After discussions with leadership people, community members and landowners, the company decided the only way to resolve the dispute with the neighbours was to purchase and re-market their homes.

St. Lawrence Wind Farm developer Acciona Wind Energy USA is just weeks away from submitting its final environmental impact statement to the town Planning Board. ...Acciona will present the final statement July 28. The board will discuss and potentially accept the statement Aug. 18.

The developer of St. Lawrence Wind Farm has released a revised list of town officials who have land contracts with the developer. Acciona Wind Energy USA LLC, which has proposed the 53-turbine, 79.5-megawatt project, included the amount town officials or their relatives with contracts had been paid through Aug. 19, 2009.

"U.S. wind development declined sharply over the past year for reasons beyond our control," ACCIONA Windpower said. "The reduction in our work force is necessary to meet the current volume of production while we work to complete new turbine supply agreements."

Acciona Windpower plans to cut employment by 58 at its West Branch facility in response to slackening demand for wind turbines. In a statement, Acciona said demand "is uncharacteristically low due primarily to instability in the financing markets." A total of 65 positions are being cut.

The release from Acciona and Global Winds Harvest announced that Global Winds Harvest would be taking sole ownership of the Prairie Mills wind project. ...The project has run into some recent road blocks, with the villages of Clayton and Golden voting to ban turbine development within a 1.5 mile area of each respective village.

Large-scale wind farms are becoming a fact of life in rural areas, a fact that doesn't please western New York environmental attorney Gary Abraham very much. But he's enough of a realist to know that no amount of tilting is going to stop that march ...So he's taken a different tack, in representing towns trying to draft regulations and making presentations to other attorneys.

The state would open up ocean sanctuaries to renewable energy development under a legislative agreement that could allow a controversial wind farm in Buzzards Bay to be built under certain conditions. ...Under current law, development can only take place in the state's ocean sanctuaries if it is deemed a "public necessity." The five protected sanctuaries are on the North Shore, Cape Cod Bay, the southern Cape and islands and Buzzards Bay. The new law would allow renewable energy projects, but they would be subject to an ocean management plan to be drawn up by a special commission by Dec. 31, 2009, according to people familiar with the agreement. The commission will decide the specific regulations, including allowable distance from shore, scale and type of technology, community benefits and environmental impact.

"People want jobs, and all the more so in a situation like this," with an ongoing recession, said Alan Viard, an economist who is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "It naturally has a political resonance." But Viard and other economists warn that the jobs arguments is flawed. Industries tend to look only at a policy's impact on one sector, ignoring the broader economic impact.

Evelyn Hayden has already lost a lot of sleep over the Digby Neck Wind Farm-and she expects to lose some more. Hayden, whose home is just 600 metres from the proposed location of one of the 20 turbines that will be built this year, was the first speaker at a March 24 roundtable that focused on the wind park. ...Hayden set the tone for the evening: "This meeting means council will finally listen to our side of the wind park fiasco."

After killing nuclear energy and coal-fired power plants, Germany is now taking aim at its own green policies, says the Wall Street Journal. After building nearly 20,000 windmills, Germans are now regulating them well beyond economical sense:

Can the noise generated from a wind turbine be detrimental to the health of nearby residents? That question and others were touched upon during a special presentation made to the Allegany Town Planning Board on noise impacts of commercial wind farms. The presentation was made by Charles E. Ebbing, a retired acoustic engineer in response to a request made by residents of Chipmonk and their attorney, Gary Abrams.

A demonstration of potential noise impacts generated by wind farms will be presented at 7 p. m. today to members of the Allegany Town Planning Board by an acoustic expert. The board's special meeting will be held in the Senior Center on Birch Run Road and is open to the public.

"There is ample evidence that turbines cause a constellation of health problems, and attempts to deny this involve claims that are contrary to proper methods of scientific inference," Phillips writes in a paper published in the Bulletin of Science, Technology, and Society. It's one of several interesting papers in the journal, which is devoted to wind health issues.

‘Wind turbine noise is very directional,' he said. ‘Someone living at the base might not have a problem, but 2km away it might be keeping them awake at night. ‘Likewise, this broadband "hissing" noise modulates up and down as the blades rotate, and we think that's what makes it so annoying.'

The operators of the New England grid are restricting the amount of electricity being accepted from the three operating wind projects in the Northeast Kingdom and the North Country of New Hampshire. And there's no indication that the restrictions, called curtailments, will end anytime soon.

NORTHEAST KINGDOM -- The wind energy projects proposed for the Northeast Kingdom have raised questions about the state's permitting process. Some claim that Section 248, which deals with energy production, is not as rigorous as Act 250, the state's land development law.

CONCORD (AP) - Gov. John Lynch has signed the proposal that promotes expanding renewable energy in New Hampshire, a move that's expected to reduce pollution and expand the alternative energy industry. The legislation requires electric utilities to buy a growing percentage of their energy from sources such as wood-fired plants, wind farms and hydro power. The goal is to have 25 percent of the state's electricity coming from renewable sources by 2025. As he signed the bill on Friday, Lynch said the plan will help lessen the need for foreign oil and expensive natural gas, build a stronger state economy and protect the environment.

BELVIDERE — Sparks flew Wednesday night as the Boone County Board voted to postpone action on a proposed wind farm that has left the board sharply divided.

Campaigners in north Northumberland have hit out at Berwick borough planners, who want to decide up to three controversial wind farm applications at the same meeting. Members of Moorsyde Action Group say it "beggars belief" that Berwick Borough Council would consider determining Moorsyde and Barmoor, and possibly even Wandylaw, at its planning committee on May 29. The three developments - all by different companies - each have their own complex histories and planning issues. Together, they total 29 turbines.