Portland-based Keppel Prince Engineering, which makes about 40% of Australia's wind turbine towers, has indicated it may need to lay off 150 staff because of lack of work. Keppel Prince's chief executive, Steve Garner, told Green Left Weekly a big problem is that the companies it has contracts with can't access Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to support their projects.

Owners of a wind-power company set to erect 22 turbines on local hills have decided to delay the project by a year because the energy market has fallen in the recession. Record Hill Wind LLC is building a $120 million wind farm along the 4-mile ridgeline that connects Partridge Peak, Record Hill and Flathead Mountain. The company had planned to put up the turbines next year, but now says it will be up and running in 2011.

Ian Elliot wanted to raise the issue of turbine density in the state's review of the Desert Claim Wind Power Project, but couldn't. The issue wasn't officially entered into evidence by an intervener in the Desert Claim review process, nor was there any expert testimony, studies or other data submitted on the issue by an intervener or the project applicant. ..."I believe the process is flawed because the rights of the local citizens and the obligations of EFSEC do not align," Elliot stated

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.

After two weeks of testimony, the proposed Buckeye Wind Project crept closer to a decision by the Ohio Power Siting Board this week. But the project is still likely a long way from approval. If approved, the project would allow Everpower Renewables to build about 70 wind turbines in a section of Champaign County that spans about 9,000 acres and six townships. ...Although testimony spanned about two weeks, a spokesman for the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio said it could still be months before a final conclusion is reached in the case.

The county looks close to approving an ordinance that would allow noncommercial turbines up to 40 feet tall on most lots in the county except the mountain overlay district (which includes many hillsides) and the county's scenic corridor. That corridor is defined as anything that can be seen from five feet above the centerline of Idaho Highway 75 from Glendale Road north. For lots larger than five acres, the county's planning staff would approve the application for a turbine.

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.

Robert Gardiner, a public broadcasting executive-turned-wind power developer, fielded questions from the audience about the so-called Highland Wind project. It's a $250 million development that would place 48 wind turbines in a single-file, southeasterly row along four peaks. It would likely be visible from the Appalachian Trail. ...I'm very concerned about the mountaintop removal," says Greg Perkins, the owner of the home in Highland Plantation that would be closest to the wind farm, about a half-mile away. He's also a soil scientist. "I really think we need to rethink this whole wind power thing in Maine. It doesn't create that much energy and for what we're losing, there's no balance to it. So I really think we need to rethink it."

The one piece of business discussed by the commission came from Commissioner Keith Campbell. Mr. Campbell proposed that the commission adopt a bylaw which said that when considering board business, if a commissioner "anticipated the opportunity" to personally benefit by the action of the board in the value of $1000 or more, that commissioner should publicly state that. ...Because of the avowed interest of some current and past members of the zoning commission in securing personal contracts with corporations seeking to put wind energy conversion systems in Ellis County, some members of the public were interested in greater transparency in the operation of the zoning board.

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."

Power producers have installed more than 500 megawatts of wind energy generation in Wyoming in the past year. One driver behind the wind boom presumably is action by other states in the West to require that utilities use certain percentages of renewable energy in their power supplies -- called renewable portfolio standards. ...That has many speculating whether renewable portfolio standards in other states are driving up rates in Wyoming, where there is no such requirement.

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.