AEP renewable-power proposal ambitious, costly

Imagine an area the size of 2,000 football fields covered in solar panels. Then imagine an even larger area dotted with hundreds of wind turbines. That’s a hint of the scale of a proposal from American Electric Power to finance 500 megawatts of wind energy and 400 megawatts of solar — eye-popping numbers that some renewable-energy advocates love, while consumer advocates and others get heartburn.