State and regional regulators acknowledge the hurdles - especially in northern New Hampshire - but don't have ready solutions. A bill before the New Hampshire Senate would have the state be ready to act if no regional solution is forthcoming. ISO New England, which manages power for the region, is considering changing rules so more of the costs of transmission upgrades could be shared regionally. But as things stand now, backers of projects generally must pay for upgrades needed to connect them to the system. "None of this is a real speedy process," acknowledges Michael Harrington, senior regional policy adviser for the state Public Utilities Commission.

A physics argument broke out at Friday's hearing on the Bluewater Wind contract. When a wind farm powers up, which plants power down? Bluewater Wind officials said Friday that in the congested Delmarva Peninsula, it will be area fossil-fuel plants. Area residents will realize a direct environmental and health benefit, they said. But Delmarva Power officials said the benefits will be diluted throughout the 13-state PJM electrical grid, and would have its biggest impact on oil-burning plants, not generators that use the notoriously dirty-burning coal. ...Citing a PJM Interconnection official who spoke at the hearings, they contended environmental benefits of an offshore wind farm would be spread throughout the grid. It wouldn't be coal that would go first, but more-expensive fossil fuels such as oil, said company spokesman Bill Yingling.

In what one Cape Wind official called an "eyebrow-raising" development, plans for a deep-water wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts will be unveiled only hours before the start of a public hearing Monday on Cape Wind's proposal to build 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound. Blue H USA LLC will announce plans for a floating deep-water wind energy project 23 miles off the coast of Martha's Vineyard and 45 miles from New Bedford, according to a representative for the company. ...The Alliance has long contended the Sound is not the right place for a wind farm and a deep water site would provide more wind resources.

The proposed development at Rotokawa is part of a significant geothermal expansion programme being undertaken by MRP in conjunction with its Maori partners and includes three other geothermal sites at Mokai, Kawerau and Nga Tamariki. The second Rotokawa power station, owned jointly with the Tauhara North No 2 Trust and to be called Nga Awa Purua, will be built close to the existing one and will connect into existing 220kV transmission lines directly over the field. The station is expected to generate an average of 1100 GWh annually and provide reliable base-load energy that is not sensitive to climatic variations. ...The new Nga Awa Purua power station will generate the same amount of energy as a 400MW wind farm and require much less transmission capacity.

While the US Department of Energy has spent $57.5 billion over the past 30 years for research & development on advanced energy technologies such as Ethanol, solar and wind power the nation's energy usage has not dramatically changed-fossil fuels today provide 85% of the nation's energy compared to 93% in 1973. Many technical, cost and environmental challenges must be overcome in developing and demonstrating advanced technologies before they can be deployed in the US with greater impact. Those were just some of the not-too-encouraging conclusions the Government Accounting Office told the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, Committee on Science and Technology today. ...· Wind technologies: DOE is assessing its long-term vision of generating 20% of the nation's electricity using wind energy by 2030. Its current R&D efforts, however, are focused on more immediate expansion of the wind industry, particularly on utility-scale wind turbines. One of DOE's targets is to increase the number of distributed wind turbines deployed in the United States from 2,400 in 2007 to 12,000 in 2015. Although wind energy has grown in recent years, from about 1,800 megawatts in 1996 to over 16,800 megawatts in 2007, the wind industry still faces investors' concerns about high up-front capital costs, including connecting the wind farms to the power transmission grid, the GAO said.

The world's fifth largest wind turbine manufacturer is in a bit of a spot. The Rs 7,985 crore Suzlon Energy will have to incur a cost of Rs 100 crore for retrofitting blades. Essentially, about 1251 blades will need to be structurally reinforced and the firm may need to spend additionally on higher warranty provisions and increased raw material costs. Moreover, there could be a slippage in volumes, later on, due to delays in execution. All this, say analysts, could shave off anywhere between 14-17 per cent from the company's earnings between FY08-10.

"Although the wind turbines currently operating in the wind resource area do adversely impact our radar coverage, we believe opportunities will soon arise both to improve overall radar performance and to work with enXco to mitigate that impact," the Lichte letter read. Neither the Air Force nor enXco could say whether that mitigation effort will include a gift to Travis of up to $1 million that was offered by enXco at a Feb. 21 Solano County Planning Commission meeting. That money was offered to improve the radar system anyway Travis chose.

Remember the thrill of checking out your house from outer space with Google Earth? Now a Seattle company wants you to know whether there's enough wind to power it with renewable energy. 3Tier, a weather-consulting service geared toward renewable-energy developers, is expected to release a global wind map, available free on the Web. The company also aims to create a similar tool to portray the potential of solar energy, to be released within the next 18 months. ...For a wind project to be profitable, wind speeds must reach an annual average of 6 meters per second. But it also needs to be near transmission lines that reach population centers. ..."You can't just build a wind farm where it's windy. You need to get the energy out," he said.

The problem with electricity generated from wind turbines is, the power can fluctuate. Xcel Energy says it's got a way to even out the flow - an 80-ton battery the size of two semi-trailers. The Minneapolis-based utility said Thursday that it will begin testing a sodium-sulfur battery being used in Japan to even out the flow of electricity between windy days and nonwindy days. Xcel plans to put 20 50-kilowatt batteries in Luverne, Minn., about 30 miles east of Sioux Falls, S.D., this spring and connect them to an 11-megawatt wind farm owned by Minwind Energy. The batteries are expected to go online in October.

As wind farms sprout across the country, they're kicking up a new quandary: how to zap the electricity to homes and businesses that need it. The USA's wind-power boom, especially in rural parts of Texas, the Midwest and California, is poised to outstrip the capacity of high-voltage lines to send the electricity hundreds of miles to population centers such as Dallas, Chicago and Los Angeles. ...Wind farms will have to compete to be among the lowest bidders to get on the grid, leaving others off. "Clearly we don't want to build wind farms and have them not run," says Horizon Wind Energy executive Denise Hill. ...A wind farm can be built in 18 months, while a transmission line can take five to 10 years.

The world faces a doubling of energy demand by 2050 but renewable sources are still too expensive and will take decades to make a big impact, Royal Dutch Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer said on Thursday. ..."Renewables are still too expensive. They will come, I'm not self-serving, I'm not defensive but it will take a very long time" either to achieve the technological breakthroughs required or to build many more nuclear power stations, van der Veer said. "You see that we have a lot of tensions. The world demands more energy," he added. "Renewables may come to a solution but it will take decades before it is big."

Driven by soaring energy demands, the high cost of gas and oil and worries about global warming, an expansion of peaceful nuclear power increasingly appears to be inevitable. "I believe very strongly that new nuclear plants will be built in the U.S. in the coming decades to address problems with respect to higher energy demand, high prices and global warming," said Sudarshan Loyalka, a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia. "I believe the nation has no other choice."

Bolton explained the many ways wind developers methodology is flawed. Field measurements are not done correctly (i.e. - improper microphone placement, no justification for sampling sites, etc.); accurate samplings need to be done for a full year to account for seasonal variations, but aren't; and computer prediction models wind developers rely on are inadequate because they don't account for modulation, coherence, refraction, and icing. Facts contained in Perry's DEIS from the sound study done by Horizon for Perry were brought up that highlighted Bolton's point that sound studies being done are totally inadequate: ...In response to questions asking what he thought of being "surrounded" by up to 23 turbines within 1.5 miles of their homes, he answered, "I would be VERY concerned if I were you."

While the mention of energy sparks visions of the Alberta oil fields and massive hydro projects at Niagara Falls and James Bay, a new energy powerhouse is emerging closer to home. Ramped-up production at the Bruce nuclear power facility and the increasing presence of wind energy are putting Southwestern Ontario in the spotlight as a provider of electricity. ...

GWEC figures wind power's capacity in 2005 was about 24%-that is, wind turbines spin 1 hour out of 4, year-round. That will improve, but slowly. Bigger and taller turbines, in more favorable locations-especially offshore-will make wind turbines more efficient. But it will be a long time before wind power's paper strength starts to be reflected in real electricity generation. GWEC's own figures point to wind power creeping toward 30% efficiency over the next twenty years. Wind power may be the most mature horse in the renewable-energy stable. But even a thoroughbred is going to have a tough time catching up with the supertanker that is the fossil-fueled energy establishment.

It was a minor demonstration of the 50-kilowatt wind turbine, but over the next year it is expected to produce about 110,000 kilowatt hours - enough to power 10 homes - and save Blackwater around $10,000, Vogel said. If this turbine, erected last month at a cost of $180,000, contributes enough to the electricity needs of the 70,000-square-foot Grizzly plant, then Blackwater could put up more turbines and add credence to the forecast that North Carolina coastal counties can effectively use wind power. "We're in a wait-and-see mode on future installations," Vogel said. The rest of the state is looking at the Blackwater turbine, said Brent Summerville, outreach and training programs manager for the North Carolina Small Wind Initiative at Appalachian State University. "Everything that is installed is going to get scrutiny," Summerville said. "Projects like this

Government ­incentives and the high cost of fossil fuels have combined to make wind farms a good ­investment ...But that ­investment comes at a price: the potentially ­expensive systems needed to make transmission grids run reliably, regardless of wind's famous ­fickleness. The question is, how much does that cost? To date, power grid studies have ­produced widely divergent estimates. ...The International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris ­created a research team to do a meta‑analysis of 19 national or regional wind and grid studies, ...The first draft of that ­analysis, issued in November, found that in some cases for every 100 megawatts of wind power, you need 100 MW of fossil, nuclear, or hydroelectric as a backup.

As electricity created by wind generation increases, there has to be a way for that electricity to be connected to the provincial system and transmitted to users. The Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) provides that role and explained what it is currently doing to the council of the Municipal District of Willow Creek at its meeting on Jan. 9. Ata Rehman and Matt Gray of the AESO appeared as a delegation and described the current situation. The AESO plans the transmission system, arranges access for load and generation, and directs the day-to-day operation of the system. Transmission planning is a two-step process. First, the AESO identifies the need for transmission development and submits a need identification document to the Alberta Utilities Commission which will include a recommendation for transmission reinforcement in the area.

With windmills a big topic of discussion among many Herkimer County municipalities, Frankfort Board of Trustee members want the public to know there is not yet a project under way in the village. "I've been approached by many people who are under the impression that we have already started a project," said board member John Spina. "We are in the middle of studies about the feasibility of such a project and either party can back out of the project at any time." The village of Frankfort Board of Trustees began discussions about a possible wind mill project last March.

We're a windy state, and getting windier Illinois' more than fivefold increase in wind power capacity last year all came from wind farms in rural areas. "They're going to be placed in rural settings. It's just not feasible to put a wind farm in an urban area because of the land use. The buildings themselves also cause some issues," said Roger Brown, program manager for Western Illinois University's Illinois Institute of Rural Affairs. ...However, Bil Becker of a Chicago firm called Aerotecture is among those banking on a change in thinking. Becker said wind power does not have to mean a wind farm. He says wind power can be generated in cities.