George Gantz, a Unitil vice president, unveiled some company dreams this past week to reinvent the big regulated utility. He told Rep. Naida Kaen, D-Lee, and other stakeholders for "distributed energy" that Unitil would like to work itself out of business as a traditional energy retailer. Distributed energy, a new buzz word, is made by small generators scattered across the electric grid, often remote from the big power plants. ...Under existing law, that would be like McDonald's buying burgers from its patrons. But everybody would win if Unitil could claim the renewable energy credits a business or homeowner can earn under a new state law also sponsored by Fuller Clark. It rewards sustainable energy sources.

Massachusetts would meet at least 20 percent of its energy needs by 2020 with renewable energy such as wind, hydroelectric and solar under sweeping legislation proposed Thursday by House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi. Rep. DiMasi was joined by Gov. Deval Patrick, Attorney General Martha Coakley and Senate leaders as he rolled out the legislation, which is expected to be approved by the House next Thursday. The bill, which was subject to negotiations for 11 months, would require the state to increase its use of renewable energy by five times what it is now.

THE group behind a second huge wind farm planned for the sea off Walney says its construction will create 200 jobs. The latest proposal for 139 turbines, many of them taller than Blackpool Tower, means that within a few years there will be more than 300 turbines off the Barrow coast. The company behind the plan has promised to give as much work as it can to local contractors. On Wednesday the government gave the go-ahead for the first large wind farm off Walney planned by Danish energy group Dong. It is to develop a 75 square kilometre Walney Wind Farm with up to 152 giant turbines operating 14 miles off Walney.

Land Use Regulation Commission unanimously approved the zoning request for a 57-megawatt project on Stetson Mountain, a ridge line that stretches between Danforth and Springfield in northern Washington County. The applicant, Evergreen Wind Power, has already built the region's largest operating wind farm -- a 42-megawatt, 28-turbine project in Mars Hill, Maine, that started generating power earlier this year. Evergreen is a subsidiary of UPC Wind Management of Newton, Mass.

The Public Service Commission has developed serious reservations about Bluewater Wind's plans to build an offshore wind farm and windmills to help provide the state with affordable electric power. Bluewater has been hailed by many as a source of affordable, clean, renewable energy. But a PSC report on Oct. 30 cast doubts on those plans. ...The wind farm with a natural gas backup plant emerged as the winners of that effort. But the PSC report now says that the plans by Bluewater are not in the public interest because of the dramatic increase in price for the public.

UK Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks has given the go-ahead for a major wind project 14km from Walney Island, off the coast of Cumbria. The Walney wind farm, from developer DONG Energy, is expected to have somewhere between 93-152 turbines, producing enough clean electricity for approximately 360,000 homes when fully operational in 2013. The world's largest offshore wind project - the 1000MW London Array - has also now received its final consent.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the Boise utility "determined that coal-fired generation is not the best technology to meet its resource needs in 2013." The company had planned to get an additional 250 megawatts from coal by then. Instead, it now aims to develop a new natural gas turbine somewhere in southern Idaho by 2012, to augment plans to add 101 megawatts of wind generation in December 2008 and 45.5 megawatts of geothermal generation in phases between 2007 and 2011. ..."The realities are, you still need a resource to back up nondispatchable resources like wind," he said. "As we look at it right now, the best immediate technology for today is a combined-cycle natural-gas power plant."

A provision in the national energy bill that has been stalled by Texas' two senators would probably boost the market for one of the state's fastest-growing sources of power: wind. ...Although wind farms remain expensive to build, they benefit from a federal tax incentive and have become attractive to both traditional utilities and green-power start-ups. But a national standard is opposed by many large utilities and several members of the House from Texas, including Joe Barton of Ennis. ...Skeptics who are against the renewable standard said that wind power doesn't need any more incentives. The technology has taken off so quickly that there is a two-year waiting list to buy wind turbines, said Sen. Pete Domenici, the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

A CHANGE is in the works that could go a long way toward making alternative energy less alternative, and more attractive to consumers and businesses. It's not a technological fix from some solar-cell laboratory in Silicon Valley or wind-turbine researcher in Colorado or the development of some superbug to turn wood waste into ethanol. Rather, the change would come from Washington, if Congress does what it has talked about and puts a price tag on greenhouse-gas emissions. Suddenly the carbon content of fuel, or how much carbon dioxide is produced per unit of energy, would be as important as what the fuel costs. In fact, it might largely define what the fuel costs.

The Long Island Power Authority has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) from firms interested in providing electricity from renewable facilities and associated renewable energy certificates. In a release Monday, LIPA said the renewable energy could come from new or existing projects in New York, New England or the PJM electricity markets. LIPA has voluntarily agreed to follow the state Public Service Commission's Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), which requires suppliers to acquire 25 percent of the power they sell from renewable sources by 2013.

A year after a bitter congressional fight over offshore drilling for oil and gas, the Bush administration now wants to tap the ocean's winds, waves and currents as a source for alternative energy. This time, though, environmental interests are likely allies, not vocal opponents. ...The federal government will entertain bids beginning this week for companies to put testing equipment like meteorological towers in the ocean waters to gather data on wind, wave or current energy.

Delmarva Power is taking its case against a proposed offshore wind farm to community groups, saying the plan is too risky and would be too costly to utility customers. Delmarva President Gary Stockbridge spoke to about 40 citizens at the public library in Bear on Monday night. ...Stockbridge said he was concerned Delmarva customers would be stuck with an expensive contract for offshore wind power, while customers with competing companies wouldn't have to pay those costs. He suggested green power providers compete to supply Delmarva, rather than having a 25-year contract forced on his customers. He urged people to contact the government and make their feelings known.

In a move with direct significance for the Mid-Atlantic, the U.S. Interior Department today released its final proposal for regulating offshore wind turbines and other "alternative" energy projects in federally controlled waters. Although work on detailed regulations will continue into next year, the agency plans to take applications during the next 60 days for permits to conduct offshore research on wind or other unconventional energy around the nation's Outer Continental Shelf. ...Several large national environmental groups have supported the offshore proposals for wind. But the American Bird Conservancy, American Littoral Society and others took opposing stands, urging the Interior Department to limit the projects and study threats to birds and fish in greater detail.

Several companies are expressing interest in developing wind farms in Randolph, Jay and Wayne counties. "Land owners in those counties are being approached by wind development people," said Tom Chalfant, president of the Randolph County Farm Bureau. "I'd guess 200 or 300 or more have been approached or would be affected by these projects." ...But as wind farms are developed in Indiana, "we need to give consideration to local concerns like property values and birds and bats," Menzer said. "We need to be sensitive to local concerns. We don't want to steamroll people like we've done with hog farms, merchant power plants and ethanol plants."

Most of North Dakota’s wind turbines have barely begun operating, but state regulators have started drafting rules that would apply if the massive towers quit producing electricity. ...North Dakota’s proposed rules say the property that hosted a wind turbine site would have to be restored to ‘‘substantially the same physical condition’’ as existed when the site was built. ‘‘To the extent possible, the site must be restored and reclaimed to the topography and topsoil quality that existed just prior to the beginning ... of construction,’’ they say. A wind turbine would be targeted for decommissioning if it had not produced electricity for at least one year, the proposed rules say. Removing a wind tower and its associated equipment would have to be done within 18 months after it reached the end of its use.

For $50,000, Oklahoma can get the same kind of comprehensive study Kansas got from Southwest Power Pool on the state's wind power resource. The plan could be finished by spring 2008 and would provide the guidance state leaders need to form a plan for new electricity generation and transmission upgrades. ...Bary K. Warren, director of transmission policy and compliance for the Empire District Electric Co. in Joplin, Mo., cautioned the group to keep projections for future wind generation development modest. Companies may put out press releases indicating their intent to build future capacity, but unforeseen developments may significantly limit the amount of wind generation that actually gets built, he said.

Groups opposed to plans for the country's biggest wind farm say they will take their case to the Environment Court. The 176-turbine project near Ranfurly in Central Otago was granted resource consent on Wednesday. ...While four of the commissioners accepted the argument that Lammermoor Range is not an outstanding natural landscape, one, John Mathews, disagreed. Opposition groups say that gives them strong grounds to take the case to the Environment Court.

The state is part way through its half-million-dollar effort to gauge Vermonters' opinion on how electricity should be generated. Three of five polling workshops have been held -- and a more elaborate process, called "deliberative polling," which aims to tap the knowledge of a broad cross-section of the state's population, will be held this weekend. ...Vermont's energy mix has given the state the lowest "carbon footprint" in the nation, according to O'Brien. ...Generally speaking, energy efficiency and hydro-electricity are heavily supported, Raab said. Wind is also "pretty well" supported; people who live in Burlington and Montpelier, however, are typically more likely to tolerate a wind farm that can be seen from their home than people who live in the Northeast Kingdom, he said. ... Since anyone can register online to attend the workshops, the participants are self-selected and often come to advocate for or against a particular type of power

Fresh controversy is brewing after First Minister Rhodri Morgan announced wind turbines could spring up on Forestry Commission land. Mr Morgan told an audience at the Liberty Stadium yesterday that wind farm developers are to come up with plans for the land, which lies in Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire as well as Mid and North Wales. Opponents said it should be left alone for walkers and tourists. Mr Morgan insisted Wales had to take action to combat climate change by increasing its production of renewable energy and that wind farms were, for the time being, the best method of doing that.

Several new North Country energy projects are in the works, but questions remain on how to transmit to homes and businesses the power they would generate. Experts at an ad hoc energy stakeholders meeting held Oct. 16 at the State House in Concord generally agreed that construction on several proposed wind farms and wood-fired power plants in Coos County will take three to four years - and perhaps longer if New Hampshire hopes to convince other New England states to cover 90 percent of the costs. ...Donna Gamache of PSNH said the hard part is guessing which players are serious and have the stamina to wait out the regulatory approval process. She said what she called "the California model" would may be "the easiest way to absorb the risk." In California, a regional electric grid underwrote the cost to transmit new solar and geothermal power to the populated coast in the hopes that future developers would pay their share as they hooked into the lines. If PSNH tackles a project like that without state help, experts fear ratepayers would eat the stranded costs if too few plants came on line.