In an effort to slow the winds of change, the Converse County Planning and Zoning Commission voted Oct. 20 to recommend that the county commissioners consider a 90-day county-wide "freeze" on all large scale industrial development. "From my personal perspective, this says that we want to do business, but we want to do business in a very logical and orderly fashion," said P&Z member David Pellatz. "It's a very different message in my mind. We're not talking bans. We're not talking never can do it."

Arran-Elderslie has delayed enacting a one-year moratorium on industrial wind turbine construction after council was presented with new information at its regular meeting yesterday. Council had been expected to give final approval to an interim control bylaw to impose the moratorium, with a possible one-year extension, despite receiving information from the provincial government that such bylaws are not allowed.

All the evidence has now been heard for and against a controversial Mid Devon wind farm - and both sides are claiming victory. Planning inspector Andrew Pykett spent a week hearing evidence relating to noise at the public inquiry held in Okehampton. Renewable Energy Systems (RES) wants to build nine wind turbines - each 120m tall, or three times the height of Exeter Cathedral - in the Den Brook Valley between Bow, Spreyton and North Tawton.

Delays are expected for north-east motorists today as another delivery of huge wind turbine parts is transported from Peterhead harbour. Traffic in some parts of Buchan ground to a halt yesterday as sections of turbine were transported to Hill of Skelmonae, near Auchnagatt. Between now and December, turbines bound for Banff, Boyndie, St Fergus, Foveran, Cuminestown and Rothienorman will arrive at the Buchan port.

Six local environmental groups have voiced concerns about a plan to construct a wind turbine at Black Point, a coastal site in Narragansett that is protected for public use. The organizations last week sent a letter to Gov. Donald Carcieri '65, questioning the site's suitability. According to a press release from the letter's signatories, then-Gov. Edward DiPrete protected Black Point in 1987 to "prevent a condominium development on important land with recognized rights of public access to the shore."

Entegrity Wind Systems Inc., a wind turbine manufacturer that based some of its operations in Boulder, has gone bankrupt after failing to develop a plan to tackle millions of dollars of debt. The business was declared bankrupt pursuant to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act of Canada, where it was incorporated, according to a document posted to the front door of Entegrity's locked offices.

Opponents of a Mineral County wind farm project maintain it will have little impact on the power grid and the reduction of greenhouse gases. Testimony began Monday in a West Virginia Public Service Commission evidentiary hearing on the Pinnacle Wind Force project. Plans are to build 23 wind turbines on top of Green Mountain near Mount Storm. Attorney Bradley Stephens, representing the opponents, questioned US Wind Force Vice President David Friend during Monday's proceedings.

After the long session on the deer hunting Wednesday, the Town Council voted to formally become intervenors in the Public Utilities Commission hearing regarding the power purchase agreement between Deepwater Wind and National Grid. The council agreed to hire Alan Mandl to assist Town Solicitor Katherine Merolla as well as consultant Richard La Capra. First Warden Kim Gaffett acknowledged that it would be "an expensive process," but that the town would seek reimbursement from Deepwater, which promised to cover the town's consultant bills, regardless of what position the town takes. Becoming an intervenor "gives us a voice at the hearing," said Gaffett, and allows the town to gather information.

The town Electric Utility Task Group met Friday, the day after National Grid rejected Deepwater Wind's proposed power contract, which it called "uneconomic by a significant margin for Rhode Island customers." While the fate of Deepwater's proposed eight-turbine "Block Island Farm" remains in limbo, Block Island Power Company President Cliff McGinnes Sr. told the group that he saw an opening for the town in National Grid's suggestion that a cable to the mainland was still possible without a wind farm. McGinnes urged the town to seize the opportunity.

A controversial wind farm project in Mineral County goes before the state Public Service Commission starting Monday. The PSC will hear evidence from Pinnacle Wind Force, the group hoping to build 23 wind turbines on top of Green Mountain near Mt. Storm.

We Energies has run into some headwinds in its bid to build the biggest wind farm in the state. The Glacier Hills Wind Park project in Columbia County would consist of 90 turbines rising at least 400 feet above corn fields near the village of Friesland, northeast of Madison. The Milwaukee utility proposed the project, its second large wind farm, as part of an expansion of renewable energy to comply with a state law that passed with bipartisan support in 2006. The law calls for wind turbines and other renewable energy systems to power 10% of the state's electricity by 2015.

Construction resumed Monday north of Ohio on the Big Sky wind farm, which may be operational by next winter. The wind farm's approaching completion has implications on the question of closing Ohio High School, although opinions differ on whether the money generated by the wind farm can solve the district's problems.

Woodford County is on the verge of losing $566,000 in wind farm building permit fees next year because of the failure to negotiate road agreements with Gamesa/Navitas. The Zoning Board of Appeals earlier approved special use permits for the Minonk and Roanoke wind farms, and they will come before the County Board when road agreements with the county and townships involved are completed.

Your Energy Ltd had hoped to build six 100 metre high wind turbines at Parham Airfield, near Framlingham. But the proposals have been thrown into doubt after Suffolk Coastal District Council recently ruled that they will have to reapply for new planning permission if they want to push ahead with the development, which would also have included part of a 310 hectare farm in the parishes of Parham, Great Glemham and Marlesford.

Toronto Hydro Corp. has been given the green light to build an offshore wind research platform about 1.2 kilometres off the Scarborough Bluffs, part of a controversial plan to erect dozens of wind turbines in Lake Ontario. The utility said it will begin construction of the platform next week. It will rise about four metres out of the water and use a laser-based anemometer - called a Light Detection and Ranging, or LIDAR device - to collect wind speeds, wind direction and other data.

A Sunbury firm that wants to build wind turbines on Tomhicken Mountain now has more time to complete the project. Thursday night, the Black Creek Township Zoning Hearing Board voted 3-0 to grant Penn Wind LLC an extension from Dec. 31, 2010, to Dec. 31, 2011, to complete construction of four wind turbines in Black Creek Township. Penn Wind is building 18 additional windmills in neighboring Beaver Township, Columbia County.

Dozens of people listened to five speakers give their views on wind energy at a forum Friday. Linda Walbridge, of the Western Maine Economic Development Council, said the goal of the forum was to help residents make informed decisions about wind power on a local level. The speakers included one proponent and one opponent of wind power, a sound permitting specialist and two people involved with proposed wind turbine projects in Oxford Hills.

Top Crop Wind Farm will start construction on Phase 2 of its Grundy County project this coming spring. The move comes on the heels of municipal approval Wednesday to reconfigure some portions of the Enterprise Zone - which extends east from Ottawa in La Salle County to Morris in Grundy County - to afford Top Crop a sales tax break on building materials.

It's all about location, location, location when it comes to Vermilion County's position in the wind farm industry. The county is already the site of four planned wind farm projects stretching from one in the southeast corner to three more along the western side. Most of Illinois - as well as the majority of Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Michigan and Wisconsin - rate in only the second lowest category as far as annual wind speed is concerned, turning in a speed range of between 5 ½ and 6 ½ meters per second.

Dressed in warrior robes and helmet, Tom Kapraun raised his staff to the east. He was "tilting at windmills," he said, in classic Don Quixote style. Kapraun, of Lee, was one of about 30 people who were protesting Saturday about a wind farm company's desire to build six turbines in the village's jurisdiction, despite village leaders denying the developer's application.