Boone Pickens wants some help building his wind farm, and he's asking taxpayers to provide it. The Gray County Commissioners Court approved a reinvestment zone Friday to cover the northern one third of the county. "It's not just for Mesa Power," said County Judge Richard Peet. But Mesa has asked four other counties to do the same thing. The company has also asked for tax abatements for the sizeable wind farm it wants to build. At 4,000 megawatts, it would be the world's largest. That would be five times the size of Horse Hollow, a 735-megawatt installation near Abilene that currently is the largest.

Paterson said although alternative energies would undoubtedly become very important in years to come, there was "little clarity" in the sector at the moment. Many fundamental questions remain about how to best capture and transmit energy from natural sources, making it difficult to assess the potential effectiveness of new innovations. However, Paterson said the biggest barrier was the fact that the sector is heavily regulated and influenced by government. Much of the current interest in alternative energies is being driven by strong support from Europe, the UK and the Scottish Government. "But from an investor's point of view, we have got to think about the long term," Paterson said. "What happens if the government changes, or priorities shift?"

Being close to a windmill lowers the value of a property, says Derby's Board of Civil Authority (BCA). After inspecting property belonging to George and Doris Buzzell, the board decided to lower its appraised value by 10 percent from $242,300 to $227,600. ...According to the minutes of recent BCA meetings, the Buzzells objected to the recent revaluation of their property on Ridgehill Drive off Shattuck Hill Road. The couple was represented at meetings on October 29 and November 7 by Trevor Evans and Raymond Toolan. Mr. Toolan argued that noise and light from a windmill within 300 feet of the Buzzells' house lessens the home's value. The Buzzells say noises, vibrations and lights from the windmill, owned by Senator Vince Illuzzi and located on his property, interfere with the enjoyment of their home. Mr. Buzzell's "quality of living is far different today than when he purchased the property," Mr. Toolan said.

Lack of action on a tax abatement for a company looking to build a series of wind generators in western Cooke and eastern Montague counties could send the alternative energy project to other counties, a spokesman said Monday. The Cooke County Commissioners Court took no action in its Monday meeting to give or deny Florida Power and Light a tax abatement for a series of gargantuan wind-powered electric generators on about 10,000 acres in western Cooke County. ...“The lack of action will probably kill this deal, and we’ll now have to reconsider our investment in Cooke County,” Edwin Giraldo, project manager for Florida Power and Light, said in an interview following the meeting. ...“The bottom line is that there is opposition to the windfarm, regardless of the benefits it would provide,” he said.

The ordinance approving expansion of the Enterprise Zone to include the wind farm south of the city is a go as far as the city is concerned. During the regular bi-monthly meeting Wednesday evening, the Marseilles City Council adopted the ordinance amendment to include the multi-million dollar Grand Rapids Wind Farm in the La Salle-Grundy County 12.5-acre Enterprise Zone. "We're on board with that. We've made some financial arrangement with them," Mayor Jim Trager said of GRWF developer Invenergy Wind LLC of Chicago. Trager however, will not make the terms of the arrangement public until the next city council meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 5. "Invenergy is still out there bargaining with other municipalities, and so I'm not going to disclose what we received from them at this time," he said.

Washington County officials have given a boost to a power project planned for northern Washington County and set a milestone in Maine by becoming the first county in the state to establish a tax increment financing district in the Unorganized Territory. By approving the TIF district for the Evergreen Wind Power project on remote Stetson Mountain, the Washington County commissioners will get to keep approximately $3.8 million of the $9.4 million in tax revenue generated by the project over the next 20 years. The county will use its share of the taxes for other economic development projects in Washington County and return the remaining $5.6 million to Evergreen for reinvestment in the project.

Tax subsidies have largely been an unchallenged tool for governments seeking to attract businesses, but some public officials say the policies for granting them need to be more sharply drawn and to provide more information to the public. Tax subsidies granted by local school boards, for example, cost the state about $150 million a year, yet the state is just now asking the boards to account for the money they're giving away. The office of Texas Comptroller Susan Combs sent letters Nov. 6 to 38 school districts, asking for financial information on subsidies they have given to companies ranging from wind farm operators to corporate data centers.

The nine turbines will make up the first wind farm in Utah, which is one of the only Western states without one. ...Currently, the land is worth just more than half a million dollars, Hiskey said. When the windmills and generators are added to the property, it will be worth $25.5 million. "In our first year, we would receive $66,719," she said, referring to what the tax collection will be with the rebate. Mikell said the agreement is the best possible solution for the company as well as the tax beneficiaries. The company will receive a tax break, and land will be developed that could not be used otherwise. "The turbines were actually the least impact thing that could be built there," she said. "Getting something [built on the property] is better than nothing."

A new report commissioned by Delmarva Power says average electricity customers will pay between $21 and $34 more per month if a proposed offshore wind farm is built. The report, done by PACE Global Energy Services, a Virginia-based consulting firm, says the project would be financially unstable because the developer, Bluewater Wind, has opted to absorb increases in commodity costs instead of passing them on to customers. "Given the magnitude of the impact to our customers, we felt it was important to bring in a fresh perspective," Delmarva President Gary Stockbridge said in an interview Friday, when the report was released. He said the report was unbiased and would hold up to scrutiny.

In a nutshell, if you have taxable income, it is reduced by $19 for every megawatt of wind electricity for every hour it is produced. For the top five wind farm owners listed above that comes to about $10 billion. Those $10 billion are not shifted to the deficit. They are shifted to regular taxpayers. Yup, even though none of the top five produce any electricity consumed in Montana, you still get to pay for it with your tax dollars. And what did you get for your tax dollars? Not much. By and large, nothing got built. Existing generation was bought, and the tax incentives were activated, making you a conscripted investor in their acquisition schemes and dreams. Guess that's another loophole Congressman Rehberg can work on with Sens. Tester and Baucus. Of course, that $10 billion is gone with the wind.

The Prince Wind Energy Farm, situated on 20,000 acres of land northwest of Sault Ste. Marie, qualified for the one cent per kilowatt-hour incentive under the ecoENERGY for Renewable Power initiative. The wind farm's 126 turbines are capable of generating up to 189 megawatts of clean, renewable power ...Over ten years, this ecoENERGY program will provide about $53 million to the wind project and ensure that renewable energy generated at the wind farm can be delivered at competitive prices for Canadian consumers.

An offshore wind farm developer said today it would not raise the price of its power if the prices of steel and other commodities go up. In making the concession, Bluewater Wind hoped to win over state regulators who have said the company's offer to sign a long-term power purchase agreement with Delmarva Power would be too expensive.

The European Union has taken the lead on many climate change issues - from ratifying the Kyoto Protocol to passing laws to require and encourage the development of renewable energy. Why, then, are so many European energy companies looking to invest in the United States? For António Mexia, the chief executive of Energías de Portugal, the answer is simple. "The United States is the fastest-growing market in the world for wind power," he said. "If we want to be a leader, we have to be here." ..."In America you can put up a 200- or 300-megawatt wind park," Mexia said. "You can't do that in Europe" because of the lack of open space for such large wind farms. There is also more potential for growth in the United States, where wind farms account for barely 1 percent of installed generating capacity. In some EU countries, that figure is as high as 10 percent.

It's round two for green power in Farmington today, with utility customers attending another City Council work session to protest a recommended $40 renewable energy fee. "A bunch of us are going to turn up again," said Mike Eisenfeld, New Mexico staff organizer for the San Juan Citizen's Alliance. "I think the city needs to do the right thing and shuck the recommended policy." ..."All I can do is present the information and they will make a decision." "Customers who choose to utilize renewable energy should do so because they believe it is the right' thing to do, but should also understand that these options are more expensive than traditional carbon-based resources," the report reads.

This week's Public Service Commission staff report on future electric power supply has raised renewed debate - not only among energy suppliers but also among academics, politicians, advocacy groups and citizens. ...Bluewater was disappointed but hopeful and Delmarva Power, hesitant from the beginning to negotiate with Bluewater, commended the report, saying, "So far, our analysis also confirms that the price risks associated with Bluewater Wind's proposal are too high. We support the conclusion that the Bluewater Wind proposal is not in the best financial interests of our customers." ...Sen. Charlie Copeland, R-Wilmington, said, "The report confirms the concern I've had all along that the cost to the consumer is ill-defined. While we all want the wind farm to go ahead, we shouldn't make 25 percent of consumers handle the cost when we don't even know what it is."

For the past four years, the town was the vanguard project in the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative's campaign to bring wind power to the commonwealth's municipalities. The collaborative paid $5.3 million to buy two turbines for the town and reserved $3.72 million this year to stabilize the project's finances. But after four years of work, and more than $800,000 invested by the collaborative in studies, technical work, legal fees and other development steps, the Orleans wind turbine project imploded last month. ..."I don't think MTC was steering us in the wrong direction, they were just unsure exactly how to do it," McKusick said. ...Brewster Assistant Town Administrator Jillian Douglass said MTC and its consultants have a bias toward building large turbines to maximize revenues. That has helped stoke public resistance to 400-foot-tall structures. "Folks in New England do not think of wind on that scale," she said. "We value town character, and most would prefer it not to be above the treeline. ... If you could go smaller, and be economically feasible, you'd see a lot more people doing it."

Canadian investors looking for exposure to the booming alternative energy sector have a handful of domestic players to choose from, but the local pickings are pretty slim and most of the companies are small. So why not look overseas, to one of the green behemoths that has sprung up on the international scene? ...The fast-growing U.S. wind power industry, driven by favourable government tax policy, is Vestas' largest current market. ...Some analysts are also urging caution over Vestas' high price. "We find the shares are fundamentally overvalued," said analyst Christian Nagstrup of Jyske Bank, a Danish financial institution. The biggest risk he sees at Vestas is a bottleneck in getting parts to build the turbines. Subcontractors have been slow in delivering key components, and that could slow delivery of complete turbines, Mr. Nagstrup said in a recent report.

Environmental issues are not the only dark clouds dimming wind power's appeal. Demand for wind power is driving up the price of wind turbines substantially, further raising the already-high costs of wind-generated power. The U.S. Department of Energy reports the average cost of a turbine per megawatt of power generated rose 17 percent in 2006 and will likely rise by more than 14 percent this year. Because utilities have no control over these costs, ratepayers or taxpayers end up paying the final bill. In addition, wind farms have already been constructed in the most productive wind sites, leaving less-productive and less-reliable sites available for current and future wind farm construction.

Howard County commissioners approved a trio of reinvestment zones necessary to grant tax abatements Monday morning, moving forward with negotiations with several wind energy developers that could lead to an estimated 400 to 500 new turbines being erected in the county. Commissioners met with Terry Wegman, executive director for Moore Development, who is serving as a liaison between the wind energy developers and local taxing entities for the purpose of establishing reinvestment zones, and ultimately, negotiating tax abatements for several proposed projects. The court approved reinvestment zones A, B and C, following a public hearing that drew comments from only a single property owner. ..."Even the smaller developments - the smallest one is 36 megawatts - will be putting up quite a few turbines. I think we're looking at between 400 and 500 turbines at this point, but that's nothing more than a rough estimate."

When LIPA ...first proposed the offshore wind project in 2003, costs were estimated at $200 million. The company said it would have little to no impact on electricity rates. That was the last published cost estimate until fall 2006, when under a Freedom of Information Law request from Newsday, the power authority released the original, winning bid from FPL Energy of Florida: $356 million. The price increases didn't stop there. ..."Long Islanders shouldn't believe for one minute that any major form of renewable energy is going to be cheaper than traditional resources produced by oil or natural gas," Kessel wrote.