Erosion would be a significant issue on the Turitea Reserve but the effects can be mitigated, Mighty River Power representatives told a submissions hearing last night. It was the third and final night of submissions to Palmerston North City Council’s proposal to change the Turitea Reserve Management Plan to allow wind turbines in the reserve. The infrastructural well-being committee will meet on October 18 to make its decision.

Two related startup companies in Sunbury plan test projects to determine the feasibility of community wind farms and solar panels to generate electricity in the Susquehanna Valley. Penn Wind and PA Solar are partnering with the German firm Juwi on the projects, according to Justin Dunkelberger, an engineer who started the two companies. Three 180-foot-tall meteorological towers — two in Northumberland County and one in Schuylkill County — will be erected next month on rural ridge tops to obtain wind data, Dunkelberger said. They will resemble cell-phone towers, not wind turbines, he said. Dunkelberger, who formerly worked with the L. Robert Kimball & Associates engineering firm in the Harrisburg area, believes Penn Wind can fill a niche in the state for community wind farms that consist of four to six turbines. “They would be a little bit easier for people to swallow” than wind farms with 20 to 25 turbines, he said.

There won’t be any wind energy generated in Swampscott, at least not in the foreseeable future. The town’s density makes it impossible to locate a wind turbine tower anywhere here because of state regulations that prohibit the towers anywhere in the commonwealth within 1,000 feet of a residence, Tara Gallagher of the Swampscott Renewable Energy Committee informed selectmen last week. If there’s any such place in town, it’s not high enough to be workable, she added later in an interview.

Opponents of a plan to build three 266-feet-high wind turbines on the edge of Dartmoor are calling for support on the last day of a public inquiry into the plan. Members of Okehampton and District Against Turbines (ODAT) hope that as many people as possible who are opposed to the scheme will attend the final day of the inquiry on Thursday. The inquiry is into the appeal by West Coast Energy against refusal of planning permission by West Devon Borough Council for the three turbines at Yelland Farm, near Okehampton, close to the boundary of the Dartmoor National Park. The inquiry began in June and ran for just over a week, but could not be completed, which is why the final day was put off until Thursday.

More than 80 percent of town of Bovina residents are opposed to industrial wind turbines, according to a survey released Monday by the Alliance for Bovina. The survey was mailed to all of Bovina’s taxpayers and voters, alliance organizers said, with 540 responders, a 62 percent response rate. “We knew that a clear majority of Bovina residents were opposed to industrial wind, but we were surprised by how strong that majority was,” said Hall Willkie, co-director of the Alliance for Bovina, an organization that opposes industrial wind development in Bovina, but supports small wind turbines for individual use. Bovina is the first town in upstate New York where the community has been surveyed on whether to allow wind turbines, Willkie said. To assure the survey would be fair, reliable and anonymous, it was tabulated by an independent pollster in Milford, Pa.

Harelaw Renewable Energy Park, south of Neilston, will house 42 turbines, solar panels and a hydro-electric scheme, if given the go-ahead.

Concerns with noise and health affects continue to be raised as Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh Twp. council prepares their wind turbine setback bylaw. Township residents once again packed the council chambers on Sept. 19 to discuss the proposed setback requirements for wind turbines. The requirements include 400 metres from a residential building, a 600 metre setback from urban settlements and a setback requirement for roadways of 1.25 times the height of the turbine. Although council is in favour of the proposed bylaw, they deferred its passing to allow for more research to be completed and input from the public or ministry to be made. “We are leaving the setback requirements the same,” said Reeve Ben Van Diepenbeek. “In general, I think most people are pleased with the setback bylaw.” Mark Kernighan stated in a letter to council that they should not consider making the proposed changes anymore restrictive as it would be difficult for smaller farm lots to establish a wind farm.

Tax incentives were put into place in 2005 to help bring in more renewable energy industries, but North Dakota’s tax commissioner says the state needs to do more. Cory Fong announced today that he will be working with the 2007 legislature to introduce a new tax credit. Fong is running for the tax commissioner seat to which he was appointed last year.

Wind-energy proponents did not convince state Rep. Jack Lutz on Tuesday that Indiana should require electric companies to generate at least 10 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and other renewable sources by 2017. “I was very thrilled when I heard in August that Duke Energy did it voluntarily,” said Lutz, a Republican from Anderson who chairs the House Utilities and Energy Committee. “I think that’s proof we don’t need to mandate it.” Indiana’s first wind farm — to include up to 135 wind turbines — is under development on 10,000 acres in Benton County. Duke Energy Indiana has agreed to buy electricity from the project. During a day-long meeting Tuesday of the Indiana General Assembly’s Regulatory Flexibility Committee, which Lutz co-chairs, spokesmen said Indiana’s electric companies have been experimenting with generating electricity from the sun, animal waste, switch grass, wind and landfill gas.

A landmark global warming law that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is scheduled to sign today commits California to the ambitious goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2020. How exactly that will be accomplished — and at what cost — is unknown. But it’s clear that if the state intends to meet its goals, Californians will see many changes over the next 14 years, from higher fuel prices to bigger forests.....But California also is taking a big risk. If others do not follow, the state’s residents and companies could end up paying hundreds of millions of dollars to make cuts that by themselves will do little to curb global warming.

It’s hard to square with the caricature of an oil-obsessed, red-neck land, but nearly 350 modern windmills — winged giants that look like children’s pinwheels on long, skinny, off-white sticks — have sprouted near here in southwestern Alberta within the last four or five years, mostly in close-ordered ranks on wind-swept ridges between this town of 3,666 and similar-sized Fort MacLeod a half hour east on Highway 3.

The wind farm will wait. The Trempealeau County Board of Supervisors voted late Monday to approve a six-month moratorium on commercial wind farms. The decision came after a group of local investors approached the county earlier this month with a request to build four to six turbines on land two miles northwest of Ettrick, Wis. Kevin Lien, the county’s zoning director, has said the county needs the time to research and write an ordinance that addresses large turbines and wind farms. The county currently only has ordinances for residential-scale turbines. The county also will study turbines in preparation for addressing nearby residents’ concerns.

When peak demand hits, as it did during this year's sweltering July, the center would be called into action, the company said. The plant, planned to be built on Clawiter Road near PG&E's Eastshore substation, would only operate during peak demand periods, according to the company...... The Eastshore plant would use less water annually than five residences, the company said, with its engines cooled by a closed-water system. It would be built using state-of-the-art air emissions control technology.

Under pressure from environmental activist groups such as Defenders of Wildlife and the Los Angeles Audubon Society, the California Energy Commission on August 10 released bird and bat protection guidelines for local wind power permitting agencies. Although the guidelines are neither mandatory nor enforceable, the move represents growing concern that industrial wind farms are taking an unacceptable toll on bird and bat populations. The most recent avian mortality studies show between 1,750 and 4,700 birds are killed every year at California's Altamont Pass wind farm alone. Similar mortality numbers are reported at industrial wind farms in Solano County and other parts of the state. The Los Angeles Audubon Society says there is a lack of research into how industrial wind farms, many of which are located in migratory flyways, affect songbird flight patterns. The group is seeking a moratorium on turbine operation for several hours each day during the spring and autumn migration seasons.

A Law lord has lost his fight to stop a windfarm being built next to his Perthshire holiday home. Lord Hope of Craighead, a respected ornithologist, had argued 16 turbines planned for the hillside of Drumderg, near Bridge of Cally, would pose a threat to a rare and protected group of ospreys. Yesterday, a Scottish Executive reporter dismissed his claims and allowed the £30m development to go ahead. Lord Hope - who took his name Craighead from his cottage near Drumderg - had used 35 years of observations, all carefully documented, to show the planned windfarm would be on the flightpath between the nesting and feeding sites of ospreys, putting the birds at risk....... His records were never disputed. But scientists employed by Scottish and Southern, the electricity giant behind the windfarm plans, said they did not endanger the birds. The independent reporter, Malcolm Malony, agreed. "I'm satisfied," he said in his report, "that the osprey collision risk is low and is not such as to justify refusal of the proposal."

CARRABASSETT VALLEY - The Planning Board will hold a public hearing today on Maine Mountain Power LLC's proposal to construct power lines and roads to service its proposed wind farm. Maine Mountain Power, a partnership between Endless Energy Corp. in Yarmouth and Edison Mission Energy of California, want to develop a $150 million wind energy power system by installing 30 wind turbines - 12 on Redington Pond Range Mountain and 18 on Black Nubble Mountain in Redington Township.

Last week, Guerino had to pull another article from the warrant because of a miscommunication between planning officials and his staff. Planning officials have been working on a wind energy bylaw since June that aims to regulate the installation of commercial and residential wind turbines. Although the new bylaw was received and placed on the warrant, the bylaw amendments accompanying it were lost in paperwork at town hall. Because both the new bylaw and the amendments need to be approved collectively, the whole issue was tabled until May's town meeting.

Plans to build 16 wind turbines across a historic bridleway could decimate a local stables business. Up to 120 horses and ponies use Three Shires Way at Nun Wood, near Lavendon, Bozeat and Harrold but, if approved, the 125m high turbines would surround the animals. Milton Keynes Council is currently listening to objections to Npower’s application, including the concerns of the family-run Lower Farm Stables, on Castle Road. There are fears that horse riders would no longer be able to use the bridleway as the noise and light disturbance from the 90m blades would create a potential safety hazard. The British Horse Society recommend that turbines should be no nearer than 375m from bridleways but at Nun Wood some would be as close as 215m.

CONTROVERSIAL plans to build a 16-turbine wind farm in Highland Perthshire have been given the go-ahead by a Scottish Executive Reporter - a year after the scheme was blocked by councillors. Lord Hope of Craighead, one of Scotland's most senior judges and a former lord president and lord justice general, was one of more than 600 people who had protested against the plans by Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) to develop the renewable energy site on a hillside at Drumderg, five miles from Alyth. But the power company has been given full planning permission to develop the 32-megawatt scheme - enough to power 35,000 homes - following a public inquiry into the £30 million development.

The views of people living near the Te Apiti wind farm are being sought for a survey on how noise and vibration generated by the wind farm affects them. The survey is being conducted by retired Silverstream engineer Ken Mosley. ``I am an electrical engineer. I haven't got blinkers on and having looked into the situation, wind turbines have a lot of faults. And I'm seeing what can be done about them. But trying to calculate what happens noise and vibration wise is very difficult.''