While parking spaces and chairs were difficult to come by Tuesday, Jan. 6, at the Jackson Community Center, something else could be found in abundance - voters. More than 120 townspeople packed the building on the Village Road for a special town meeting and, by more than a two-to-one margin, 84-36, they voted in favor of a six-month moratorium on the construction of industrial wind turbines in town.

Selectmen voted Monday to ask the state Legislature pass legislation allowing Carrabassett Valley to annex the upper portion of Redington Township, subject to local voters' approval. The move allows the process and debate to continue so that if the Legislature passes a private and special law, a townwide vote can occur. It will be up to Carrabassett Valley registered voters to make the final decision on annexation. If they approve, then it opens the process for a community-based wind farm to be built.

Two public hearings are set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 6, in the town office regarding proposed changes to the comprehensive plan and a land-use ordinance that would allow wind-power facilities to be built on Roxbury hills.

Residents will head to a special town meeting Tuesday, Jan. 6, to consider approving a six-month moratorium on wind turbines. The vote comes as a third company has expressed interest in erecting wind turbines on town-owned property. ...The warrant for the Jan. 6 meeting states there will be "discussion on the status and findings regarding proposals received," although there is not a specific article calling for a vote on the proposals. There is, however, an article asking voters if they will approve a moratorium "on the issuing of permits allowing for wind turbine construction and development."

Endless Energy Corp. of Yarmouth is proposing the town annex the property to support a $180 million, 90-plus megawatt wind power project, Sugarloaf Community Wind Farm, on Redington and Black Nubble mountains. Under the proposal, customers would provide the capital for the project and benefit from lower energy costs, as stated in the company's proposal listed on the town's Web site. ...A similar project was denied by the Land Use Regulation Commission in 2007, but the difference is that this project proposes a community-based wind farm.

A public meeting will be held 4:30 p.m. Monday at the Outdoor Center to hear about a developer's plan for this town to annex a parcel of Redington Township so a 90-megawatt wind power project on Redington and Black Nubble Mountains can be built. This comes after years of permit denials for the project by the state's Land Use Regulation Commission, which, if the town's annexation were to be successful, would no longer have the authority over the project.

Largely because of an appeal of First Wind of Massachusetts' town permit to build a proposed $130 million wind farm, Town Manager Lisa Goodwin expects the town will spend more than its $10,000 budget on attorneys' fees by budget year's end on June 30, she said Monday. Goodwin wasn't complaining, calling appeals of planning board decisions "part of doing business," but said the appeal was unexpected.

Back in November, the selectmen announced that Harley Lee, president of Endless Energy Corporation of Yarmouth had approached the town about the possibility of annexing part of Redington Township. This is Lee's latest initiative to see a 90 megawatt wind farm come to light on the Redington Pond Range and Black Nubble mountains. After nearly two decades of trying ...the LURC commissioners themselves reject the project nearly unanimously. However, if the town did annex part of Redington Township, the LURC decision would have no bearing and the wind farm project would gain new life.

Wind turbines may not be in the city's immediate -- or long-term -- future. An interest by some Rockland councilors to have wind turbines erected on Dodge Mountain to generate electricity for the community does not appear to be feasible. David St. Laurent, the city's transfer station director, said he contacted wind-power operators about the feasibility of generating electricity from wind turbines in Rockland.

Politicians, scientists and policymakers seek to put Maine at the forefront of an energy revolution powered by world-class wind power blowing against the state's entire coast. The Ocean Energy Task Force, convened by Gov. John Baldacci, held its first meeting last week to begin the work of determining how the Atlantic Ocean might power homes, businesses and transportation in Maine and beyond.

The Dixmont Board of Selectmen is holding a public hearing Wednesday night on a proposed 180 day moratorium on wind farm development. There is no formal proposal yet in Dixmont but the company that developed Beaver Ridge Wind LLC in Freedom is now pursuing plans to develop a similar project in Dixmont. Mount Harris Wind LLC put an anemometer atop Mount harris a year ago to study the feasibility of a wind farm.

The Lincoln Planning Board used "ludicrous" arguments in shoehorning a proposed $130 million wind farm into its regulations, a Bar Harbor lawyer opposing the board's approval of the proposal contended Tuesday. Representing a group opposing the project, the Friends of Lincoln Lakes, attorney Lynne A. Williams filed an appeal with the Lincoln Appeals Board on Monday charging that First Wind's turbines do not belong in residential zones of Rollins Mountain, where the project is slated to go if it is approved by Maine Department of Environmental Protection and other agencies.

The video begins silently. A shingled farmhouse stands in full sunlight for a moment before a giant shadow sweeps over the façade as though a low-flying airplane had passed overhead. Then it happens again, and again, and again. "Today we have flicker."

A Yarmouth wind-energy company wants the town of Carrabassett Valley to annex the upper portion of Redington Township to pave the way for a wind farm. Harley Lee, president of Endless Energy Corp., broached the idea to selectmen and will bring a concept plan touting benefits of the wind farm to the board in the future. "We are looking at it to do a community-based wind project," Lee said Tuesday.

Selectmen say that they have been approached by a private company about the possibility of annexing a part of Redington Township for the purposes of developing a wind power project. ...Endless Energy intends to submit a plan to selectmen and eventually begin meeting with people in the community prior to holding informational meetings.

A residents group promised Tuesday to appeal a planning board decision approving a proposed $130 million wind farm that would create as many as 10 new jobs as much as 60 megawatts of electricity in peak winds. With member Heidi Stevens the sole dissenter, the board voted 6-1 during a meeting Monday to issue permits to First Wind of Massachusetts, which wants to build 40 massive 380-foot turbines, each generating 1½ megawatts on ridgelines in Burlington, Lincoln, Lee and Winn.

Todd Presson of Patriot Renewables, LLC, of Quincy, Mass. said his company's project will likely not be as large as it first appeared this past summer. At that time, Presson speculated there could eventually be 20 to 25 towers on the 2,000-foot-high mountain, which is also the site of radio and cell towers. But, he said last Wednesday, not all of the landowners contacted about leasing land are participating.

But it hopes to build a 5-gigawatt, deep-water wind farm - the largest in the world ...The target generating capacity of 5 gigawatts equals the power required to replace the use of home heating oil in winter, said Simmons. But more could be generated if necessary. The Gulf of Maine has an estimated total wind power potential of 100 gigawatts. The farm would likely be split into five sections, each about eight nautical miles, or 9.2 miles, or 14.8 kilometers, square, containing 200 turbines generating 5 megawatts each.

More than 30 people expressed their concerns about a massive power line upgrade project proposed by Central Maine Power at Lewiston City Hall Monday night during a public hearing before Maine's Public Utilities Commission. About 70 people were present. ...Nearly all of those who spoke before Commissioners Jack Cashman, Sharon Reishus and Vendean Vafiades were apprehensive about the project, anticipating noise pollution, loss of property value and health risks.