Western Wind Energy Corporation has reviewed the wind energy marketplace across the United States and has determined to seek new wind energy development opportunities in California. The strategy is focused at 30 sites totaling over 1,200 Megawatts.

The $53,500 grant is being dispensed as part of the Value Added Agriculture Product Market Development Grant Program. The money will fund a feasibility study of wind energy including wind testing using altimeter.

Efforts to put a wind turbine on the campus of Holy Name Central Catholic Junior Senior High School earned a major boost last week with the award of $575,000 from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. The grant will cover a big chunk of the project’s $1.6 million cost, and Stephen A. Perla, superintendent of the Diocese of Worcester Catholic Schools, says he is optimistic about raising the remaining $1 million.

FOWLER -- Orion Energy LLC is moving closer to getting its Benton County wind farm project off the ground. The seven-member Benton County Council voted unanimously Thursday morning to approve a resolution that designates York and Richland townships as economic revitalization areas. That action clears the way for the council to consider a 10-year tax abatement for Orion. The company is planning to place a maximum of 135 electricity-generating wind turbines on farmland in the two townships in the northwest part of the county.

Armed with books, studies, facts and figures, several proponents of windmill projects addressed members of the county legislature during last night’s meeting. Fairfield resident Dennis Kaczeroski urged the county to accept Community Energy’s reported offer of $7,500 per megawatt for the 136-megawatt Jordanville Wind Farm for a payment in lieu of taxes agreement. The money would be split among the taxing entities involved - the county, the towns, and school district. The county has been seeking a higher figure, based on a consultant’s estimate of $40,000 per megawatt that they said the county should be able to expect. “Get what you can get; the market is the market. Don’t be short-sighted and derail this,” said Kaczeroski. “Your responsibility is to get the best deal for all of us.”

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office has declined to give an opinion about the legality of expanding a jointly-owned enterprise zone in Tazewell County, State's Attorney Stewart Umholtz said Friday. Umholtz requested an opinion from Madigan's office several months ago ...But Umholtz said the issue isn't quite over for him. "This is an issue of statewide importance," he said. "I'm still trying to encourage state government to follow state law."

The Victorian Government is in secret talks with New South Wales to extend its compulsory clean energy scheme beyond state boundaries. The Government confirmed yesterday it was negotiating with NSW for the two states to buy and sell renewable power to help meet mandatory targets for clean energy use. But it has denied it is in talks with the Tasmanian Government for a similar deal, despite claims from a Tasmanian wind farm proponent that trade talks are under way.

PRINCETON - Big Sky LLC received zoning permits Tuesday for part of a $300 million wind farm project but does not plan to build in Bureau County until the county's tax assessment on wind farms decreases.

President Bush might be talking about alternative energy, but he's not giving many types of green energy sources a financial boost. Bush's $2.9 trillion budget proposal released Monday includes no funding for geothermal technology, a prominent industry in Nevada, or for hydropower research and development. Bush's proposal also trims funding for wind energy to $40 million, nearly a 10 percent drop from last year's request. The 2008 request keeps funding levels stagnant for solar energy development: $148.3 million. But some alternative energy industries are winners under the president's budget plan. Biomass, hydrogen technology and carbon sequestration at coal-fired power plants would see increases in funding.

LIVINGSTON - Some local governments in Montana are having second thoughts about entering the wind energy business despite the incentive of interest-free financing from the federal government. While some cities and counties remain enthusiastic about the idea, others are bailing out. Almost half remain uncommitted and the clock is ticking. The Park County Commission dropped out of the program this month, saying it involved too many unknowns. "It doesn't look like something we ought to hang our hat on right now," Commissioner Jim Durgan said. Similar sentiments reign in Carbon County.

The list of qualifying devices includes passive solar space heating, solar water heating, solar thermal electric, photovoltaic, wind, biomass, hydroelectric, fuel cells and alternative energy refueling stations.

Residents fighting a wind farm proposal near Lake George, near Canberra, say the local council has moved ahead with the project, despite strong community objection. They say the development will devalue their land and harm the natural environment. The $220 million project was approved after the New South Wales Government decided to boost its renewable energy targets.

Plans for a wind farm on mountains north of Swansea have been attacked as “a major scam” by a city councillor.Ioan Richard, who represents the Mawr ward on the council, has hit out at subsidies paid to wind farms. He says the project, which he estimates will cost £80 million, will receive £110 million income over 20 years at today’s figures. “The Renewable Energy Subsidy will be £236 million from the general public who do not want this ugly scam,” said Councillor Richard. “After 20 years the turbines will be scrap - but who is laughing all the way to the bank? “These figures have all been verified at today’s rates as a major scam. “It’s high time you, the general public, sat up and realised the folly of it at your expense,” he added.

The Board of Supervisors moved closer on Tuesday to a wind energy ordinance that could attract renewable energy businesses to Floyd County. The Supervisors passed the first reading of an ordinance which would offer a tax exemption to new wind farms or turbines. Wind energy producers would receive a tax exemption on a 20-year, sliding scale. The first year of operation the owner would be taxed on zero percent of the net acquisition costs, adding five percent until year seven, when the rate would stay at 30 percent. No comments were given during a public hearing on the ordinance.

Several local governmental entities are moving ahead with a wind turbine feasibility study that will determine if the county is a viable location for a wind turbine. Mark Jackson with the Interstate R C & D, writer of the grant, was on hand at the Mercer County Courthouse Nov. 17 to visit with the governmental bodies. Representatives from The Mercer County Board, Mercer County Hospital, Mercer County Nursing Home and the Aledo School District were present to discuss the future of their joint endeavor. The collaboration was the beneficiary of a $14,000 grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation and will have the EAPC conduct the study. The EAPC has been the lead engineer in several other projects that have received approval to start building wind turbines.

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."

Madison County leaders turned down a six-figure payment from the developer of a 19-windmill project in three southern townships, citing a need for a comprehensive county policy on how to handle payments from windmill developers. The county had been negotiating a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with Citizens Airtricity Energy, the company that plans to build a 28.5-megawatt windmill farm in Eaton, Stockbridge and Madison this summer. The county’s share of the PILOT would have been $500 per megawatt, or $14,250 per year. The payments would continue for 16 years and increase with inflation. The county estimated the total payments would have been nearly $250,000After three hours of discussion Tuesday morning, supervisors instead voted to forgo the money. The county’s $500 share . Madison County’s portion of sales tax to stay 4 percent Page B-2 will be split among the other taxing jurisdictions, which will now share $8,000 per megawatt. The windmill debate has dominated conversations among county leaders for the past two weeks. Some vocal opponents said the county shouldn’t have been a part of the negotiations at all, since previous windmill projects in Fenner and Madison were built without the county taking a portion of the windmill payments.

Jasper County first advertised for bids to develop a wind power project in July of 2002. The county received two bids, one from Pecos Renewable Energy (PRE) and one from RES North America. After review and recommendation by the county's attorneys Mark Morgan and Thane Adkins, the court unanimously voted on Oct. 23, 2002, to accept PRE's bid. Five years ago wind energy was a relatively new enterprise to Texans, but in 2006 Texas surpassed California to become the nation's leader in wind capacity. ...If PRE can prove they have met the milestones of the contract, they may co-develop a wind farm with their named collaborator, Suzlon Wind Energy, the fifth-leading wind turbine supplier in the world. Or they can flip their lease and sell to another energy company, in which case Jasper County would receive royalties as development occurs. But unless the contract is terminated and Jasper has an opportunity to seek a new energy partner, PRE has the county's hands tied for the next 25 years (with automatic renewal for 10 more years) with no contractual obligation to produce anything.

Cowlitz PUD commissioners Wednesday OK’d a multiparty deal ensuring that a $361 million central Washington wind farm, large enough to supply 38,000 homes with electricity, will be financed with private money. Three years in the making and involving lawyers from coast-to-coast, the groundbreaking transaction will mean an investment group formed by Prudential Insurance and Lehman Brothers will own a wind farm conceived by the PUD and three other utilities. The investors aren’t interested in wind turbines, but they are interested in federal tax deductions available to private investors in environmentally friendly wind farms, said Alan Dashen, a financial consultant hired by the PUD to arrange the deal.

A windfarm action group has shot a warning across the bows of government calling for more support for renewable energy. The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) welcomes the government’s intention to switch to the greener ways of generating energy, but claims that sums will not add up unless financial support is increased. The warning headlines the environmental group’s response to the government’s consultation, which proposes a significant change to the Renewables Obligation (RO), the support mechanism for renewable power in the UK.