The Mount Storm wind farm has a new $185 million construction and operating loan. ...The project's first phase - 82 turbines capable of generating 164 megawatts of electricity - is scheduled to start commercial operations next January. Dominion and Shell have said they plan 50 more turbines despite a legal challenge.

Plans to build a 124-turbine wind farm on a West Virginia ridgeline won critical support Monday from the state Supreme Court, which upheld a conditional permit already approved by the state Public Service Commission. The justices ruled Monday in support of the permit, after hearing arguments in January on the $300 million proposal by Beech Ridge Energy LLC. ... A group of local residents calling itself the Mountain Communities for Responsible Energy, along with Jeffrey and Alicia Eisenbeiss of Renick, challenged the permit. They charged, in part, that the PSC's application permit didn't include input from opponents on such matters as the area's cultural and historical importance.

The NedPower wind turbine project at Mount Storm is the first case that will be heard by the West Virginia Supreme Court on Tuesday as it convenes for the 2007 LAWS program.

The state Supreme Court has unanimously agreed to consider a case involving the development of a 200-turbine wind farm near Mount Storm. The five justices voted Wednesday to consider residents’ appeal of a Grant County Circuit Court ruling that dismissed their attempt to halt construction of the $300 million project. Residents say the project would be a nuisance and would ruin property values.

The state Supreme Court is weighing whether it has jurisdiction in Kittitas County's appeal of a wind farm 12 miles northwest of Ellensburg. The court held a hearing Thursday on whether it should weigh in on the case. Last September, Gov. Chris Gregoire approved the Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project, as recommended by the state's Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council.

The Western Australian Opposition has laughed off suggestions that the Commonwealth is attempting to stymie the development of wind farms in Western Australia.

The concept of public welfare is broad and inclusive. … The values it represents are spiritual as well as physical, aesthetic as well as monetary. It is within the power of legislature [to have] determined that the community should be beautiful as well as healthy, spacious as well as clean, well balanced as well as carefully patrolled. …

“The County found that placing the complexes of wind farms, of the size and scope necessary to accomplish their intended purpose, would have a dramatic, and adverse, effect upon all of the general welfare issues found in the comprehensive plan. …

“The Court finds there is substantial evidence which a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support the conclusions reached by the County.

“[I]n the County’s denial of placing wind farms in the entire county[,] [t]he County didn’t take any existing rights away but only refused to expand the existing rights including wind rights.”

Opponents of Contact Energy's proposed $1 billion-plus wind farm in Waikato are considering legal action to force the power company back before a board looking at the application. Contact won a year's adjournment to its application after deciding it had more work to do.

For a $90 million project, Ventus Energy's proposed 22-turbine Te Anga wind farm has generated curiously little paperwork.

Businessman Ross Townshend admits there's an element of a "not in my backyard" position in his opposition to a wind farm in the Waikato. His grumpiness about the project extends to calling former Environment Minister Trevor Mallard a duck and Contact Energy, one of our largest energy companies, incompetent. His position on wind farms generally is that they are an expensive form of energy generation getting a green light because of green politics.

A joint hearings panel made up of Waitomo District Council and Environment Waikato councillors will this week consider the $225 million plan against a Waitomo District Council officers' report and a Conservation Department submission recommending it is turned down because turbine blades could kill birds - including nationally endangered indigenous species.

The mayor of Wainfleet said taking on wind energy companies is worth the fight. After passing a bylaw in the spring overruling the province's rule for how close to houses wind turbines can be built, the township was promptly sued by a wind developer.

The power giant this week offered a $750,000 deal as a way of compensating the people of townships such as Alfredton, Castle Hill and Tinui for problems associated with construction of the $1.6 billion Castle Hill Wind Farm that could not be otherwise mitigated.

Office of Energy Services and Public Utilities Commission staffers are working on the permit for the 78-megawatt wind farm, a process that could take anywhere from a few weeks to months. Within 20 days after the permit is released, parties can petition the PUC for reconsideration.

Right now, MISO, headquartered in Indiana, has 290 projects in its queue, more than any in its history. All but 70 of them are wind projects. MISO manages a transmission "footprint" of nearly 1 million square miles and 100,000 megawatts of power in the Midwest. Not one - from a 1 megawatt wind turbine to a 1,500 megawatt nuclear facility - gets on the grid without an agreement. Its spokesman, Carl Dombek, said the agreements require studies to make sure there's room for the power, to determine where the power would go and what would happen downstream on the line. Dombek said the average wait now is at least 19 months. Similar to a checkout line, it doesn't matter the size of the order. First come is first served. ..."Wind is popular right now, and they're (FERC) taking notice," Dombek said. To put the 291 applications in MISO's queue in perspective, Dombek said one doesn't have to look back very far. In 2005, MISO received approximately 80 applications. In 2006, that number increased to 130. So far in 2007, they have received 190 applications, Dombek said. Taken all together, projects in the MISO queue total 70,000 new megawatts of power. Of those, 55,000 megawatts would come from wind.

Several additional companies have inquired about the possibility of building windmills in Tazewell County, officials confirmed Monday. Although Dominion and BP Wind Energy North America are planning a large-scale wind turbine farm for East River Mountain near Bluefield, other areas of interest for other wind energy companies have included Morris Knob, near Tazewell, and Burkes Garden, according to Board of Supervisors Chairman David Anderson.

A spokesman for the state Department of Public Utilities confirmed that a decision on Cape Wind's power purchase contract with National Grid would not be issued yesterday [Nov. 18], the paper's deadline. Project principals haven't exactly been holding their breath.

Steve Shea, chair of the Waitsfield Planning Commission, said that he was contacted by Randy Male of Citizens Energy and was told that the company is investigating potential wind farm sites in New England and that the Northfield Ridge was one of them. "The planning commission is discussing energy issues as part of our Town Plan update at our meeting of May 18 and Randy has been invited to attend," Shea explained.

The planning commission discussed the proposal at a well attended public hearing last month. At that meeting the commission discussed its option of sending a letter to the PSB regarding town concerns with the trackers or requesting a public hearing. The commission opted for the letter.

Wal-Mart, a company that epitomizes the word big, is among the groups questioning the deal between Cape Wind Associates LLC and National Grid. The retailer argues in documents recently submitted to the state Department of Public Utilities that Cape Wind is not cost-effective. ...The company has concerns with how National Grid will pass the additional costs of the power from Cape Wind on to customers, Wertz said.