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.

Italian finance police have arrested two prominent businessmen - including one with ties to a former investor in the Cape Wind project in Nantucket - in the wind energy sector on charges of fraud, reports the Financial Times. Arrested were Oreste Vigorito, head of the IVPC energy company and president of Italy's National Association of Wind Energy, and Vito Nicastri, a Sicilian business associate, according to the article. According to the European Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, Oreste Vigorito has ties to Brian Caffyn, a former investor in the Cape Wind project, which has been criticized as a poor investment for taxpayers, reports Dakota Voice.

The hostile battle for control of Novera Energy took a new twist today as it emerged that one of the company's pipeline wind farm projects could be halted by fears it could cause a mid-air fighter jet collision. In an intervention which could have ramifications for many onshore wind projects, an air traffic control expert has told North Yorkshire planning officials to block Novera's Bullamoor project, where it envisages massive 120 metre-tall turbines on farmland near Northallerton.

Italian finance police, mounting an operation code named "Gone with the wind", yesterday said they had arrested two of the country's most prominent businessmen in the wind energy sector. Police said the charges related to fraud involved in obtaining public subsidies to construct wind farms. They are also investigating the sale of wind farms to foreign companies.

Attorneys closely questioned an aviation consultant Tuesday, Nov. 10, in a hearing on a proposed wind turbine project in Champaign County. Thaddeus Brys, a consultant for Aviation Systems Inc., testified before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in a hearing on the Buckeye Wind Project, which would build about 70 turbines throughout Champaign County. Gil Weithman, law director for Urbana, questioned Brys on news that the Federal Aviation Administration recently reduced the number of turbines it considered a presumed hazard.

Unmanageable interference would be caused to the radar at RAF Leeming by four 132-metre tall wind turbines, the Ministry of Defence says, warning their height would also cause a serious obstruction to the safe movement of aircraft. But the plans are still being recommended for approval. Novera Energy plc wants to erect the turbines on undulating farmland south of the A684 at Winton, four kilometres north-east of Northallerton and 3.6 kilometres from the boundary of the North York Moors National Park.

Despite a fall of between 20 and 30 feet, the man who lost his footing on a ladder inside a wind turbine on Friday apparently was not seriously injured. The man's name has not been released by the Winnebago County Sheriff's Department. ...the worker slipped off a ladder and, although tethered by a safety harness, the harness apparently failed, and the man fell.

Wind turbine blades rip loose near Esbjerg and southwestern Sweden, one landing on a hiking path A malfunction on a Vestas wind turbine in the town of Falkenberg on Sweden's southwest coast could have resulted in tragedy, as one of the structure's large blades flew off and landed on a track used by hikers.

Three months after the Ripley Wind Farm went online in December, 2007, Dave Colling's phone started ringing. Three of his neighbours were seeing doctors about recurring ear aches. They knew Colling, a former dairy farmer who lives within two kilometres of the turbines near the southern Bruce County community, had an interest in and could test for what he calls "electrical pollution." "It's like living inside a microwave. It radiates," Colling told more than 100 people Tuesday night in Keady.

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.

With the exception of the shores of Lake Erie, the ridge just to the east of Urbana stretching northward to Bellefontaine, has some of the best potential for wind power generation in the state of Ohio. Which is why Everpower has selected Champaign County for the Buckeye Wind Project. ...Out of those 70 turbines 38 have been flagged by the Federal Aviation Administration as having a potentially negative impact on approaches to Grimes Field on the north and to Weller Airport on the east side of Urbana.

Grimes Field Manager Carol Hall said there is a concern that placing a "localizer" navigational aid at the municipal airport would put an existing navigational aid in jeopardy. "About 90 percent of pilots here aren't instrument-rated," said Hall, adding this means they are not certified to use the localizer navigational aid.

An automated review of 17 proposed wind turbines at the Massachusetts Military Reservation flagged five more as a presumed hazard to aviation, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said yesterday. But when all is said and done, the reversal on those five turbines, which just one week earlier were considered OK, may be a mere blip on the radar screen, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said.

A road in Missaukee County was closed for several hours Sunday afternoon and three homes were evacuated as a safety precaution after construction workers became concerned about the stability of a newly-installed 400-foot wind turbine. ...[the homes] were still evacuated out of an abundance of caution in terms of possible flying debris.

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 Federal Aviation Administration says five wind turbines can't be built at the Massachusetts Military Reservation on Cape Cod, six days after approving them. The FAA now says the 400-foot high turbines pose a hazard to air navigation.

In addition to local residents, emergency first responders are considering how the proposal to site 70 wind turbines in Champaign County will impact them. The Federal Aviation Administration has issued notices of presumed hazard to navigable airspace for 38 of the proposed sites, noting their potential negative impact on Grimes Field, where a CareFlight hangar is located, and the privately-owned Weller Airport, which was used for a helicopter landing and takeoff to transport a crash victim on Oct. 6.

The State Government will investigate the health concerns of Victorians who live near wind farms. Last month, the Democratic Labor Party Member for Western Victorian, Peter Kavanagh, asked the Government to investigate whether workers near wind farms faced health hazards. Some landholders near the Waubra wind farm, west of Ballarat, say a low frequency hum from the turbines is making them sick.

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

Wind measurement towers put up ahead of planned wind farm projects are drawing concerns from crop dusters who say they blend in with the landscape. Crop duster Brian Hauschild says the main problem with the towers is they have no markings. Flying 140 mph at low altitudes in a small airplane carries numerous dangers, but the unmarked towers add a danger. ..."In the short-term, we're working on getting them marked so we can see them," he said. "In the long-term, I'm talking to the FAA, but this isn't something that will happen quickly."