Town Supervisor Thomas K. Rienbeck began the wind law committee's meeting on Thursday afternoon by clearing up some mistakes and misconceptions about the draft amendment to the zoning law. "No one was ever interested in it being in anywhere but the agricultural-residential district," he said. To that end, the committee agreed to add a setback from the riverfront and lakefront district boundaries of one and a half times the height of the turbine.

Suburban DeWitt is the latest town to grapple with how to handle wind turbines. The planning board is proposing an ordinance that would ban from residential properties the tall, bladed turbines most typically in use, chair Michael Lazar said. But the ordinance would allow another, less common type of wind conversion generator - a vertical axis wind turbine, he said. Typical wind turbines or windmills would be permitted only on land zoned for industrial or high-tech use, Lazar said.

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.

The state Public Service Commission has deemed NYRI's application complete and scheduled public hearings, including one in Oneonta in October, on the proposed 400,000-watt power line. Introduced about 21/2 years ago by New York Regional Interconnect Inc., the proposed direct-current line would run about 190 miles, from Marcy in Oneida County to New Windsor in Orange County.

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.

First Wind, a wind energy company that has pledged $50 million to help buy Molokai Ranch lands, is under investigation on the mainland for allegations of improper dealings with public officials and anti-competitive practices. New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo began investigations in July to find out if the company obtained land-use agreements with residents and public officials through bribes and submitted false statements for permits and during environmental studies.

A fledgling investment group is eyeing the town as a location for a wind power project. Ronald J. Scrudato has talked to town Supervisor Clyde E. Moore and one landowner. He represents an investment firm so young, it's name isn't set yet. But so far, it's called Delfea and it is based in New Jersey. ...The company would offer leases of 50 to 100 years, with up to $5,000 per year per turbine for the property owner, but the compensation would depend on the productivity of the turbine.

Representatives for the town of Prattsburgh, the project developer for "First Wind," and many upset landlords will present their cases Friday in front of a State Supreme Court Judge in Bath. The dispute is over controversial votes by the Town Supervisor allowing the town to pursue eminent domain.

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.

Money doesn't grow on trees, but it may grow on windmills. The developers of the four proposed wind farms in Jefferson County could capitalize on tax breaks and incentives at the federal, state and local levels through their projects. Opponents say the subsidies take taxpayer money and give it to those who already are rich. "It's the taxpayers and electric customers that are taken to the cleaners," said Glenn R. Schleede, a widely known wind power opponent who has worked for electric utilities and the federal Office of Management and Budget.

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.