Concrete pouring for two new ethanol plants, the first ones built in North Dakota in 20 years, has begun. So has construction of the state's largest wind energy farm, which should add 100 towers to the prairie skyline when it is finished next year.

Coupled with rising oil production, which went over 100,000 barrels a day in September for the first time since 1998, and upbeat prospects for new electric power plants, the year's energy developments gave North Dakota producers and state officials a whiff of a new boom.

"People are looking at everything from coal to uranium to oil and natural gas," said Lynn Helms, director of the state Industrial Commission's oil and gas division. "When you include wind and ethanol, things look even better."

Wind power, a source of new electricity that has been cramped by lack of power transmission capacity, saw a new spurt of growth as developers found locations on North Dakota's power grid that could handle smaller projects.

PPM Energy of Portland, Ore., a subsidiary of a Scottish company, won state regulatory approval for a 150-megawatt wind farm in northern Pierce County.

The project, which will require 100 wind turbines and an estimated $170 million investment, is more than twice the size of North Dakota's largest wind project, a 41-tower development in LaMoure County in southeastern North Dakota.

At least four other projects, capable of generating 168 megawatts, are also being planned in Burleigh, Dickey, McHenry and Oliver counties.

Construction recently began on two ethanol factories, near Richardton and Underwood, in which lignite coal will play a prominent role.

The Underwood plant, which is being built near Great River Energy's Coal Creek electric power station near Underwood, will use Coal Creek's waste steam to help distill corn into ethanol. The Blue Flint Ethanol plant is a partnership between Great River and Headwaters Inc. of Utah.

Using the surplus steam for processing, instead of a boiler fueled by expensive natural gas, will save millions in construction and operating costs, company officials say.

At Richardton, Red Trail Energy is using coal instead of natural gas as boiler fuel, which is likely to reduce the new factory's operating expenses.

Frank Kirschenheiter, Red Trail's project coordinator, looks at today's relatively low prices for corn and high prices for ethanol, and wishes the plant had started operating yesterday.

"We should be making ethanol right now," Kirschenheiter said. "But we're at the point now where, every day, we can see a little bit more progress out there."

Oil prices that soared above $60 a barrel gave a new jolt to western North Dakota's oil industry. Production in the Cedar Hills field in North Dakota's southwestern corner increased to about 30,000 barrels a day, pushing North Dakota's daily production over 100,000 barrels.

Helms believes production will rise further as geologists figure out the best way to draw oil from the "middle Bakken" rock formations beneath most of western North Dakota.