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

State police closed a portion of Route 3, from Bolton Road to Benton Road, for about three hours Wednesday after the base of a wind turbine and the trailer it was attached to became unlatched from the rig hauling the oversized load. Both the trailer and turbine overturned and rolled into a nearby cornfield, state police said.

The National Weather Service says a wind farm in Wyoming County is interfering with its doppler radar at the Buffalo Airport. ...Unfortunately, the Wyoming county wind farms and their turbines are within the radar line of sight (RLOS) of the NWS doppler radar in Cheektowaga. ...At this height, the rotating turbine blades of the wind farm impact the KBUF Doppler Radar beam.

With construction ramping up again unexpectedly in Cohocton, town officials are looking at their legal options in keeping the work by developer First Wind in line with agreements signed between the parties - even if it means a court date. Town Supervisor Jack Zigenfus announced at Monday night's town board meeting major work is being performed on the 50-turbine wind-powered electricity generation project on Pine, Lent and Dutch hills.

Public Service Commission spokeswoman Anne Dalton said the agency requested information from Noble on turbine equipment and operations before the collapse, debris scatter and whether the company had proper emergency response and maintenance procedures, as well as whether they were followed.

State investigators from the Public Service Commission are looking into the fiery collapse of a wind power turbine at a turbine farm in Clinton County. A preliminary examination by Nobel Environmental Power, owner of the $200 million, 65-turbine Altona Wind Park, and General Electric Co., manufacturer of the 1.5-megawatt turbines, found "wiring anomalies" prevented two turbines from shutting down as designed during a power outage.

Noble Environmental Power officials say they have detected a "wiring anomaly" in two Altona wind turbines, including the one that snapped in half last Friday. As the preliminary investigation continues into how a massive turbine suddenly collapsed, Noble officials said this week that the entire wind park experienced a loss of power Friday and that two of its 65 turbines apparently malfunctioned.

Many residents were shocked that a massive wind-turbine could come tumbling down and officials say it could take months to learn why one collapsed Friday. Mike Fellion flew over the wreckage Saturday morning and was amazed to see that pieces of the structure appeared to have been thrown "about a quarter-mile away."

Noble Environmental Power has confirmed that a turbine collapsed at its Altona, N.Y., wind park Friday morning, but said no one was injured in the collapse and ensuing fire. In a statement released by the company Friday, company spokeswoman Maggy Wisniewski confirmed one turbine had collapsed and that a small fire resulted, but she refused to speak on the record with a NewsChannel 5 reporter.

The wind industry concedes that, as with all tall things (buildings, for example, or trees), ice and snow can build up and, eventually, fall down, creating a hazard to people and structures below. But the industry denies that "ice-throwing" - another concern surrounding wind power - is a problem. ...But a 2006 publication by G.E. Energy, a maker of large wind turbines, warns that "rotating turbine blades may propel ice fragments some distance from the turbine - up to several hundred meters if conditions are right."

The setbacks in the proposed Enfield wind law are not large enough, according to a letter from the Tompkins County Planning Department to Town Supervisor Frank Podufalski, but following that advice could kill the wind farm proposal for a site near Connecticut Hill. The planning department recommends increased setbacks between property lines and the wind towers ...If the Enfield Town Board does not adopt the recommendations, it will need a supermajority, which means four votes on the five-member board, to pass the proposal into law.

It turns out that recent shipments of king-size wind turbine blades that cut through the heart of downtown Buffalo were not off course after all. Mary Joyce Permits of Randolph, which plotted the delivery trucks' course and arranged escort vehicles, purposely steered the bulky loads from the Peace Bridge, down Niagara Street to Niagara Square and up Delaware Avenue. ..."It's not ideal, but we've got the required city permits, and we'll continue to bring them through downtown until the construction situation changes," she said.

The oil cleanup at Dawson Point near Marysville was finished Friday afternoon, but residents in the area are still not allowed to drink from their wells. ...About 396 gallons of diesel fuel was spilled Wednesday morning during fueling of the Sea Hound, a tugboat operated by Nadro Marine Services Ltd., a contractor based in Port Drove, Ontario. ...The tugboats are used to push barges loaded with supplies and parts from Ogdensburg for Canadian Hydro Developers Inc.'s 86-turbine Wolfe Island Wind Project. So far, 28 wind turbines have arrived.

According to Canadian Renewable Energy Corp., three to four barrels of diesel fuel were spilled around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday. The fuel was being transferred between tanks on Sea Hound, a vessel operated by Nadro Marine Services Ltd., a contractor based in Port Drove, Ontario. Nadro Marine has been transporting wind turbines from Ogdensburg for the 86-turbine Wolfe Island Wind Project. ...Mark O. Mattson, president of the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, an environmental advocacy group based in Toronto, finds the incident ironic. "It's a bit of a shock. The whole purpose of the wind power project was to help the environment," he said.

About 10 households on an island near Kingston, Ont., have been told to drink only bottled water after a tugboat spilled about 1,500 litres of fuel near shore. The diesel fuel spilled into Lake Ontario near Wolfe Island around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday from a boat carrying equipment for a controversial wind turbine project. Some residents have fought hard against the project, saying they are concerned about the environmental effects of installing 86 turbines on such a small island.

Four people suffered minor injuries Tuesday when their private helicopter crashed trying to land in snowy, foggy conditions near a wind farm in central New York, state police said. ...Simpson said the men were in the area inspecting land they owned and were preparing to return to Syracuse when the weather turned bad and they found themselves in a snow squall and low clouds. "They had zero visibility but they knew from their GPS that they were near those big towers," Simpson said. The pilot, Zachariah Bowers, 51, of Jacksonville, Fla., decided to land the helicopter in a farm field.

The windmills — officially called “Liberty 2.5 Megawatt wind turbines” — are the first of their kind to be used commercially. They brought national attention to Lackawanna for its creative reuse of an abandoned industrial site. The state-of-the-art turbines are so new that ClipperWind had anticipated a need for some tweaking here and there. But resolving the problem has been more difficult than expected. “This one’s a pain because you need a big crane,” acknowledged Bob Gates, ClipperWind senior vice president. The work is expected to take several months, Gates said. ...While the gear boxes are being replaced, Gates said a reinforcing bond will be applied to the fiberglass blades to prevent any major damage from tiny cracks that have developed on some.

It's one of the most visible sights in Madison County; one of the blades on the Fenner Wind Turbines broke in mid-November, and is still not fixed. ...They still don't know, what caused the blade to break; they say that this has happened at Fenner before, and hope to find out why once they're able to remove the blade.

One of the turbines at the Fenner Wind Farm hasn't been spinning since Wednesday night, because one of its blades has apparently been badly bent. ...A person who lives near the site says it sounded like a car crashing when the blade broke. There no word yet on when it'll be fixed.

John Rancich's proposed wind farm and set-back requirements have become issues of public interest at several town board and planning board meetings ...The wind debate in Enfield has primarily centered on the distance wind towers are set back from property lines. "I don't think it's proper to have windmills right on property lines," Fisher said. "I think there should be sufficient set backs for safety reasons."