The Coast Guard revealed this week that it has contracted for a study of the effects on marine radar from the wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound. At the end of a radar and navigation forum Tuesday in North Falmouth, Raymond Perry, captain of the port for Sector Southeastern New England, announced the study, Coast Guard Senior Chief Richard Uronis said yesterday. The $100,000 study should be completed by December, Uronis said. It will be performed by Maryland-based Technology Service Corp.

Renewable energy equipment, such as windmills and solar panels, are cool to look at, but they're not an economically feasible investment for most typical homeowners -- yet. A few renewable energy sources, such as thermal solar systems, can pay for themselves in a few years. But experts say you often get better bang for your buck by lowering your consumption, for instance by insulating your walls better. A few renewable energy sources, such as thermal solar systems, can pay for themselves in a few years. But experts say you often get better bang for your buck by lowering your consumption, for instance by insulating your walls better.

Wind developers in the United States could be the first among the energy sector to fall victim to the global financial meltdown emanating from Wall Street. The banking crisis that began with bad loans in the US housing sector has now brought down several commercial banks, one of the world's largest insurance companies and leading investment banks. These last have been particularly important in funding advanced energy technologies (through partnerships with wind developers) and in promoting international carbon markets.

The United States faces significant risk of power brownouts and blackouts as early as next summer that may cost tens of billions of dollars and threaten lives. ...While renewable energy proponents, and some elected officials, are saying that the U.S. needs to only add renewable power facilities such as wind farms, the annual capacity factor of wind generators is typically about 25 - 35 percent. However, the probability that wind generators are available at their rated value during annual peak periods is only between 5 - 20 percent and varies greatly from year to year and region to region. Wind cannot be considered a reliable baseload capacity resource.

Morgan Stanley cut its rating on Vestas to ``underweight'' from ``equal-weight'' yesterday, citing ``early signs of softening demand among small developers'' and the recent increase in raw material prices, particularly steel, which it said would constrain profit margins.

The manufacturer may change, but without major revisions to Cape Wind's plans for a Nantucket Sound wind-energy plant, further complications in the project's regulatory review are unlikely. General Electric - identified earlier as the prospective supplier of wind turbines - appears to have dropped the 3.6-megawatt model Cape Wind had hoped to use, said Rodney Cluck, Cape Wind project manager for U.S. Minerals Management Service. "However, other companies out there are" making similar models, he said.

Blue H's 328-foot-tall wind turbine is different from the offshore generators that have sparked opposition from U.S. coastal residents. Because it sits atop pontoons, this turbine can operate in water farther from shore, where winds are stronger and more reliable - and where it's not visible from land. ...Linowes said that those opposing onshore wind projects - which often are gigantic schemes spanning tens of thousands of acres - welcome proposals to place turbines out in the water. She calls current onshore turbines "dinosaurs" and says she finds Blue H's idea appealing because it shows "that we should look to new technology rather than bigger land-based turbines," she said.

Investors in alternative energy are confident entrepreneurs will find ways to drum up finance without deepening the global credit crisis. Many people fear that as many alternative, low-carbon energy sources are more expensive than gas and oil, developing them will add to the current economic problems, but investors say projects will be aided by private capital. ...A diversified energy mix would help keep the lid on costs, executives told the London conference. "We must keep ideology out of our choices," said Pierre Gadonneix, chief executive of French utility EDF , who said the supply mix must include hydropower, nuclear, wind and high-efficiency coal and gas.

Wind power is suddenly becoming more attractive because the fuel is free; what makes it expensive is the up-front capital costs of the turbines and wind farm installation. That's almost the opposite case with power sources like natural gas, where the upfront costs are pretty low, and the fuel bill is the main variable. At a time of wildly volatile oil, coal, and gas prices around the world, that kind of long-term price predictability is a big advantage.

But without the mandate, wind power would be at a severe disadvantage against an energy grid designed around coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power plants that were bought and paid for decades ago, industry experts said. Thomas Casten, chairman of Recycled Energy Development, said that without the renewables mandate "we wouldn't have any wind here because it can't compete with a dirty old coal plant." Even with the mandates, not everyone considers wind the optimal choice in limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

Imagine 30 wind turbines whirring ATOP two remote Maine peaks. The 300-ton towers, with blades sweeping 400 feet high and aglow with aircraft-warning lights, would each produce 9,000 megawatt-hours of renewable electricity per year. So what's wrong with this picture? A lot, according to groups like the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC)–like the fact that the windmills in this proposed farm would be visible from a 34-mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail.

Noble Environmental Power Inc, a wind energy company, said on Friday it plans to sell 23.4 million shares in a planned initial public offering. The Essex, Connecticut-based company did not determine a price range for the shares, according to an amended offering document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Many US residents are passionate about a future propelled by wind. "The promotion of renewable power such as home-grown wind-generated power in New York is essential," said Ed Bennett, president of New York Interfaith Power and Light, a church group that backs renewable sources of energy. "New York has a tangible renewable resource in wind power that could supply 10 per cent of New York's electrical consumption in the very near future." ..."But the industry faces all kinds of hurdles, from right of way issues to groups opposed to the aesthetic intrusion of giant wind turbines. There are a lot of [people] that are going to have to be convinced before we get to something like 300,000 megawatts of electricity from wind."

Expecting oil prices to stay high, investors have been flocking to exchange-traded funds based on renewable energy sources such as wind power. ETFs, which trade throughout the day on exchanges, are based on indexes that aim to replicate the performance of groups of stocks. Some are designed to allow people to bet on hot market niches. But creating an ETF index that faithfully tracks a fledgling industry like wind isn't easy. ...Wind ETFs aren't aimed at "do-it-yourselfers," says Dan Waldron, head of First Trust's ETF business. "They are for the adviser who understands his client's risk tolerance and goals and uses them in the context of a much broader, diversified portfolio," he says.

First Wind Holdings Inc., an independent North American wind energy company, announced its plan to raise up to $450 million of proceeds through initial public offering of Class A common shares. ...The company said it intends to use this offering net proceeds to repay outstanding indebtedness ...First Wind Holdings LLC posted net loss of $68.07 million in 2007, $26.01 million in 2006 and $18.62 million in 2005. For the quarter ended March 31, 2008, the company incurred a net loss of $18.52 million, versus a net loss of $13.91 million in the same period last year.

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) announced today that it is proceeding with the consultation and analyses necessary to move toward the issuance of limited leases under its interim policy for authorizing alternative energy data collection and technology testing activities on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

One of the big challenges with using wind to replace natural gas is that, unlike the steady flame from natural gas, the wind doesn't blow all the time. To make sure enough power is available when the wind isn't blowing, back up generators would be needed, said Paul Fremont, an electric-utility analyst at the investment bank Jefferies & Co. That could mean maintaining those natural gas plants in case of emergency, or implementing even more novel ideas like systems in Europe that use excess wind electricity to pump water uphill when the wind is blowing, then release it through hydro dams when the wind stops. Either way, any type of back up system comes with a price. "It's very costly, and very inefficient for society as a whole," said Fremont. "Policy makers will have to decide if the benefits are worth it."

"Everything he is outlining in this plan will pad his already ample bank account," said Jerry Taylor, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, who likened the plan to corporate welfare, since it calls for $1 trillion in government investment and an extension of tax credits for wind companies that are set to expire at the end of 2008. ...Ed Legge, a spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute, a Washington-based trade association for electric-utility companies, including Duke and Exelon, said he expects consumers to eventually get a reality check on wind's shortcomings. "You can't depend on wind," Mr. Legge said. "Our customers are trained to expect the power is available and on. An intermittent source is automatically problematic, and that's what wind is right now. Wind stops blowing."

Texas now leads the nation in wind generation capacity, as entrepreneurs including billionaire oil investor T. Boone Pickens join others in a rush to build turbines on the state's vast, wind-swept prairies. But for the nation's power grid operators, channeling these new supplies can be a headache, because wind supplies are as changeable and unpredictable as the weather itself. Plants powered by natural gas can be switched on and off at a moment's notice to respond to the demands of the grid, but wind cannot.