Residents that spoke out against plans to build a wind farm in the area of Bailey's Brook have had their concerns heard. Environment minister Mark Parent has denied Shear Wind Inc. permission to go forward with the Glen Dhu Wind project, saying the registration information submitted by the company is insufficient.

That denial came after an appeal to Superior Court that had resulted in the court remanding it back to the board for reconsideration. After considerable discussion of the Howlands' application to build wind turbine on their residential property, the board voted 5 to 2, with Douglas Shearer and new board member Louis R. Gallo dissenting, to deny the request based on public safety concerns. The Howland turbine was the first to be reviewed under the town's Residential Wind Energy Conversion System bylaw.

A former state representative agreed today to pay nearly $500,000 in restitution for misleading customers of his wind turbine business, according to a statement released by Attorney General Martha Coakley. Former Democratic Representative Mark Howland of East Freetown will have one year to pay $488,000 in restitution for violating the Massachusetts Consumer Protection act by deceiving customers – mainly in the southeastern part of the Commonwealth, according to the agreement filed in Fall River Superior Court.

The Coast Guard revealed this week that it has contracted for a study of the effects on marine radar from the wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound. At the end of a radar and navigation forum Tuesday in North Falmouth, Raymond Perry, captain of the port for Sector Southeastern New England, announced the study, Coast Guard Senior Chief Richard Uronis said yesterday. The $100,000 study should be completed by December, Uronis said. It will be performed by Maryland-based Technology Service Corp.

No matter where NorthWestern Energy Corp. proposes building a high power line through southwest Montana, it's an unpopular sell to people whose homes and land it would pass by. "Everybody else said no so you came through us," John Pullman, a landowner in the Boulder Valley, said during a meeting at the Cardwell School Monday that drew more than 45 people. That pretty much summed up the sentiment of landowners who are miffed that NorthWestern would propose a major power line through an agricultural valley. NorthWestern is planning to build a 500-kilovolt power line from Townsend to Twin Falls, Idaho, and has proposed three potential routes.

The Palmerston North City Council last night took the first steps towards developing best-practice guidelines for the development of wind farms in the city's boundaries. At the planning and policy committee meeting, councillors voted to instruct staff to start working on guidelines to help steer wind-farm development in the future. The idea was moved by Cr Michael Feyen, and seconded by Cr John Hornblow. Cr Feyen said it was essential to start the ball rolling, before the hills were inundated with turbines.

The developer of what was to have been three wind farms in Buzzards Bay before a site off Fairhaven was dropped in May said Monday a second site off Dartmouth may not pass muster because of a combination of factors, which would leave only a third site off the Elizabeth Islands for 40 to 60 wind turbines. C. Trevor Childs, project coordinator for the South Coast Offshore Wind Project of Patriot Renewables, said Monday the Dartmouth site - which has been opposed by many local residents and state legislators - is less certain than it was months ago because of environmental, social and economic factors.

Wind turbines are popping up in rural communities around the world, including Canada, in the hope that they will reduce reliance on coal and other sources for power. Currently, there are about 1,500 turbines across Canada and there are plans to build another 1,000 to 1,500 in the next year. But some residents who live near wind farms complain the turbines cause a number of adverse health effects, such as crippling headaches, nose bleeds and a constant ringing in the ears. ..."I had problems with my heart, with my eyes, my digestive system," Marshall told CTV News. "It traumatizes your whole body."

A feasibility study says that a 450-foot wind turbine installed on city-owned land could cost about $4.7 million to build, but could produce a revenue stream of about $180,000 per year for the city. City officials paid a Sandwich-based engineering firm to see if a wind turbine could be installed near the Water Department's Falulah Water Treatment facility in northwest Fitchburg. It's estimated the 1,500 killowatt wind turbine could produce enough power for the entire Water Department ...The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative -- a quasi-public agency that advocates for renewable energy resources -- did a study of the site in 2007, Streb said, and found that the site may not have enough wind to support the cost of a turbine.

A newly constructed wind turbine farm is being blamed for the loss of television reception in a rural area. Locals in the Ballycummane and Tournafulla areas of west Limerick claim the wind farm has been placed directly in line with the Maghera transmitter in Clare from where they receive their television reception. Following an initial investigation, RTE said developers behind wind farms must be held accountable for any loss of television or radio signal.

A South Coast Wind Power Collaborative meeting held in Marion this week brought everything from frustration to hope as several initiatives were discussed. Reports on Sodar wind speed testing done at Old Rochester Regional High School and Mattapoisett's landfill brought mixed results. Wind speeds at both locations did not prove sufficient to suggest a feasibility study, but they did bring a suggestion of further study from Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) representative Nils Bolgen.

The School Committee last night decided to put off a vote on whether to remove the high school from contention as a location for a proposed turbine. ...School Committee members agreed to take up the turbine matter at its Oct. 16 meeting. That group is expected to recommend an alternative site at the end of Legion Way, which would essentially make the school committee's rejection of the high school site unnecessary. ...And because the device would be as close as 190 feet from a school building, the committee has been under pressure to withdraw its approval of the high school site.

The new 18-turbine windfarm at Tournafulla is interfering with television reception in the Ballycommane area, according to RTE Transmission Network Ltd (RTENL) bosses. And RTE says that responsibility for the problem rests 100 per cent with the commercial developer. ...Mick Kehoe, executive director with RTENL, has written to Deputy Jimmy Deenihan explaining that viewers in the Ballycummane / Tournafulla area receive their television signals from the transmitter in Maghera in Clare, and that the windfarm is directly in line with the transmitter.

"My fear is that the aesthetics, the whole feel of the area and the views of the ridge, I really feel that this will be gone soon," Wotton said. "That's my biggest fear." That's why Wooton is a member of the newly formed Friends of Rollins Ridge group, an organization of about a dozen town residents that is investigating, and likely will oppose, a proposed $120 million wind farm that, if approved, will go on sites in Burlington, Lee, Lincoln and Winn, including Rollins Mountain.

A city committee decided Wednesday to postpone its decision until at least Thursday about whether Graham Findlay should be allowed to install a power-generating turbine on top of a 10-metre pole in the yard of his home near Fisher Park. ...About 20 of Findlay's neighbours showed up at the committee meeting Wednesday to express their opposition to the turbine.

Residents weighed the greenness of wind power with the amount of visual pollution that the tall towering structures could bring to the popular 1860s-era tourist destination communities in the Comstock Historic District, designated a National Historic District. ...If placed on the ridge lines as the company proposes, the wind "turbines would be highly visible from Virginia City, Gold Hill and American Flat," [resident Ron] Reno said. Most of the wind turbine towers would be installed within the National Historic District and about half would in the Comstock Historic District.

The project, including the early research and the last stages of construction, will cost close to $1.7 million. The school had financial and other help from a variety of sources ...Spectators won't have to get too close to check it out: The turbine measures 262 feet to the tip of its tallest blade and is visible from Route 146, Interstate 290 and as far away as the second floor of Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Gordon Library, according to WPI.

"Our little community is under such an assault from all these wind energy corporations," Boulevard Planning Group Chair Donna Tisdale said. Tisdale is one of the property owners who was approached by a wind farm company called Invenergy. She says Invenergy offered her more than $20,000 per year for the rights to build wind turbines on her property - this on land that is not zoned for a wind farm.

The South Australian Opposition says the Myponga Sellicks Hill wind farm south of Adelaide will be an environment disaster if it is built. They are calling on the State Government to stop the project going ahead. The farm was announced in 2003 and will be built by TrustPower.

Silver City residents expressed mixed reactions after learning recently of a proposed wind turbine project for the nearby ridge lines. Residents weighed the greenness of wind power with the amount of visual pollution that the tall towering structures could bring to the popular 1860s-era tourist destination communities in the Comstock Historic District, which is also designated a National Historic District. The proposed project would also affect the views of people living in Washoe Valley. Great Basin Wind, LLC's new Comstock project was discussed during the September Silver City Town Board meeting's public comment segment.