A Patrick administration proposal that critics say would strip local control from the siting of wind turbines is still awaiting action on Beacon Hill. And some West County town officials say revisions in the legislation don't go far enough in addressing their concerns. The Hawley Planning Board wrote this week to Gov. Deval Patrick and area legislators opposing the Wind Energy Siting Reform Act.

The latest effort by a local computer business to go green has some residents in a nearby subdivision seeing red. Other World Computing's new wind turbine, 131 feet tall not counting its three 63-foot-long blades, towers over the open space and farmland that surround it just southeast of Woodstock. But some residents of the Savannah Grove subdivision 1,600 feet to the west say it towers over them, as well. The refurbished turbine went up over the course of an October weekend to many residents' surprise, homeowner Ron Cyscon said.

A publicly owned wind turbine along M-72 in Leelanau County's Elmwood Township is out of commission. A generator bearing failed and the turbine ground to a halt, said Ed Rice, Traverse City Light & Power's executive director. The windmill has been broken for about six weeks.

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.

NRG Energy officials are counting on Congress to reauthorize a loan guarantee program that the firm says is "crucial" to the success of a planned wind farm off Rehoboth Beach. Right now, the planned wind farm doesn't qualify for the program because it only covers projects set to start construction by Sept. 30, 2011. And that's a year or more before the construction on the Delaware project would start. Without the federal loan guarantees, NRG would need to pay higher interest rates on any borrowing, which could cut into the project's profitability.

The November 5 decision by the Martha's Vineyard Commission to create a district of critical planning concern (DCPC) for wind energy projects across the Island, but excepting Edgartown, demonstrated unusual discretion on the part of the regional agency. Spreading, not restricting, its portfolio is the customary MVC practice. Several commission members were not happy about the exception, going so far as to suggest that heeding to the Edgartown selectmen's request that their town be left out of this particular DCPC was unwarranted. After all, their argument went, it was just three Edgartonians asking for the exception, not really the town.

"Visually intrusive and offensive." That was the verdict from many Milford Haven town councillors this week as they discussed proposals for a new wind farm on the banks of the haven waterway. The debate was sparked by a letter from Pembroke design company director Gareth Scourfield to the council objecting to the planning application by renewable energy developer Infinergy for a wind farm situated on the brownfield site between Milford Haven and Llanstadwell.

Iberdrola SA, the Spanish company that bought two upstate New York utilities last year in a $4.5 billion deal, now says it cannot afford to make all the investments in its gas and electric system it had promised state regulators. The two utilities, New York State Electric & Gas and Rochester Gas & Electric, are asking the state Public Service Commission if it can hold off on $77 million in required infrastructure spending this year.

The state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, or EFSEC, will meet at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the Hal Holmes Community Center to consider a recommendation to Gov. Chris Gregoire on whether to approve the 95-turbine, $330 million Desert Claim Wind Power Project. EFSEC officials estimate a final decision by the governor could come in early February 2010 at the latest. The wind farm, proposed by the French-owned firm of enXco USA Inc., is planned for eight miles northwest of Ellensburg spread on 5,200 acres north of Smithson Road.

A proposal to build a dozen wind turbines, part of a larger project to build as many as 100 in East County, has been denied by the Boulevard planning group. The planning group voted 5-0 last week to reject the wind project, with residents saying they felt it would hurt their property values while providing no benefits to the high desert community. Iberdrola Renewables wants to build turbines that would produce 200 megawatts of electricity.

Supporters and opponents of plans to build wind farms in Cheshire will have been keen spectators of a heated debate in the House of Commons. Peter Luff MP introduced a ten-minute rule bill on the proximity of wind turbines to homes which has gained backing from Weaver Vale MP Mike Hall and Eddisbury MP Stephen O'Brien. The bill, which is not expected to become law but may be considered by future government, is designed to create a 2km ‘buffer-zone' around any 125m commercial wind turbines.

It's the latest in the NIMBY syndrome. The Halifax Regional Municipality wants to get the public's feedback on how far wind turbines must be located from homes, roadways and property lines. The first of nine public meetings was held Monday night at Brookside Junior High School in Prospect. ...Most people want a conservative approach to setting guidelines for allowing turbines near a residence.

A cold front swept across northern China's Inner Mongolia region in early November, forcing a wind energy farm at Xilin Gol to curtail operations - even as a brisk breeze whistled through idle turbine blades. "When that much wind is moving through, the generators can't make electricity," explained Ma Zhanxiang, vice president of the Inner Mongolia Electric Power Industry Association (EPIA). "Money just blows by." ...Inner Mongolia's situation is a clear example. Its installed capacity - 50 gigawatts -- is the country's largest, but the excess at wind farms has reached a crisis level. EPIA counts some 10 gigawatts in the region, including 3.49 gigawatts of wind power, as excess installed capacity.

The Cape's parade of wind power turbines has begun in earnest, as Harwich town meeting joined Wellfleet and Brewster fall town meetings Thursday night in authorizing the use of town land to build the towering turbines. Although the two parcels of town-owned land were relatively large at 72 acres for property off Westgate Road, and 19 acres off Headwaters Drive, setbacks to protect adjacent properties limited the possible number of turbines to just two.

An application to increase the height of three proposed wind turbines at Flimby has been turned down by Allerdale council. Flimby Wind Energy Limited wanted to increase the height of the turbines from 335ft to 377ft and lengthen the blades. The plans had been recommended for approval by Allerdale planning officers, despite objections from the parish councils of Dearham, Broughton Moor and Seaton. Councillors this week refused the plans by nine votes to six.

Iberdrola Renewables Inc. and Environmentally Concerned Citizens Organization are trading jabs over the proposal to amend the town's zoning law for wind power facilities. Iberdrola's attorney, Douglas H. Ward, of Young, Sommer, Ward, Ritzenberg, Baker & Moore LLC, Albany, asked the town not to change the town's zoning law in a Sept. 21 letter.

Opponents to a proposed electricity-generating turbine project in Champaign County questioned Thursday during state hearings whether the wind-turbines would harm an endangered species of bat, but a researcher who studied the issue said the windmills would not. ...UNU attorneys argued the study did not follow specific guidelines for net placement developed by the department of fish and wildlife. A follow-up study by wildlife officials, however, did find evidence of the Indiana bat in the area. Meinke said she had worked closely with officials from the department of fish and wildlife when she conducted the study, which was deemed adequate at the time.

Legislators declined this summer to clear the way for North Carolina to tap the power of mountain winds. Next year, they could decide whether to allow a single, experimental ridgetop wind farm. Rep. Phil Frye said at a Wednesday wind-energy forum that he plans to propose allowing the state to issue one permit for building rows of wind turbines on a ridge - which he hopes would happen at a site overlooking his hometown of Spruce Pine.

Italian finance police, mounting an operation code named "Gone with the wind", yesterday said they had arrested two of the country's most prominent businessmen in the wind energy sector. Police said the charges related to fraud involved in obtaining public subsidies to construct wind farms. They are also investigating the sale of wind farms to foreign companies.

Project Hayes was a 630 MW windfarm proposed for an upland plateau in Central Otago in the South Island of New Zealand. An appeal to the Environment Court has resulted in a judgement revoking the consent ...The 350 page judgement was delivered after nine months of deliberation by the Court. The judgement acknowledged the outstanding value of the landscape and loss of this value if the windfarm was built. The other major component of the decision revolved around the magnitude of the economic benefit to people and communities from building this windfarm compared to alternatives. The court was very critical of the lack of economic analysis.