Neighbours straddling the borders of a planned $45-million solar power generating farm just northwest of the city say they were blindsided by the announcement and fear their property values will drop. Alfie Gray said he only learned Thursday the solar farm would wrap around home. "The thing is going to be wrapped around my house," Gray said. "My concern is the value of my house. Is it going to depreciate because of this?"

Big wind energy projects no longer need state incentives, Gov. Ted Kulongoski said today, as lawmakers explored a plan to rein in the soaring costs of Oregon's tax breaks for green energy. At a meeting with newspaper editors from across the state, Kulongoski said the $11 million in state tax credits routinely given to 10 megawatt-plus wind farms has "run its course."

Opponents of wind farm development in Jefferson County have touted property value decline as a possible harm. But that argument, or any counterclaim, is getting little support from experts. Two studies on property values around wind farms were released in 2009, but had very different results. The U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory supported a study that found no measurable value loss linked to wind farms in sales data.

Wind energy facilities do not have a widespread adverse effect on the property values of nearby homes, according to a new report funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). ...But some, including the Industrial Wind Action Group, have questioned the study's integrity. The Industrial Wind Action Group posted a response on its website, www.windaction.org , stating the group feels there are flaws in the study's methodology that render the results meaningless.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory spent three years examining nearly 7,500 sales of homes in 10 communities near two dozen wind energy plants in nine states. They found no evidence home prices were affected by the view or the distance between the home and the wind farm. ...Lisa Linowes, executive director of the advocacy organization called Industrial Wind Action Group, said the researchers used flawed methodology which lead to "meaningless conclusions."

In the years since the Forward Wind Energy Center came on line, "For Sale" signs have popped up all over Gerry Meyer's rural neighborhood in the town of Byron. ...Meyer is convinced that the aesthetically displeasing look of the 400-foot turbines and subsequent ill effects experienced by nearby residents from the noise, vibration and light-flicker has caused housing values to plummet.

Land values have fallen on properties near wind turbines built as part of the largest wind power projects in the state, a study funded by wind-power critics says. The study found property values have fallen by at least 19% for sales of land near the We Energies wind farm in Fond du Lac County, and at least 12% for sales of land near Invenergy LLC's Forward Wind project in Fond du Lac and Dodge counties, a report by Appraisal Group One says.

Boulevard residents are upset about a proposed electric substation despite promises by San Diego Gas & Electric Co. officials that it will provide more reliable electricity for the backcountry. A 58-acre substation to be built near Jacumba would take electricity from wind projects in East County and northern Baja California and put it onto the Southwest Powerlink, a power-transmission line that runs along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Cistercian nuns are moving from Prairie du Sac, but a site for a new monastery in the Town of Ridgeville is no longer one of several considered by the religious community. According to Sister Roberta Boyer ...the Ridgeville site, land owned by Ryszard Borys, was taken off the table because of the wind farm situation in the township.

Householders living near to Aston Hall Farm between Aston and Burston say a proposal to install three turbines on the land by Severn Trent Water has already blighted property prices. Homeowner Rob Jackson, whose Enson Lane home is 520 metres away from the site of a proposed turbine, said the value of his house had dropped by between 20 and 30 per cent since he had it valued back in January. ..."It is devastating because planning authorities do not take property prices into consideration."

A full gallery last night at Prince Edward County Council. The crowd was made up of local real estate professionals, and tourism business operators. They are dead set against industrial wind farms anywhere near homes and business in the County.

The group fighting Shear Wind's Glen Dhu turbine project says property values could drop in the area if the development goes ahead. Susan Overmyer, media relations for the Eco Awareness Society, said several recent studies show home values could deteriorate by "20 to 30 per cent" if turbines are built in the proposed area near Baileys Brook.

A North Dakota based construction company is facing three proposed penalties following a deadly Iowa wind farm accident last October. ..."The employer did not ensure the all terrain fork truck operators were competent and capable of identifying existing and predictable hazards." IOSHA claims Wanzek "did not instruct each employee in the recognition and avoidance of unsafe conditions and the regulations.