acres.

"We feel this allows the farmer to farm the land as he always has," she said.

Farmers lease square plots of land to NEP, and the company builds a wind turbine and a transformer on it. The wind tubine in Traverse City is built on a 100-foot square.

"(The farmer) makes more on this 100-foot square than he does on the rest of the field," said Jim Cooper, marketing manager at TCLP.

Wind up north

Michigan has had wind power since 1996, when Traverse City Light and Power built a wind turbine at the base of the Leelanau Peninsula. Over the past 10 years, it has generated enough electricity each year to power 160 homes in the Traverse City area. That equals 1 million kilowatt-hours.

The company's wind turbine is built on a ridge west of downtown Traverse City.

"This is a small one - now," said Cooper, of the 0.6-megawatt wind turbine. Today's state-of-the-art turbines exceed 3.5 megawatts. "It was the biggest in the U.S. when it went up."

It still doesn't look small. The equipment sits on top of a tower a half a football field high. It's difficult to tilt your neck far enough back, standing at the base of the turbine, to watch it rotate. The rotor, 144 feet in diameter, looks elegant and graceful, each of the three blades swooping through the air, making about as much noise as a quiet dishwasher. It is easy to carry on a conversation without raising your voice. You wouldn't guess the tips of the blades above move faster than 100 miles per hour.

Generating electricity with a turbine is based on simple physics. By rotating a magnet inside a coil of wire, the magnet can move electrons along the wire, generating an electrical current. The process is reversible, so it is possible to make a magnet spin by running a current through a wire. This is exactly how a fan or any other electric motor works.

How you make the magnet spin doesn't matter. You can spin it with steam generated by nuclear fission, burning oil, gas or biomass. You can use water falling over a dam. Or you can let the wind do the work for you.

In wind turbines, the generator is located inside the pod, or nacelle, at the top of the tower. The rotors are connected to a drive shaft that turns the generator.

Thick black cables channel the electrical power down the inside of the hollow tower. Just inside its access door a small panel sitting at ground level indicates how much power is being generated, as well as current wind speed and direction.

A computer monitors the amount of electricity the wind turbine is feeding the electrical grid.