Niagara's first large-scale wind generating project could be in peril because of a new regional policy covering wind energy. ...That's because politicians had just approved the new policy that, among other things, in most cases will require power transmission lines on windfarm properties to be buried rather than to go on poles.

Three years after the courts ruled against their claim to their ancestors' land, members of the Balli family said they'll keep fighting. Since July, about 40 family members have staged protests against the developer of a wind farm, claiming it is intruding on their land claim awarded about 200 years ago by the King of Spain. "They're trespassing on our property," said Nicholas Balli, a mechanic in Harlingen.

Wind power advocates from across Maine talked about economic and environmental impact and turbine noise during a panel forum Thursday night at Black Mountain Ski Lodge. ...Kearney and Shaw, who live near the Mars Hill wind farm, addressed noise and visual issues associated with wind turbines. "My family lives 3,000 feet from the turbines on the east side of the mountain," Kearney said. "There's no doubt we do hear noise, but we don't focus on it. ...It sounds like a low-flying jet aircraft or a waterfall. You put these big, beautiful 100-foot blades up there and you have to hear something."

A former state representative agreed today to pay nearly $500,000 in restitution for misleading customers of his wind turbine business, according to a statement released by Attorney General Martha Coakley. Former Democratic Representative Mark Howland of East Freetown will have one year to pay $488,000 in restitution for violating the Massachusetts Consumer Protection act by deceiving customers – mainly in the southeastern part of the Commonwealth, according to the agreement filed in Fall River Superior Court.

The anemometers, which measure wind speed, were installed by the Cape Neddick-based Ra Power Solutions company as part of a yearlong study to determine if a commercial wind farm would be viable there. If it is, a small-scale "niche" wind farm consisting of up to 300-foot high turbines could be constructed. It would be the first commercial wind farm in southern Maine, according to Dean Scontras, a former congressional candidate and vice president of business development for the company.

Continued debt problems have dragged down the stock value of Bluewater Wind's Australian parent company to around one Australian dollar a share, far from its $31.08 a share value a year ago. But leaders of Babcock & Brown said Wednesday the firm's debt issues, and the current freeze-up of global credit markets, will not derail Bluewater's plan to build a wind farm off Rehoboth Beach.

The Merredin Shire last week approved the construction of a wind farm by joint venturers Collgar Wind Farm and the CSIRO backed Windlab Systems. Investec Bank (Australia) Limited will fund and develop the $600 million project, which will comprise of 127 wind turbines capable of generating up to 267 megawatts of power, enough to power about 160,000 homes a year. Investec project manager Mark Headland said there were excellent opportunities for local business involvement during the wind farm's construction phase.

With final approval of a siting permit less than a week away, anti-windfarm activists are firing yet another round of legal salvos in their bid to stop the construction of 124 wind turbines slated for north-central Greenbrier County. State Public Service Commission hearings begin next Wednesday to determine if Beech Ridge Energy, owned by the Chicago-based company Invenergy, has complied with dozens of preconstruction terms that the PSC ordered when a conditional building permit was approved in 2007. ...Dave Buhrman said the Washington law firm Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal has been hired to sue Beech Ridge over potential violations of the Endangered Species Act if construction goes forward.

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.

Texas utility regulators urged transmission companies to agree on who will build $5 billion in new power lines needed to unleash the state's abundant wind generation, rather than force a state utility panel to hold a lengthy proceeding. ...Meanwhile, the pace of wind-turbine installation has begun to slow from the break-neck speed seen in the past two years to allow the grid to catch up, according to developers and the Texas grid operator.

The town attorney is reworking an agreement between Naples and First Wind to make it clear that by accepting a cash payment, the town is not endorsing the Cohocton wind farms now under construction. The Town Board has voted to accept $50,000 in what are called "mitigation funds," to make up for any detrimental effect the appearance of windmills may have on Naples' historic landmarks.

Energy firms are undermining the planning process by offering sweeteners worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to communities living in the shadow of new wind farms, critics claim today. The Campaign to Protect Rural England says growing numbers of 'goodwill payments', which include sports pitches, play areas or pensioners' lunch clubs, bring the planning system into disrepute. Such gestures could 'be seen as akin to buying planning permission' and should be banned, it said.

Advocating local control to approve or disapprove of the installation of industrial wind farms in any Texas county, Gillespie County Judge Mark Stroeher testified before a State Senate committee Monday. “Local county officials are in the best position to judge whether or not a wind project makes sense in their particular area based on all the relevant factors, including the desires of the citizens,” Stroeher said.

In the works for three years, a high-voltage transmission line connecting Montana's electric grid to Alberta's through eastern Teton County is on the last leg of a footrace slowed by intense scrutiny from landowners in the proposed right of way and from the regulatory agencies required to vet the project. The final environmental impact statement for the Montana Alberta Tie Ltd. 230-kilovolt power line was published in the Federal Register on Oct. 3. ... The power line would make possible wind energy development totaling 600 megawatts, 300 mw in each direction, from Great Falls to Lethbridge, Alta.

The controversy over plans to build a series of wind turbine operations at sites across the region is set to brew up in the next few days. Madawaska Valley councillors just returned last Friday "from a pretty substantive tour" of wind turbine sites in southwestern Ontario, Mayor John Hildebrandt told Monday night's regular township council meeting. A company named SkyPower has proposed to build six of the giant wind turbines at sites in the hills north of Wilno.

It's a bit behind schedule, but a $48 million project to bring wind power to New Hampshire via a dozen huge turbines near Mount Sunapee should be up and running by Christmas. ..."We have a love-hate relationship with them. . . . Some people think it spoils the ridgeline," said Lempster Selectman Ed Everett Thurber. Concern about appearance, and about the effect of the large construction work stretching along about five miles of ridgeline, led several landowners in and around Lempster to file opposition to the project after it was proposed, some four years ago. Thurber said his only concern was how the turbines would sound when they start spinning.

Members of the US WindForce Community Advisory Panel met this week to review wildlife reports and other updates from the proposed Pinnacle wind power project planned for Northeast West Virginia. The Pinnacle project seeks to erect 23 turbines atop Green Mountain, running from the northern end of the Allegheny Wildlife Management Area, northward about 3 miles to the end of the ridgeline near the Potomac River. In development since 2003, the project is approaching the end of the planning stage, with WindForce officials planning to submit the application to the West Virginia Public Service Commission by December.

The Town Board is taking the advice of its new lawyer and will introduce a one-year moratorium on wind farm proposals, pending changes to the town's Wind Energy Facilities law that was adopted last year to regulate permits. During a special board session Monday night, acting Town Supervisor Joe Brodka said the step is being taken to protect the town. He assured about a dozen property owners and residents in attendance that the move shouldn't cause Noble Environmental Power to abandon its plans for a project in the town.

The letter's author, Andrew Dzykewicz, the commissioner of the office on energy resources, wrote that a "well-executed feasibility study typically will include a year's worth of data gathering using a meteorological tower erected on-site for that purpose." ...Barrington Town Council President Jeff Brenner defended the council's decision not to install a test tower. "We weren't sure where the site was going to be," Mr. Brenner said. "Frankly I'm glad we didn't put it up at the high school because we have since switched sites and it would have wasted taxpayers' money."

After 10 months of work, the Committee for Renewable Energy for Barrington (CREB) has recommended the town accept a bid to install a 600 kilowatt wind turbine generator at the Legion Way site. The town council is saddled with the final decision - whether to follow the CREB recommendation and award the bid for the work to Lumus Construction Inc. ...The recommendation report goes into detail, explaining specifics about the proposed project. The council was scheduled to hear from CREB members at Monday night's meeting and were expecting some other vocal residents to attend also.