Another wind farm is planned for Schuylkill County. The proposal will come up Wednesday night at a zoning meeting at the North Schuylkill High School. There is opposition from people who live near the proposed site for the giant windmills. Even from a few miles away wind farms are hard to miss. They're usually located on mountaintops.

Bell Acres council has approved construction of an alternative energy center that will include a 60-foot wind turbine, but not without a few conditions. Several of the stipulations involve possible noise issues, while others are intended to address residents' concerns for dozens of great blue herons that nest about half a mile away on the Bell Acres-Economy line. In a 5-0 vote Monday, council gave the Alternative Energy Center permission to create an 80-by-80 foot display site for three alternative energy products.

A week after the Black Creek Township Zoning Hearing Board gave more time to a Sunbury firm looking to build wind turbines on Tomhicken Mountain, dozens of residents attended a township supervisors' meeting to both speak for and against Penn Wind's plans. Supervisors, however, discussed very little about Penn Wind's plans during the Friday meeting, which was rescheduled from Oct. 6. ...Sean Purdy of Penn Wind did not speak during the meeting. His company wants to install four turbines in Black Creek and 18 in neighboring Beaver Township, Columbia County.

Despite a recent report indicating Pennsylvania's significant growth in wind energy, local projects that once seemed imminent are all either dead or at a standstill. The state ranked second in growth with 29 percent, according to the American Wind Energy Association's report on the market for the third quarter of 2009. ...Two Luzerne County projects have withered on the vine, one dying after a very public legal fight and the other quietly.

The large wide load grounded Monday remained in town Tuesday, awaiting a part needed for repairs before it continues to West Virginia. Front Street remained closed from Route 54 to Mill Street, where the 150-foot-long, 100-ton windmill base sat on a trailer. The part for a damaged rear turning axle was ordered from Alabama and is expected to be delivered today, Danville Police Chief Eric Gill said.

A Sunbury firm that wants to build wind turbines on Tomhicken Mountain now has more time to complete the project. Thursday night, the Black Creek Township Zoning Hearing Board voted 3-0 to grant Penn Wind LLC an extension from Dec. 31, 2010, to Dec. 31, 2011, to complete construction of four wind turbines in Black Creek Township. Penn Wind is building 18 additional windmills in neighboring Beaver Township, Columbia County.

Officials with the Riverside School District are considering a feasibility study for a wind turbine project to reduce electricity costs. At a committee meeting Monday, a handful of board members heard a presentation from Frank Smollon, president of Electric City Wind Power Corp., a licensed manufacturer and distributor of vertical wind power technology. ...A megawatt unit would produce more than 3 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, or enough to power about 300 average households, Mr. Smollon said. "But you have to remember wind is an intermittent resource and it is a natural source," he said.

Clean energy and the "green jobs" attached to it enjoyed wide support in testimony at a Senate hearing in Pittsburgh today but differences remain about how and how quickly federal policies should push those goals. Sen Arlen Specter, D-Pa., who hosted the hearing, acknowledged those tensions between "competing interests" in Pennsylvania coal, natural gas and alternative energy industries.

The Department of Environmental Protection will hold a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. followed by a public hearing at 8 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 23, to discuss and accept testimony on a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit application by Sandy Ridge Wind LLC for a wind turbine project in Blair and Centre counties. The NPDES permit would address stormwater runoff from the construction of gravel roads, parking areas and concrete pads associated with 28 wind turbines, transmission lines and a substation.

The Fayette County Planning Commission Thursday conditionally approved plans to build 22 wind turbines along Chestnut Ridge in Georges and Springhill townships. Iberdrola Renewables of Portland, Ore., has sought approval for the project from the county zoning hearing board for several years, without success. Action by county commissioners in June to amend the county zoning ordinance eliminated the need for a special exception for wind turbines.

Brady Township Board of Supervisors heard a wind energy presentation at its meeting last night provided by Laura Jackson of Save Our Allegheny Ridges. ...Noise is a key factor to consider when determining a setback distance, she said. "In my experience it is very hard to prove a noise case in court and a noise study costs 30, 40, $50,000 which a township could not afford."

The Bethlehem Authority has a second company interested in generating wind energy on the authority's watershed lands. Iberdrola Renewables presented the authority's board with a proposal last month to install 38 wind turbines on the authority's land in Monroe County and 32 wind turbines on the authority's Carbon County property.

Vic Russo and Karen Dickinson think the wind that blows across their small farm is strong enough to spin the blades of a turbine and generate electricity. ...But the turbine, which would be one of the first in Centre County, has hit resistance from some neighbors worried about the way it could look and sound. The township's zoning doesn't cover turbines, so the supervisors would have to give conditional approval before it could go up.

A wind farm with up to 14 windmills, if approved by the state, would ease the financial stress on the county's Rock Run Recreation Area near Patton, while preserving the area's planned use for ATV trails and primitive camping, officials said. ..."We have to get approval from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources because the property was purchased with their funds," she said. The site was purchased through a $2 million DCNR grant almost six years ago.