Controversy over a proposed wind power project in Byron and Roxbury continues to grow the closer Byron gets to its town meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday. An article in the warrant seeks to amend Byron's building ordinance to allow 450-foot-tall wind towers and turbines to be placed along a ridge between Old Turk Mountain and Record Hill. ...Some information regarding noise levels in those letters and on Record Hill's Web site is being questioned publicly by coalition members Linda Kuras and Sarah Nedeau and others.

A noise expert could be called in to assess effects from the Project Hayes Wind Farm, as long as the Central Otago District Council does not have to pay for it. The issue was discussed at yesterday's Central Otago District Council meeting after the commissioner for the wind farm hearings, Judge Jon Jackson, asked if the council would consider having an independent noise expert to assess an appeal application. Planning and environment committee chairman John Lane said the council had a responsibility to provide the expert. "If we sit back and do nothing, there will be another barrage of letters to the paper."

While one can appreciate the economic and environmental benefits of wind power, residents of four communities in Eastern Kings County, P.E.I., wish they had asked some tough questions. Low-frequency noise from the wind turbines at the Eastern Kings Wind Farm has forced two families to move. Kevin and Sheila Bailey, and their son and daughter-in-law Dwaine and Dodi Bailey, left Elmira seven months ago and moved to nearby communities. Problems started a year ago when the turbines began operating. ..."We were told the windmills are coming, and you don't want to make too many waves." Now, he wishes the community had taken a more active role before the wind farm went up in the centre of four communities.

The conclusion of the Ontario Municipal Board hearing into the Amaranth portion of the 132- megawatt Melancthon II wind farm is being scheduled for the township offices at Laurel on Feb. 27 and 28. ...At the earlier hearing, Mr. Jackson indicated his dissatisfaction with an earlier Certificate of Approval for the first of two 230 kV transformers at a time when neighbour Paul Thompson and others said they were still unhappy with the noise abatement.

Passage of a bylaw that sets limits for wind-turbine noise could be another step toward town use of wind power. The planning board's bylaw proposal calls for using noise standards that were adopted by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The bylaw, which will be voted on at town meeting, would require that any application for permission to install a turbine include information about the current noise level and how much noise the turbine would produce. It also would limit the noise increase. The measuring of noise would be done at the base of the turbine and the property line. ...‘‘There is a tremendous opportunity for wind turbines, but there are a lot of questions that need to be answered, but we can eliminate any undue expectations about (turbines ) being too noisy,'' he said.

As plans for a wind farm in the neighboring town of Arkwright move closer to reality, landowners in the town of Charlotte are taking the first steps toward development of a wind turbine operation in that municipality. Town resident, Merle Goot, who has spearheaded interest in a WECS (wind energy conversion system), said UPC Wind Management is currently contacting and ‘‘signing up'' town property owners. ‘‘Arkwright has been moving forward with wind energy plans since 2004,'' Goot said. ‘‘Charlotte has a long way to go, but at least we're now on the way.'' After several months of research and tours of wind turbine sites, Goot said, a group of town landowners ‘‘decided to go with UPC.'' ‘‘It was a visit to UPC's Cohocton energy conversion site in December that sold us,'' he said. ‘‘That trip really cinched a decision to select UPC as the developer of our town project.

Two wind farms will not go ahead after officials rejected the proposals which would have seen 29 turbines erected. Planners had been expected to approve the projects in Denbighshire at Llyn Brenig, near Cerrigydrudion, Conwy, and at Gorsedd Bran in Clocaenog Forest. But at a meeting to decide the matter, 18 councillors voted against the proposals, with just four in favour. There were two abstentions.

PLANS for a South Yorkshire wind farm could be blown away - unless a power company comes up with an urgent background noise report. Councillors are due to consider an application by Cornwall LIght and Power to build three 95-metre high wind turbines at Loscar Farm, Harthill, on the border of Sheffield and Rotherham, on January 31. But the company has been told that unless it supplies a report on projected background noise from the turbines the application could be refused. Campaigners have already opposed the wind farm plans on the grounds the turbines will be a blot on the landscape and because of possible noise nuisance.

Eighty-two residents of that neighborhood have signed a petition against the proposal. "In spite of significant neighborhood opposition and negative vote by the ZBA, they are still pursuing something that is not economically viable," said Anne Frasca, a certified public accountant whose property abuts the park and who organized the opposition. "The savings generated are minimal - $1,900 a year. . . . That's assuming estimates on wind in the area are accurate, but they never did a full analysis on the wind." The parks commission has said that a professional study doesn't make sense financially for a proposal that will cost the town so little. While Town Meeting approved $60,000 to purchase the turbine, a state grant would reimburse the town $45,000.

Wind energy has become a divisive issue for Trempealeau County's residents over the past 14 months. The county board will vote Monday on a third draft of a wind ordinance they've been wrestling with since investment group AgWind Energy Partners approached the board in September 2006 with a request to look at three potential sites to build four to six turbines. The proposed ordinance is stricter than the previous two. It would require turbines to be at least a mile from all habitable structures and a half-mile from property lines. Among more than 30 other restrictions is a requirement that the noise from the turbines can't exceed 40 decibels when measured at any residence.

A settlement has been reached in the long-standing dispute over the Cruickshank Wind Power project in Kincardine. Owners Kevin and Nancy Cruickshank have agreed to remove the sixth turbine located on their 300-acre property at the South end of the Municipality. The turbine in question was positioned too close to a neighbouring property not owned by the Cruickshanks. ...Now that the project is free and clear for construction, there is no word on when the Cruickshank Wind Project will get off the ground.

Town Meeting members in April approved $57,000 to purchase and install the wind turbine, expected to save around $1,900 annually in energy costs. The town's plan required a permit from the ZBA, because the proposed windmill would have exceeded the 85-foot maximum height of structures allowed by town bylaws. At public hearings on the permit, residents from the neighborhood adjacent to Fairbanks Park expressed concern that the turbine would create noise and be visually unappealing. The ZBA voted 3-2 in favor of the plan, but four affirmative votes are required for approval. ...In the written decision, filed with the town clerk Nov. 13, ZBA Chairman John Kearney listed neighborhood opposition, lack of a ‘‘comprehensive study'' of the project and failure to consider alternative sites as reasons to deny the permit.

A PUBLIC meeting has been called to discuss controversial proposals to erect 13 wind turbines across a swathe of Fenland countryside. Peterborough City Council planning chiefs are currently assessing applications for two separate schemes on neighbouring strips of land abutting the Cambridgeshire border. ...Mr Potts said: "We respectfully ask that any application for wind turbines is taken after the findings of Defra's investigation. We do not want the Fens to become a dumping ground for these inefficient systems."

Any hope Canadian Hydro Developers Inc. might have had for an early start to the Melancthon II wind farm project appears to have been effectively dashed by a decision of the Ontario Municipal Board. OMB member Norman Jackson has generally decided conditionally in favour of the Melancthon II wind turbines planned for Amaranth Township, but has withheld his order pending a resolution of noise complaints at the transformer substation ...Beyond noise from the transformers, Mr. Jackson wants a continuation of the hearing at some point prior to issuing his order. The outstanding issues to be dealt with at that time include construction drawings, de-icing measures, a decommissioning agreement and an amenities agreement. ...Although the order has been withheld, the township during the hearings appeared fully in agreement with site-specific OP amendments for 22 turbines.

A noisy rotor problem on some turbines in the Allegheny Ridge Wind Farm was described Tuesday as "minor," and localized to just some of the 40 turbines at the Cambria-Blair county farm. "We have been working with Babcock & Brown and we have a schedule set up for repair," said Ellen Lutz, Gamesa Inc.'s director of development for the Atlantic Region. ...But residents - including Myrle Baum - are not optimistic. Baum said at times the operating windmills sound like a jet going over his house. ...A sound study done by the residents shows times when the turbines were producing levels topping 70 decibels.

An application for a 25 metre-high wind turbine at Plymstock's Coombe Dean School has been withdrawn ...The school applied for planning permission from Plymouth City Council in July but had to withdraw its application this week due to the lack of "noise information" provided.

CAMPAIGNERS against plans for a new wind farm between Bagthorpe, Barmer and Syderstone have been told of the horrific impact turbines can have on village life. A packed public meeting in Bircham Newton heard from a number of guest speakers who gave grave warnings about the health impact, noise disturbances and threat to wildlife which could stem from the five turbines earmarked for the villages. Included among the speakers was Jane Davis, of Deeping St Nicholas, Lincolnshire, who described the persistent noise problems she has faced from a wind farm near her home. She also spoke of how the value of her property has plummeted since the development was completed. Syderstone resident Reg Thompson, a member of the action group formed to oppose the plans, said: "People are very concerned about this. "There are moves being made in Europe to ban wind farms that are within two kilometres of housing and we hope that becomes legislation because every house in Syderstone falls within that radius. "People are very upset. We have seen housing deals fall through as people no longer want to move here.

In the North-east, the Skelmonae Windfarm Action Group was formed in Methlick earlier this year. Member Mervyn Newberry, 42, a sales manager in oil and gas, said: "These monstrosities inflict untold misery on local inhabitants with their high levels of noise, shadow flicker, ruination of natural landscape, devastation of wildlife habitat and loss of housing value."

CHILTON - Life near wind turbines is hell, a panel told about 500 at a forum Wednesday organized by residents worried that proposed wind farms would affect public health and property values. "The noise produced by turbines is intolerable," Kewaunee County homeowner Mike Washechek said. Washechek has lived about ¼ mile from a wind farm for the last seven years. "My wife thought the dryer was on and there was a tennis shoe in it."

Opponents of the Enbridge wind farm in Kincardine are dismayed with an Ontario Municipal Board decision that allows the 110-turbine development to go ahead. Enbridge will build 80-metre-tall turbines across a 16,000-hectare area of Kincardine. Residents objected to 55 of the turbines, citing concerns over noise, shadow flicker and setback distances from neighbouring homes. During seven weeks of evidence, they argued for tougher noise standards and bigger setbacks to prevent noise problems. Instead, the Municipal Board decision approved the project and gave Enbridge 90 days to come up with a procedure to handle noise complaints. That's no comfort to residents, said spokesperson Kathy McCarrel.