A year after the collapse of the equity financing market for large wind farms, state leaders and private developers are eyeing community-scale projects as an opportunity to grow the number of turbines in the state. But while communities may be good candidates for wind projects - with a strong, steady demand for electricity and the ability to raise taxes as collateral - just who will ultimately back these developments is still an unknown.

The O'Malley administration's desire to build offshore wind turbines as part of its renewable energy program is running into an unlikely source of resistance: the military. The fear is that turbines placed in the Atlantic Ocean could disrupt flight and weapon test ranges ..."When you start to place turbines out in the Atlantic Ocean, they will create an artificial image on the radar, and we might not be able to see aircraft because we think the aircraft is really the turbine spinning around out there," said Todd Morgan, president of the Southern Maryland Navy Alliance.

Two companies that encountered political anger for their plans to use Chinese-built turbines on a wind farm in West Texas have announced plans to build a new turbine factory - in the United States. The U.S. Renewable Energy Group, an investment firm, and A-Power Energy Generation Systems, a Chinese turbine maker, said in a statement on Tuesday that they had signed an agreement to build "a new production and assembly plant in the United States that will supply highly advanced wind energy turbines to renewable energy projects throughout North and South America."

The rush to America of foreign wind-turbine manufacturers shows that the Obama administration's plan for stimulating the creation of green-energy jobs is going in an odd direction.

Italian finance police have arrested two prominent businessmen - including one with ties to a former investor in the Cape Wind project in Nantucket - in the wind energy sector on charges of fraud, reports the Financial Times. Arrested were Oreste Vigorito, head of the IVPC energy company and president of Italy's National Association of Wind Energy, and Vito Nicastri, a Sicilian business associate, according to the article. According to the European Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, Oreste Vigorito has ties to Brian Caffyn, a former investor in the Cape Wind project, which has been criticized as a poor investment for taxpayers, reports Dakota Voice.

The Massachusetts native who helped found controversial wind-energy developers Cape Wind and First Wind expressed surprise late last week at news that his one-time partner in a separate wind-energy company in Italy has been arrested and charged with fraud. "I read about it in the papers, and I was very surprised," Brian Caffyn said from Hong Kong, where he is now building wind-energy farms in China and the Philipines.

When the Pilgrims arrived in America, it was the Wampanoag who greeted them peacefully so the newcomers could escape religious persecution. Now the tribe is having to fight for their own religious freedoms. The Wampanoag, also known as "The People of the First Light", have delayed the construction of America's first offshore wind farm, reports Associated Press. The Mashpee and Aquinnah Wampanoag practice sacred religious rituals which they say require an unblocked view of the horizon, in particular, the sunrise.

From a blustery perch over a Cape Cod beach, Chuckie Green gestures toward a stretch of horizon where he says construction of the nation's first offshore wind farm would destroy his Indian tribe's religion. The Wampanoag - the tribe that welcomed the Pilgrims in the 17th century and known as "The People of the First Light" - practice sacred rituals requiring an unblocked view of the sunrise. That view won't exist once 130 turbines, each over 400 feet tall, are built several miles from shore in Nantucket Sound, visible to Wampanoag in Mashpee and on Martha's Vineyard.

Six California renewable energy facilities proposed by AES Corp. (AES), FPL Group Inc. (FPL), BrightSource Energy Inc. and Germany's Solar Millennium (S2M.XE) are being fast-tracked for government permits needed to start construction, a federal official said Thursday. Together, the renewable power plants would generate nearly 2,500 megawatts of electricity, and occupy more than 28,000 acres of land, said U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. ...To be eligible for federal stimulus funds renewable energy developers must begin construction by December 2010.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said his department will "hopefully" decide by the end of the year whether to approve plans for what may be the nation's first offshore wind farm along the coast of Massachusetts. The Interior Department is working toward an "expeditious conclusion" of the approvals needed for Cape Wind in Nantucket Sound, Salazar said today. "We'll have a final decision to be made hopefully by the end of this year," he said.

Bluewater Wind expects a controlling interest in the firm to be sold in the next few weeks, and sources familiar with the plan say the company is in serious negotiations to sell to NRG Energy Inc. In selling a majority stake in the offshore wind farm company, Bluewater would get the immediate financial help it needs to keep its projects moving forward, and the backing of a large energy company that should ease the financing of billion-dollar wind farms.

More than eight out of 10 US stimulus dollars spent on wind energy farms have gone to foreign companies, according to a report by the Washington-based Investigative Report Workshop, a non-profit journalist group. Of the $1.05bn handed out in grants so far - the majority since August - 84 per cent has gone to European companies, with the US subsidiary of Iberdrola Renewables, the Spanish company, taking the largest share.

A Sino-US consortium yesterday announced plans for a US$1.5 billion, 600MW wind farm in Texas, with China supplying all the turbines and most of the funding. The 36,000-acre wind farm ...is a joint venture between state-backed Chinese firm Shenyang Power Group, US wind farm developer Cielo Wind Power and private equity firm US Renewable Energy Group. Most of the funding for the project will come from Chinese banks, with loan guarantees and grants provided by the US federal government's economic stimulus package.

The US Forest Service is one step closer to issuing a decision on the Deerfield Wind Project. The Manchester Ranger District of the Green Mountain National Forest has reviewed the Public Service Board's approval and the public comments it received regarding last year's Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Now the forest service is ready to release a supplemental report on their latest findings. But despite the new information, some state officials are urging the forest service take extra precautions before they make a final decision.

Wind energy production nationwide increased by 1,649 megawatts during the third quarter, but you'd never know it by looking at wind installation in Iowa and Minnesota, the largest wind energy states in the Midwest. Both states recorded no gain in installed wind energy, although they have a total of seven wind projects under construction as the fourth quarter began.

Just east of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area on the Oregon-Washington border, one can't drive down I-84 without noticing turbine after turbine peeking out from the crest of the hills. But even as wind farms in Oregon and Washington set a new record for power production in August 2009, renewable energy developers are looking to lay claim on the latest prime spots for power projects. While solar and other renewable energy companies are anxious to take advantage of federal grants, state tax credits and plentiful opportunities thanks to state renewable energy portfolios, gaining access to suitable land is tougher than ever.

As 37-mile-per-hour gusts blasted downtown Minneapolis on Thursday, hundreds of wind-energy executives were inside the Minneapolis Hilton, discussing the challenges their industry still faces. Chief among those challenges: weather-related down times and - perhaps more surprisingly - utilities unwilling to accept energy from wind farms because their high-voltage transmission lines can't accept any more power.