Despite living in a state that hopes to become a leader in energy efficiency, people like the Flesches are discovering that obtaining approval to install turbines is difficult. The struggle is not with the state or even the power companies. The struggle is with county and local governments - many of which do not have laws in effect to deal with wind turbines.

Tuesday morning, county board chairman Dick Logan joined Railsplitter Wind Farm and Horizon Wind Energy officials at the official groundbreaking for the project that will place the first wind turbines in Logan County. The progressive date was accomplished when a special adjourned county board meeting was called on Oct. 30 in order to get the board's approval of the final document, a decommissioning agreement, that finished meeting all the county's requirements for the construction of the wind farm.

There is still some doubt over who has the authority to establish certain regulations for industrial wind turbines. ...On the list was the allowance for the commissioners to create regulations to require a certain distance from surrounding properties.

The city-county planning commission is developing regulations governing the installation of small wind turbines, which can be controversial. ...Permit requests for wind turbines can be controversial because of impacts on surrounding property owners as a result of noise, structural safety, potential for children to climb, bird collisions and appearance, according to APA.

The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, through its Renewable Energy Trust fund, has awarded a total of 48 residential and small-business projects a total of $703,000 statewide since 2005. Twenty-four of those projects have been completed ...But an independent audit last spring found that, of the 19 that were up and running, nearly all were performing below levels forecast by installers, with an average power output 40 percent less than expected.

Fremgen said by increasing the setback from landowners not under contract you force the wind farm developer to get contracts from any landowner that would be close enough to the turbine to have their wind resource affected. "The other issue is roads," Johnson said. "These towers take about 360 tons of concrete and are put up with 280-ton cranes. The companies always reassure the people that they will recondition the roads but how do we make sure?" The board agreed to continue with the development of an ordinance.

Ryder began working on the ordinance in response to a request from the planning commission last month. The county is working with James Madison University on a field test of the Virginia Renewables Siting Scoring System, or VRS3. The test will use a scoring book to evaluate factors related to siting wind energy facilities in various parts of the county. However, work on the book is still not complete.

Planners at Cannock Chase Council have had to fork out the cash for a report about the noise impact the three proposed turbines for Bleak House open cast mine site would have. The decision on the application for the site between Heath Hayes and Chase Terrace has now been delayed until next year because the noise consultants require more information from Harworth Power.

Lawmakers will rally again for statewide regulations on wind farm development in the upcoming legislative session, and, if the standards pass, local regulation could be a thing of the past. "We will push for the (Public Service Commission of Wisconsin) to create uniform standards and regulation of wind energy for all projects," said Curt Pawlisch, an attorney with Cullen Weston Pines & Bach LLP, Madison. Pawlisch is revising wind farm standards that failed to get out of legislative committees last session. "I wouldn't say local regulations would be for naught," he said, "but the PSC would determine what works and what doesn't."

Rockbridge County is a step closer to having a wind energy ordinance on the books. The Planning Commission last week recommended adoption of the ordinance as well as approval of the first application for a wind energy system - two micro turbines that are to go on top of Howard Johnson's Hotel. The wind energy ordinance was supported by several citizens who spoke during a public hearing.

A law in the town of Centerville regulating wind farms was annulled by the state Supreme Court's Appellate Division because the town failed to comply with the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR). ...The decision, which was made on Nov. 14, was prompted by a lawsuit from the Centerville Concerned Citizens (CCC), a group of landowners in the town who claimed that the Centerville Town Board worked along with the Noble Environmental Power to craft a local law that accommodates Noble's proposed Centerville Windpark without fully looking at the environmental impacts.

"Given the principles and ethics that I live by, I cannot continue to work at the township with a clear conscience. It is a conflict of interest for board members to vote on issues that they have a financial interest in, it is morally wrong to deliberately embarrass fellow board members at public meetings, and elected officials are not suppose to use the office to further their own personal agendas," Bolten's letter reads. "The voters of Lake Township have spoken, and the majority has shown their support for this type of government. I, however, cannot be a part of it." Much of the community's divisiveness stems from possible wind projects in the area.

Gov. John Lynch signed into law House Bill 310, which sets maximum restrictions on what a community can do when someone proposes to erect a wind tower to generate electricity. ...The new law, explained Murphy, is different from other state land-use regulations "which allow towns to enact restrictions greater than those the state imposes; this one was framed in such a way to be the most restrictive. I believe the intent was so that towns, for whatever reason, could not totally outlaw wind tower use within their boundaries."

A public hearing was packed Tuesday night with people who wanted to tell the Lee Village Board exactly why they are for or against a proposed wind farm along the DeKalb-Lee county line. The project would consist of 133 electricity-generating wind turbines owned by Florida-based FPL Energy. All of the proposed turbines are in unincorporated areas, but a state law passed last year allows municipalities to exercise zoning authority on wind turbines within one and a half miles of their corporate boundaries.

It's taken nine months of public hearings, multiple drafts and countless e-mails of information, but Carteret County finally has an ordinance regulating wind turbines and communication towers. ...The ordinance allows utility-scale turbines up to 550 feet tall and requires a setback of 6 feet for each foot of height - a maximum setback of 3,300 feet. The ordinance also addresses noise from turbines and shadow flicker and has separate standards for turbines under 200 feet tall and for private residential turbines.

In a unanimous vote Monday, the Hays Area Planning Commission approved a recommendation to indefinitely extend a moratorium on wind energy development within city limits. This recommendation will be presented to Hays city commissioners at a later date for final approval. Jesse Rohr, planning and development superintendent, suggested the recommendation for a moratorium extension of several months.

The Princeton City Council has approved an ordinance to expand the Bureau/Putnam Area Enterprise Zone to include the proposed Walnut Ridge wind farm in northwest Bureau County. The city council took its action at Monday night's meeting in city hall.

Officials of a company called Nevada Wind want to build $300 million worth of turbines above Warm Springs Valley in the Pah Rah Mountains, the first large wind farm in the state. ...County planners are reviewing Nevada Wind's recently submitted application for a special-use permit. John Berkich, assistant county manager overseeing renewable energy initiatives, said he expects hearings would be held by the planning commission and county commission in the fall.

The Farmersville Town Board voted Monday to replace its 2007 town law regulating wind farm projects with a shorter and more general version, while also lifting last month's temporary moratorium against wind energy facilities. "The old law had stuff that should have been in a host community agreement [between the town and the wind farm developer] and not in the law itself," said Town Supervisor Joe Brodka.

Vermilion County officials forged ahead Monday with their first discussion on how to regulate the potential construction of wind-turbine farms in the absence of a countywide zoning system. Several wind-turbine companies are seriously considering the county for development of alternative-energy farms, but the county is different from other counties where wind farms already exist because Vermilion has no zoning. ...Attorney and Vermilion County Board Member Bill Donahue, D-District 7, has been working on developing an ordinance that would contain the same type of regulations that would be developed through a regular zoning process in other counties.