``The problem we're having with all these wind farms is . . . they're proposing to put them in all the worst places," said Thomas W. French , assistant director of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. ``If they could do what the Russell Biomass plant did, which is to find a preexisting, historical industrial district, we'd be applauding them." As part of the ongoing state permitting process for the plant, French's division worked with its developers to reroute proposed power lines to reduce their impact on wildlife.

The New England power grid will have 30,345 megawatts available today - use is expected to peak at a record 28,030 megawatts, even after energy companies have put out a call for people to voluntarily reduce power consumption, she said.

WORCESTER— Absent interest in lower-priced fuels, New Englanders should brace for continued high electricity prices, the byproduct of a regional system heavily dependent on oil, natural gas and coal, the head of the region’s power grid said yesterday.

New England recorded its highest power usage in history Tuesday, according to Ken McDonnell, a spokesman for ISO New England, manager of the region's power grid. The peak, reached Tuesday afternoon, was 27,374 megawatts of power, eclipsing the previous record set on July 27, 2005, when usage reached 26,885 megawatts.

BERLIN, N.H. --Three windmills on a Mount Jericho wind farm have been vandalized, likely destroying one and badly damaging the others.

The state Site Evaluation Committee said Thursday night it will review a controversial wind farm proposed for 25 acres on Lempster Mountain. The decision came Thursday night after a hearing in Concord, where members also rejected the developer’s request for a speedy review.

But in the second of our two-part series looking at wind power in the Granite State, we shift to the southwestern part of the state, to Lempster. There a large 24 megawatt wind farm has been proposed for Lempster Mountain. But, unlike in Berlin, this proposal has sparked a great deal of controversy.

In the first of a two day series, NHPR Correspondent Hilary McQuilkin is going to take us to the state's first commercial windfarm....in Berlin.

....the lack of zoning is what prompted the town to request a state review.

CONCORD – A hearing to decide whether the state should review a proposed Lempster wind farm has been continued until July 6.

The committee tonight will consider whether to review the project, a first step in a process that could take up to a year or more. Lempster has no zoning and there are concerns that the small town lacks the resources to regulate an energy project.

CONCORD – This week, the state Site Evaluation Committee will meet to decide whether it should launch an official review of a proposed wind farm in Lempster.

PORTSMOUTH - A proposal to capture electricity from tidal energy in the Piscataqua River has been filed with federal energy officials and calls for 50 to 100 underwater turbines to be submerged throughout Rockingham and Strafford County stretches of the river and up into York County.

LEMPSTER, N.H. --When Kevin and Debra Onnela moved to their 1,500-acre mountaintop spread 27 years ago, a homemade windmill provided all the electricity they needed -- and more.

The state announced late last week that it would review the project because residents and town officials petitioned the state to step in.

Maine's largest energy provider is forecasting record-breaking electricity use this summer, as well as a need for additional supply lines to feed an ever-increasing demand. But a solution planned by ISO New England -- which manages electricity distribution in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont -- is being met with skepticism by Maine officials, who question the proposal's need and fairness.

Lee also warned that renewable energy sources, though desirable, were not a "silver bullet" solution. "It does leave an environmental footprint," Lee said, noting that wind energy and solar energy take up large areas of land, making it difficult to find a place to put them, especially in densely populated parts of the world.

LEMPSTER — A number of local taxpayers who signed a petition last month asking the state to review a windmill project proposed for Lempster Mountain have asked to have their names stricken.

WASHINGTON — Electricity rates threaten to follow the path of gas prices: Up. ISO New England, the region's grid operator, is gaining support for a plan to raise electricity rates by $5 billion over four years, beginning in December. Rates would continue to rise at an undetermined click after that.

Lempster – Construction of the state’s first wind farm might be in jeopardy after residents and town officials requested the state step in.