Saying that they are paying close attention to Vinalhaven's community wind project, town officials this week agreed to a preliminary feasibility study for a wind project atop Ragged Mountain. While no project is now in the pipeline, anemometers placed on the mountain three years ago found that the town has "a serious wind resource," said Jeff Lewis, chairman of the Camden Energy Committee. ...Any project ultimately would be put to a town vote, Lewis said. That won't be a slam-dunk for wind power proponents, according to Baker. "If you thought Vinalhaven was iconic, try messing around with the Camden Hills," he said.

Earlier this week, a City Council subcommittee held a meeting to finalize recommendations on much-debated rules surrounding the location of wind turbines. In a lightly attended meeting, they did just that. On Monday, however, they have to do it all over again. The culprit? A locked door. ...Though the meeting continued, the subcommittee had unintentionally violated the state's Open Meeting Law, meaning the meeting will have to be held again.

The city thought it was ahead of the curve back in 2007 when it bought a windmill that was supposed to provide power for a transportation center built around a station for the Downeaster train. The $200,000 windmill never came close to meeting expectations, but even that was OK. The city had an agreement in which the manufacturer would pay the difference between the value of the anticipated electricity and the value of the actual output.

A year after the collapse of the equity financing market for large wind farms, state leaders and private developers are eyeing community-scale projects as an opportunity to grow the number of turbines in the state. But while communities may be good candidates for wind projects - with a strong, steady demand for electricity and the ability to raise taxes as collateral - just who will ultimately back these developments is still an unknown.

A wind energy development company has sued a second town board in an attempt to force through a large wind farm without the approval of local elected leaders. Ecogen Wind LLC filed a lawsuit Monday against the town of Prattsburgh, Steuben County, claiming town leaders have improperly thrown roadblocks infront of the wind farm. The company brought a similar legal action this month against the neighboring town of Italy in Yates County.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced Thursday that it has approved a $161 million loan to the company building the Montana Alberta Tie Line between Great Falls and Lethbridge. The Western Area Power Administration will loan Toronto-based Tonbridge Power Inc. - the project's developer - money with funds from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009, also known as the federal stimulus bill.

Folks living in Dixmont voted Thursday night on an ordinance that would regulate wind power development in their town. The issue arose when a company began looking into the prospect of placing ten wind turbines along Mount Harris in Dixmont. For the past nine months the local planning board has been researching the effects of such projects on residents living nearby.

After just two months of operation technical problems have forced the blades of the world's largest offshore wind farm to stop turning. ...The wind farm has not been producing energy since last weekend and Dong Energy, which owns the wind farm, is losing approximately 1.1 million kroner each day the turbines stand still.

Longtime environmental activist and wind-power supporter Jonathan Carter of Lexington Township joined forces this month with a grassroots coalition trying to stop sprawling industrial wind farms atop Maine's mountains. Carter, a former Green Party gubernatorial candidate, is the director of the Forest Ecology Network, which was created to protect, preserve and defend Maine's native forest environment through public awareness, grassroots citizen activism and education, according to its Web site. ..."This isn't simply (not in my backyard)," Carter said. "These mountaintops are unique. They're rare. To destroy them is, in my thinking, extremely inappropriate and shortsighted."

A state employee was questioned Friday, Nov. 20, about a report he prepared for the Buckeye Wind Project. Champaign County Prosecutor Nick Selvaggio and Gil Weithman, city of Urbana law director, asked Nick Doss about methods he used to develop sections of a staff report concerning aviation and decommissioning of the Buckeye Wind Project.

In what could be the final day of hearings on a proposed plan to install 70 wind turbines in Champaign County, a state employee was questioned about a report he prepared for the Buckeye Wind Project. Champaign County Prosecutor Nick Selvaggio and Gil Weithman, city of Urbana law director, on Friday, Nov. 20, asked Nick Doss about methods he used to develop sections of a staff report concerning aviation and decommissioning of the Buckeye Wind Project.

The O'Malley administration's desire to build offshore wind turbines as part of its renewable energy program is running into an unlikely source of resistance: the military. The fear is that turbines placed in the Atlantic Ocean could disrupt flight and weapon test ranges ..."When you start to place turbines out in the Atlantic Ocean, they will create an artificial image on the radar, and we might not be able to see aircraft because we think the aircraft is really the turbine spinning around out there," said Todd Morgan, president of the Southern Maryland Navy Alliance.

Wind developer Ecogen has filed another lawsuit against a local municipality in an attempt to erect electricity-producing wind turbines. The lawsuit was recently filed in state Supreme Court in Rochester against the Prattsburgh Town Board and other town officials. It is similar to legal action the company is taking against the town of Italy in Yates County, which has refused to grant Ecogen permission to build wind turbines there.

An Ohio Power Siting Board staff member admitted under cross examination Wednesday that the board has no obligation to consider the concerns of the public or intervenors in the Buckeye Wind case. Stuart Siegfried, of the Efficiency and Renewables Division of the Department of Energy and Environment, testified that he was responsible for compiling and editing the OPSB staff report on the project that was issued Oct. 13, in compliance with the deadline to do so 15 days before the public hearing at Triad that was held Oct. 28.

Arran-Elderslie has passed a new noise control bylaw. The bylaw will prohibit and regulate excessive noise and associated vibration, said chief administrative officer/clerk A. P. Crawford. There is no enforceable noise control bylaw in the municipality, she said. Three pre-amalgamation bylaws for Chesley, Tara and Paisley, now more than 10 years old "are all out of date and contain invalid references due to amendments to provincial legislation," she said.

Salisbury officials have only recently become aware that 10 wind turbines could be built less than a quarter-mile off Salisbury Beach if the state's draft Ocean Management Plan were adopted. A serious concern of both Salisbury Selectman Jerry Klima and Planning Board Chairman Don Egan is that after only recently seeing a map showing the turbine area less than 1,500 feet from shore ..."I never saw anything like this before that from the state," Klima said yesterday.

The town Planning Board asked the Town Council not to hold a public hearing next week on a proposed wind development zoning ordinance, citing missing information. ..."On initial blush through the law, it looks satisfactory," Chairman Richard J. Edsall said. "But after a more thorough examination, I saw there was an error made in the law, a section left out."

Despite pressure from the governor and other state officials, National Grid has again rejected a proposal to buy clean power from a developer proposing to build a $200-million wind farm off Block Island. In a letter filed late Wednesday afternoon with state regulators, Rhode Island's largest electric utility said it would not agree to the latest offer from Deepwater Wind for power from the eight-turbine wind farm that would provide electricity to Block Island because the price is still too high.

The landscape of Bay County's Merritt Township could change drastically in less than two years. That's what worries Supervisor Dave Schabel. A Florida company is eyeing Merritt and three townships in Tuscola County for development of a 66-turbine commercial wind park. ..."I don't think you can make everybody happy. It would alter the landscape for generations to come. It would alter the way of life around here for years to come."