Wind energy projects headed for Champaign and Logan counties will get up to $3 million in grant awards to move forward with production, Gov. Ted Strickland announced Thursday. ...Diane McConnell, a Union Township resident and member of Union Neighbors United .. said the lack of information that affected residents have received is her biggest worry.

The $53,500 grant is being dispensed as part of the Value Added Agriculture Product Market Development Grant Program. The money will fund a feasibility study of wind energy including wind testing using altimeter.

Three wind turbines at Perkins High School crashed Saturday when the blades broke off one of them. No one was hurt when parts of the fiberglass blades came off the turbine as it spun, winging the blades up to 40 yards away from the silver monopole tower, near the high school at 3714 Campbell St. The remaining two turbines will not be used until they are inspected and officials figure out what caused the blades to break.

The Federal Aviation Administration recently informed Buckeye Wind, LLC. that its study found 38 of the 70 proposed turbine building sites in Champaign County exceed obstruction standards and could be a hazard to air navigation near Grimes Field. FAA guidelines generally restrict objects taller than 200 feet within five nautical miles, approximately 5.75 standard miles, of an airport that size.

The village of Elmore installed a 50-meter Meteorological Monitoring Tower Friday, Aug. 25, in conjunction with North Coast Wind & Power, LLC, on village property next to the Ohio Turnpike. The tower will monitor wind and weather conditions for a 12 to 18-month period to collect data for a feasibility study.

The speaker is set, the invitations are out. Now all Paul Hunter wants to know is, will the landowners show up? "There's a lot of potential," said Hunter, for a wind farm (in the sense of "farming" the wind) to be built in the eastern portion of Clinton County. The wind blows strong enough there for turbines to be commercially viable, he says.

Two power sources that lost their luster in recent decades will be increasingly important in meeting the growing demand for energy in this country, the leader of one of the nation’s largest utilities said. "We need to look at King Coal and . . . nuclear," Michael G. Morris, American Electric Power’s chairman and chief executive, said yesterday at the Columbus Metropolitan Club.

Another suitor has surfaced for city-owned land that could create a wind turbine farm on Conneaut's east side. Property Investment Enterprises of Geneva hopes to meet next week to open discussions about a possible one-year purchase agreement for all the unoccupied land within the East Conneaut Industrial Park, said Michael White, a partner in the business. "(The park land) is a fantastic location," he said. "It has a deep water port, railways and highways. Everything is there. That site is ideal."

A state employee was questioned Friday, Nov. 20, about a report he prepared for the Buckeye Wind Project. Champaign County Prosecutor Nick Selvaggio and Gil Weithman, city of Urbana law director, asked Nick Doss about methods he used to develop sections of a staff report concerning aviation and decommissioning of the Buckeye Wind Project.

Attorneys closely questioned an aviation consultant Tuesday, Nov. 10, in a hearing on a proposed wind turbine project in Champaign County. Thaddeus Brys, a consultant for Aviation Systems Inc., testified before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in a hearing on the Buckeye Wind Project, which would build about 70 turbines throughout Champaign County. Gil Weithman, law director for Urbana, questioned Brys on news that the Federal Aviation Administration recently reduced the number of turbines it considered a presumed hazard.

Within the renewable energy debate is opportunity; the opportunity for communities to utilize their resources not only to address energy efficiency and environmental concerns, but also to stimulate business. According to Avon Lake Councilwoman Jennifer Fenderbosch, there might not be a better opportunity than in Avon Lake. She said she first considered the idea after attending meetings in Cleveland.

There's a battle brewing along the ridges of Western Ohio. Several wind energy companies might build hundreds of giant turbines to generate electricity. There's support -- but a lot of opposition. Along the glacial ridge above the tiny community of Zanesfield in Logan County, Page Mays built a comfortable home in an idyllic setting. "We went ahead and bought this property and built this house, figuring that we were going to see pretty much what we were going to see," Mays says. "But that ridge over there is where they want to put the wind turbines now. We didn't bargain for that." Touted as the ultimate in clean energy, hundreds of wind turbines may be erected on these hills which are among the highest in the state of Ohio. But the Mayes worry about the effect on their property values, their way of life and their health.

On May first, 2008 Governor Strickland signed a new energy and utility bill into law. Among other things, the bill established the long-awaited Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard - legislation requiring that by the year 2025, 12.5 percent of the state's power come from renewable technologies like wind or solar. But the bill's language is murky, and as ideastream's Gretchen Cuda explains, not everyone thinks it's a victory for green energy. ...An amendment to the bill says that if the cost of renewable energy increases overall rates by 3 percent or more, companies are off the hook for meeting the 12.5 percent renewable requirement. Ken Silliman is chief of Chief of Staff to Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson. He says that could become a major setback.

A wildlife biologist whose area of expertise is bat and bird activity, has joined the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to study the effects of wind turbines on native and migrating wildlife, especially in the Lake Erie Basin. Keith DeWitt Lott will study the impact that the rotating blades of wind turbines have on the 300 species of birds and nine species of bats found in the state. "As Ohio moves into the realm of wind-based energy, it's important that we do so in a socially and environmentally responsible way," said ODNR Director Sean D. Logan in a news release.

Black Fork Wind LLC, the project name of the wind farm planned for the Crestline/Shelby area, has filed for waivers to Ohio Administrative Codes to allow them to cut corners in the development of this industry in Richland and Crawford counties. ...This issue concerns me very much and I hope everyone (both in and out of the proposed site) will do their research.

Bowling Green's former utilities director, Daryl Stockberger, has been lauded by numerous groups and public officials for getting Ohio's first four commercial-sized wind turbines built just west of the city. ...So what happened Oct. 1 when push came to shove - when Bowling Green City Council felt the city needed to lock itself into a long-term contract for its largest source of power? It aligned itself with coal. ...AMP-Ohio is pursuing a new coal-fired power plant because it is legally obligated to provide a reliable stream of what's known as "baseload" electricity, Mr. Carson said. That's power that can be pulled off the grid 24 hours a day. Wind and solar power are supplemental sources..."Until you find renewable fuels you can use to make baseload [electricity], an energy-consumptive society like ours is going to have to do the best it can," Mr. Scherer said.

Bowling Green already has four wind turbines generating electricity - and has had them since 2003. Dozens more may be on the way, reports News 11's Dick Berry. The tall, twirling turbines are easy to spot along US 6 near the Wood County landfill. If everything falls into place, rows and rows of wind turbines could be in place by 2009. And Bowling Green could become "Blowing Green." Bowling Green and the company responsible for building the original four turbines are looking at adding another 33.

In the three-way horse race to erect a wind turbine farm in the Conneaut area, BQ Energy may be leading at the turn. City Council members who attended a Thursday afternoon presentation by the wind energy company were blown away by what they heard. There's a good chance the firm will be invited to prepare a formal proposal, Council President James Jones said Friday. "We may be talking to them about a proposal," he said.