The go ahead for one of the UK's largest offshore wind farms to date will be announced by the Prime Minister today, in a speech to business leaders. The 500MW West of Duddon Sands wind farm is planned near Walney Island off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria and will comprise of up to 139 turbines. ...The Energy Secretary John Hutton has also approved an updated application from Ormonde Energy Limited to build a 150MW wind farm comprising of up to 30 turbines, which will also be sited near to Walney Island.

State regulators Wednesday unanimously approved the $4.5 billion merger between Energy East Corp. and Spanish power producer Iberdrola SA, clearing the way for new owners to take over New York State Electric & Gas Corp. if they accept the conditions imposed on the deal. ..."There is no doubt that, on the risk side of the scale, there are some risks" associated with the merger, said Garry A. Brown, the PSC chairman. "We allayed those concerns as well as we could." But Brown said the $275 million in potential savings to customers "is a very significant balance that gets me to a net positive."

Spanish utility Iberdrola SA will be allowed to purchase Energy East Corp., the New York State Public Service Commission determined today. The 4-0 vote by the PSC's board ended a year-long process involving Iberdrola's $4.5 billion proposal to take over Energy East (NYSE: EAS). The approval requires Iberdrola to pay $275 million in customer benefits to offset future rate hikes. Iberdrola must invest $200 million in new wind energy projects. Initially, Iberdrola said it would invest $100 million.

The Public Service Commission early this afternoon unanimously approved Spanish utility Iberdrola SA's proposed $4.5 billion acquisition of Energy East Corp. The PSC approval includes a requirement that Iberdrola commit to at least $200 million in wind power projects statewide, up from $100 million previously. In addition, Iberdrola will be required to provide another $275 million in so-called public benefits. ...Iberdrola will then review the order and decide whether to accept it.

The Interior Department, the agency that handles oil-and-gas leases in U.S. waters, is preparing to lease swaths of the outer continental shelf to companies that want to erect massive wind turbines. With the public-comment period for the proposal scheduled to end Monday, competition is heating up to develop wind projects on the shelf ...But the onshore wind industry in the U.S. is beginning to be hampered by a lack of electrical-grid capacity to carry the power from the isolated places where wind typically blows hardest to the population centers that need the juice. Offshore wind provides a potentially big source of energy close to major coastal cities.

The landowners group will voice its concerns Monday at a Nicollet County Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. In a letter sent to area media, the group said surrounding landowners, including those who have signed land-use leases with the New Ulm Utilities Commission, have opposed the project from the start. The letter stated the landowners entered into the leases only for fear of losing large portions of their crop lands to eminent domain procedures. "There are a lot of concerns and unanswered questions," said landowners group member Jeff Franta, adding that the group will wait until the meeting to air specifics.

A company that develops wind energy projects will be allowed to put more data-collection devices in northern Mower County, which could lead to a project involving more than 170 wind turbines. The Mower County Board unanimously approved on Tuesday a request from Renewable Energy Systems America for conditional-use permits to install and operate two meteorological towers in Waltham Township, one tower in Sargeant Township and one in Dexter Township.

Saying it's only fair, Michigan lawmakers plan to raise residential electricity bills and drop business rates so all customers are charged the true cost of their power. But when it comes to figuring out who should pay what for new renewable energy requirements, the playing field wouldn't be even. Though residents account for one-third of Detroit Edison's electric sales, they would contribute nearly two-thirds of what Michigan's largest utility could collect from customers for wind and other sources of alternative power under bills that have passed the House and Senate.

So will his plan work? Energy analysts say parts of it seem plausible, other parts don't and the timetable is probably unrealistic. It also would substitute one expensive fossil fuel for another. ...Hundreds of thousands of windmills would need to be installed throughout the country's plains, at a price that Pickens estimates between $750 billion and $1 trillion. New transmission lines - worth $64 billion to $128 billion - would be needed to carry all that power to cities. The price alone is daunting, although Pickens notes the money would stay in the United States rather than flow to overseas oil producers.

Four Renewable Energy Systems Americas, Inc. (RES) conditional use permit requests for meteorological towers were endorsed by the Mower County Planning Commission. However, they all came under attack by another wind energy developer. RES is a national leader in the development and construction of renewable wind energy. This summer RES was awarded five utility scale wind projects in Canada with a total capacity of 954MW. RES critic James Hartson is a Waltham area farmer who is trying to develop the state's only community-based (i.e., farmer-owned cooperative) wind project in Mower County, Green Acres Wind Farm.

Wind energy is so unreliable that even if 13,000 turbines are built to meet EU renewable energy targets, they could be relied on to provide only seven percent of the country's peak winter electricity demand, according to a leading power company E.On. E.On has argued that so little wind blows during the coldest days of winter that 92 percent of installed wind capacity would have to be backed up by traditional power stations.

Steens Mountain stretches through the open lands of southeastern Oregon's Harney County for more than 30 miles, a twisting spine of rock and brush punctuated by steep gorges and rushing streams. Remote and rugged, it has come to symbolize the state's wild, austere side. It's also becoming a battleground for a wind power developer that sees gold in the Steens' stiff breezes -- and red in the eyes of environmentalists. At issue are about 200 wind turbines that Columbia Energy Partners wants to build along the northern boundary of the Steens Mountain Wilderness. ...The conflicts come into sharp relief in a state that prizes its green credentials and its pristine lands.

Chris Crowley, head of Columbia Energy Partners, filed separate applications for the three wind projects he called the Echanis, East Ridge and West Ridge wind farms. They lie next to each other ...Each would generate a maximum of 104 megawatts. Any project with a capacity of 105 megawatts or more triggers review by the state. The county reviews smaller ones. "These are blatant attempts to circumvent the public process," said Dave Becker, an attorney with the Oregon Natural Desert Association. The state's Energy Facility Siting Council should review the projects, he said.

In two years' time, the UK seems certain to miss one of the core environmental targets of the Blair-Brown years. The Government pledged that 10 per cent of the country's electricity would be generated from renewable sources, principally from wind farms, but also including tidal and solar power. Press releases from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Berr) still boast of the target, which was first promised in 2000 and enshrined three years later in the energy White Paper. ...But the energy industry does not agree. Senior figures point out that less than 5 per cent of electricity was generated from renewable sources in 2007, up from just over 4 per cent the previous year.

A leading power company has claimed wind energy is so unreliable that even if 13,000 turbines are built to meet EU renewable energy targets, they could be relied on to provide only 7 per cent of the country's peak winter electricity demand. E.On has argued that, during the coldest days of winter, so little wind blows that 92 per cent of installed wind capacity would have to be backed up by traditional power stations. It argues this would require new coal-fired power stations to be built so they could be used in an emergency when little wind blows. ...A spokesman said the question had to be asked how power companies would make money from plants that only run when the wind is not blowing.

James Denn, a spokesperson for the agency, said on Thursday that a decision more than likely will be made Sept. 3. The five-member commission had planned for several weeks to vote on the matter Wednesday but, at the last minute, decided not to do so due to the absence of two members -- Robert Curry Jr. and Cheryl Buley. Curry was out due to illness, Denn said, while Buley later Wednesday announced plans to move to Kentucky to be married. Buley's move was unexpected, and it means she most likely will not take part in the Iberdrola vote, Denn said.

Iberdrola SA could walk away from its $4.5 billion merger with Energy East Corp. if state regulators try to extract too much money from the Spanish utility. Just a few days from a vote by the Public Service Commission, one of the biggest questions surrounding the deal appears to be just how much Iberdrola will be required to share with customers. ...In a hearing before the PSC on Aug. 20, staff had suggested three different scenarios that involved between $202 million and $300 million in PBAs [positive benefit adjustments]. Two of the scenarios involved sharing earnings with consumers, while the third called for a rate case before the PSC in which the agency could potentially reset Iberdrola's electric and gas rates in upstate New York.

The MinnDakota Wind Power Project near White is set to expand by one-third. Iberdrola Renewables, of Portland, Ore., on Friday announced a $100 million expansion, called the Buffalo Ridge Wind Power Project. It would add 50 megawatts of potential power production from about 50 new turbines. There already are 100 turbines in the original MinnDakota wind farm capable of producing 150 megawatts.

A team of university scientists and industry experts has narrowed its sights on an initial project - about 100 wind turbines installed at least 12 miles off Virginia Beach, costing more than $250 million. The whirling turbines, each about 300 feet tall, would not be visible from shore, researchers said, and would take advantage of strong, consistent winds found in that part of the Atlantic, especially during winter. ..."If wind energy development in the eastern U.S. is going to make a real rather than symbolic contribution to solving our energy and air pollution problems, it will certainly be offshore development," Rick Webb, a University of Virginia scientist.

For a moment, it seemed as if NBC had no love for Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens' energy conservation plan, but the tide turned Wednesday, when the network reversed its decision to reject a commercial featuring Pickens promoting alternative energy. According to Adweek, NBC's original rejection letter, issued Tuesday, read, "The ad is not acceptable for air on the NBC network because the spots address controversial issues and it is our policy not to air ads addressing such issues on our network."