Children at an island primary were sent home after a newly-installed wind turbine next to their school collapsed, it emerged yesterday. Parents of youngsters at the 18-pupil Raasay Primary School were asked to collect their children following the incident on November 13. The 50ft turbine will "remain out of commission" until an investigation has been carried out.

Another wind farm is planned for Schuylkill County. The proposal will come up Wednesday night at a zoning meeting at the North Schuylkill High School. There is opposition from people who live near the proposed site for the giant windmills. Even from a few miles away wind farms are hard to miss. They're usually located on mountaintops.

David Yoder's been farming for more than a third of a century. He's at least the fourth generation of his family who have lived and worked on the land on Cowpath Road near the border of Franconia and Salford townships that has been farmed "forever," Yoder said. Adding a 140-foot cellular tower and a power-generating wind turbine with a blade that reaches to a height of 163 feet will give the farm reduced electric bills and rental income from the cell tower and is similar to adding animals, crops or farm buildings, he said.

Bell Acres council has approved construction of an alternative energy center that will include a 60-foot wind turbine, but not without a few conditions. Several of the stipulations involve possible noise issues, while others are intended to address residents' concerns for dozens of great blue herons that nest about half a mile away on the Bell Acres-Economy line. In a 5-0 vote Monday, council gave the Alternative Energy Center permission to create an 80-by-80 foot display site for three alternative energy products.

A week after the Black Creek Township Zoning Hearing Board gave more time to a Sunbury firm looking to build wind turbines on Tomhicken Mountain, dozens of residents attended a township supervisors' meeting to both speak for and against Penn Wind's plans. Supervisors, however, discussed very little about Penn Wind's plans during the Friday meeting, which was rescheduled from Oct. 6. ...Sean Purdy of Penn Wind did not speak during the meeting. His company wants to install four turbines in Black Creek and 18 in neighboring Beaver Township, Columbia County.

Despite a recent report indicating Pennsylvania's significant growth in wind energy, local projects that once seemed imminent are all either dead or at a standstill. The state ranked second in growth with 29 percent, according to the American Wind Energy Association's report on the market for the third quarter of 2009. ...Two Luzerne County projects have withered on the vine, one dying after a very public legal fight and the other quietly.

The large wide load grounded Monday remained in town Tuesday, awaiting a part needed for repairs before it continues to West Virginia. Front Street remained closed from Route 54 to Mill Street, where the 150-foot-long, 100-ton windmill base sat on a trailer. The part for a damaged rear turning axle was ordered from Alabama and is expected to be delivered today, Danville Police Chief Eric Gill said.

Traffic on the Danville-Riverside Bridge was tied up for six hours Monday after a tractor-trailer carrying a wide load turned onto the bridge and got stuck. A crane was called in to move the trailer, which was hauling a section of a wind turbine tower. The truck became stuck at about 11:30 a.m. and was cleared from the bridge at about 5:30 p.m.

A Sunbury firm that wants to build wind turbines on Tomhicken Mountain now has more time to complete the project. Thursday night, the Black Creek Township Zoning Hearing Board voted 3-0 to grant Penn Wind LLC an extension from Dec. 31, 2010, to Dec. 31, 2011, to complete construction of four wind turbines in Black Creek Township. Penn Wind is building 18 additional windmills in neighboring Beaver Township, Columbia County.

Fayette County commissioners took no action following a hearing to make revisions to an ordinance that permits commercial and residential windmills and wind turbines as a permitted use, rather than by special exception, in areas zoned agricultural, light industrial or heavy industrial. Commissioners had approved the ordinance in June, but attorney Richard Bower, representing Iberdrola Renewables of Portland, Ore., said the ordinance required some minor revisions.

Blades the length of almost two school buses from a wind turbine owned by Akron-Westfield School District rest on the ground while repairs are underway. The turbine's gearbox was also brought down using a tall crane to reach the top of the 11-year-old structure's 165-foot-tall tower, which is much higher than people realize, said Dwain Wilmot, A-W technology coordinator. "You can see Vermillion (S.D.) on a good day," Wilmot said, if you stand on the top of the wind turbine tower. "I've only seen it once or twice."

As has been the case for more than six months, the issue involving wind turbines again dominated the Butler Township supervisors meeting Tuesday evening. The township municipal building was again filled to standing-room only with township residents and others who oppose the proposed project planned by Broad Mountain Development Co. LLC, a Rich family company. Broad Mountain has a proposed locating 27 wind turbines in the Fountain Springs area, a plan strongly opposed by local residents.

Clearfield County Planning Commission listened to a pair of concerned citizens at its meeting last night who shared information about a proposed wind energy project. Brady Township resident Gary Swope shared information about the 43-turbine project projected for Brady, Bloom and Penn townships by Iberdrola Renewables. Swope reported the project area would contain industrial-sized wind turbines measuring 300 feet across its blades and 400 feet from the ground to its highest point.

Officials with the Riverside School District are considering a feasibility study for a wind turbine project to reduce electricity costs. At a committee meeting Monday, a handful of board members heard a presentation from Frank Smollon, president of Electric City Wind Power Corp., a licensed manufacturer and distributor of vertical wind power technology. ...A megawatt unit would produce more than 3 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, or enough to power about 300 average households, Mr. Smollon said. "But you have to remember wind is an intermittent resource and it is a natural source," he said.

Clean energy and the "green jobs" attached to it enjoyed wide support in testimony at a Senate hearing in Pittsburgh today but differences remain about how and how quickly federal policies should push those goals. Sen Arlen Specter, D-Pa., who hosted the hearing, acknowledged those tensions between "competing interests" in Pennsylvania coal, natural gas and alternative energy industries.

An entire fleet of around 100 'urban' wind turbines has been remotely shut down by manufacturer Quiet Revolution after the discovery of a design fault. The fleet of QR5 turbines was disabled after continual wind speeds of between 14 and 24 metres per second caused a turbine located on a sea wall in Blackpool to develop a mechanical error, the company said in a statement on Friday. The QR5s have been installed on 55 sites for clients including Network Rail, Sainsbury's and self-storage firm Big Yellow.

The Department of Environmental Protection will hold a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. followed by a public hearing at 8 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 23, to discuss and accept testimony on a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit application by Sandy Ridge Wind LLC for a wind turbine project in Blair and Centre counties. The NPDES permit would address stormwater runoff from the construction of gravel roads, parking areas and concrete pads associated with 28 wind turbines, transmission lines and a substation.

Lane Johnson said the great blue herons that perch on and near his property in Bell Acres are like an annoying little brother that you wish would go away, but you also feel obligated to protect. ...he spoke during a public hearing Monday night against the proposed erection of a 60-foot wind turbine that would go up about a half-mile away from the herons' nesting spot -- or rookery -- because it might endanger the birds.

A transformer at the Maple Ridge Wind Farm's substation off Rector Road was destroyed by fire late Monday afternoon. Martinsburg firefighters were dispatched to the substation about 5 p.m. but had to wait until the facility was shut down before extinguishing the blaze, said Lewis County Fire Coordinator James M. Martin. ...The Columbus Day fire was the second transformer fire at the site, with a similar incident occurring July 4, 2007. In that case, 491 gallons of mineral oil leaked from the damaged transformer

Opposing perspectives rose from residents who gathered Monday to probe the proposed alternative energy development site along Big Sewickley Creek Road in Bell Acres. Many borough residents questioned the potential noise level and electromagnetic presence of the site, which would include a 66-foot wind turbine. Others questioned the potential threat to great blue herons that nest along Big Sewickley Creek. Some questioned the visual impact on the borough's landscape.