North Dakota's largest wind farm already has growth plans, state regulators said as they approved a shortened application period for siting 27 new wind turbines near Langdon. ...The commission approved the present wind farm's site plan, and its president, Susan Wefald, said regulators' familiarity with the area may help siting work for the expansion. "There is not a lot of new land that's going to be added," Wefald said. "A number of the turbines are going to be placed on land that has been sited already."

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."

Why is Kansas behind? The short answer: It's complicated, and thoughtful people disagree. Wind proponents say the state has provided little leadership, either through regulation or incentive. State officials say Kansas has been perceived as being anti-wind, which has encouraged citizens opposed to wind. Utilities insist they're embracing wind just as fast as they can. ...Many utilities maintain that adding any significant quantity of wind-powered generation will make the electric grid too unstable, because you never know when the wind will start blowing. Or stop. ..."They [wind turbines] could never, ever serve even one home," he said. That's because at some point the wind will stop but demand for electricity hasn't. ...in order to make this wind power available, Austin Energy had to line up a back-up source of electricity for nearly all its wind energy. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the electric grid in much of Texas, requires all utilities file an energy plan, every day, that shows how much electricity it expects its customers to use during every 15-minute period of the next day, and where it plans to get that power from. The 9 percent rule If the power source is a wind farm, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas counts only 8.7 percent of the farm's rated capacity. Never mind wind farms typically produce 20 percent to 40 percent of their rated capacity in the long term. What matters is the short term.

Ministers are planning a U-turn on Britain's pledges to combat climate change that "effectively abolishes" its targets to rapidly expand the use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. Leaked documents seen by the Guardian show that Gordon Brown will be advised today that the target Tony Blair signed up to this year for 20% of all European energy to come from renewable sources by 2020 is expensive and faces "severe practical difficulties". ...The shift in stance is due to be discussed at full cabinet next week. Last night a spokesman for the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform said: "We don't comment on ministerial meetings with the PM."

Producers of renewable energy, both big and small, say the province of Nova Scotia could be doing more to help speed the addition of green power projects to the grid. Barry Zwicker, president of Scotian Windfields, told the legislature's resource committee Tuesday that government needs to send out a strong message about its commitment to renewable energy. ..."It costs a lot of money to go through these processes and I think there's a more efficient way we can go through this together instead of doing it in an adversarial way." Zwicker said government could help overcome resistance in some communities to the construction of wind turbines by engaging in a broader education program.

Roxanne Notley, Executive Director of the Aurora Development Corporation feels no decision has been made on wind energy development on the south coast. "We are not totally convinced about wind energy. The reason is because we just don't have enough information to validate our argument. So we used a proactive approach to determine if wind diesel would provide enough wind energy for now and in the future." ..."I did hear some comments from people. Most thought, 'oh my goodness, we are not getting wind power are we.' They are very worried, and scared that this is something that is going to be our alternative," noted Mrs. Notley. The problem with wind and diesel powered generation is that it is not reliable for taking on huge energy loads.

While it is pursuing wind power as a renewable resource -- most recently with a large deal last week -- that source is strictly supplemental, SMMPA spokesman Dan Hayes says. Wind-generated power is available when the wind blows, so it is not always online to ship. SMMPA needs to have enough power available 24/7 to supply its 18 city-owned utility companies and their customers. ...But there are other possibilities for baseline electricity, and SMMPA's chief operating officer, Dave Geschwind, says agency managers now are evaluating them more closely.

Industry leaders believe wind could fill up to 20 percent of generation portfolio. But even wind proponents warn against the notion that it can solve the nation's energy and greenhouse gas concerns. "Wind is a great technology ... But it's not a panacea." There's fossil fuel consumption in the maintenance of wind farms. Many prime wind resources are located far from areas where renewable energy is in demand. Even here at the Foote Creek wind facility, where high gusts wreak havoc on turbines, lightning strikes are equally troublesome. "You've got to look at it for what it is," said Borrows.

Chicago-based Invenergy Wind North America applied on Wednesday with Kittitas County to construct a $250 million, 69-turbine wind farm sandwiched between Vantage Highway and Interstate 90 southeast of the existing Wild Horse Wind Power Project on the east end of the county. ...By utilizing the county's pre-identified wind farm zone, the company will likely expedite the approval process. "I'm estimating that public hearings before the county commissioners on the project could come as early as December," Piercy said.

When this year's renewable energy conference got under way in Burlington on Wednesday there were, by some estimates, as many as 500 people at the event. Gov. James Douglas was not among them. "I was disappointed to not be invited," Douglas said Thursday. Douglas has been at the gathering of advocates, manufacturers and politicians involved in renewable power in the past - it is the sixth year of the conference. But this year other political leaders were invited and Douglas' name didn't come up, said Andrew Perchlik, executive director of Renewable Energy Vermont. It was not an intentional decision made because of Douglas' outspoken opposition to wind, he said.

NERC's "2007 Long-Term Reliability Assessment" report takes a measured tone, finding for example that long term capacity margins are still adequate. ...California, the Rocky Mountain states, New England, Texas, the Southwest and the Midwest could fall below their reserve margins in the next few years without added resources. Global warming took center stage in energy policy debates and that will likely lead to more emissions-free generation such as wind, solar and nuclear power. Wind and solar provide grid operators with some problems since they are intermittent and often placed far away from population centers. Wind power played a role in a recent reliability problem in Europe, he added, and boosting the amount of such generation could lead to similar problems here.

The Government expects wind and other renewables to replace coal and gas fired power plants, but the association said that was risky. "To place such a high reliance on renewables is a very risky strategy and significantly increases the risk of the lights going out in dry years," Mr Pfahlert said. In dry years, gas and coal fired stations produced about a third of all electricity. "Four years ago we had blackouts when we were 65 per cent reliant on renewables," he said.

Wind power is a mature technology, used widely in Europe. In Germany it produces 20 000MW. ...Unfortunately, South Africa is not the best location; there is just not enough wind to generate sufficient sustainable electricity supply. ... To generate large amounts of electricity from wind turbines would require large tracts of land. A wind turbine that generates 5MW could have a 12m diameter. In comparison, an Airbus A380's wingspan is 80m. So to generate a large amount of power, say Koeberg's capacity of 1 800MW, you would need about 380 5MW wind turbines. ...Wind will be a small part of South Africa's future energy mix. Solar power holds more promise as an environmentally friendly solution to South Africa's energy crisis.

Contact Energy today announced plans to build a giant wind farm on a Port Waikato site, which could be as large as 650MW if fully developed. ...Contact has also announced it wants to build a 100 MW gas plant in neighbouring Strathmore, to help even out the variable electricity supply from the proposed wind turbines.

Midwest is doing what it can with renewable energy, such as wind. "Let's use what we can from renewables, but they're not the silver bullet," Helm said. Midwest has agreed to buy 25 megawatts of power from the Smoky Hill Wind Farm west of Salina, but if past performance is any indication, it will rarely get the full amount. When Midwest was purchasing power from the Gray County wind farm, it generally was getting only 8 megawatts of power anywhere from 35 percent to 40 percent of the time. "We never got the total amount we contracted for," Helm said.

This Government is matching words with action. We said we needed to make tough choices if we are to achieve our clean energy objectives and that is exactly what we are doing.

The Coastal Habitat Alliance - a coalition of eleven Texas-based and national organizations working to preserve the Texas Gulf Coast - today expressed satisfaction that the Public Utility Commission (PUC) of Texas has agreed to hear their appeal regarding the group's intervenor status in the AEP 345 kV transmission line case to be held on October 17 in Austin.

Members of a Cape Cod Commission subcommittee voted unanimously today to recommend that the full commission turn down Cape Wind's application to bring its transmission cables ashore in Yarmouth to connect with a substation in Barnstable. Today's vote on "procedural grounds without prejudice" was based on insufficient information about the cabling aspect of the project, according to subcommittee members.

John Hines, director of energy supply planning for NorthWestern, says before the company buys more wind, it wants to be sure it has the right mix of power to offset gaps when the wind doesn't blow. Right now, it's expensive and difficult to buy "firming power," which is needed to complement intermittent wind power - especially when NorthWestern has no power-generating plants of its own, Hines says.