The town of Cherry Valley's Citizens Committee on Renewable and Alternative Energy is sponsoring a presentation next week by town of Caroline supervisor Don Barber. Caroline town officials have put together a proposal to build a 10-turbine, 2.5 mega-watt generating facility that would be financed, owned and operated by the town. The town would issue bonds to finance the project, and once those bonds are paid off, revenue generated by the turbines could be used to reduce property taxes. ...The smaller scale would address some of the residents' concerns about the visual impact of the industrialscale turbines, Garretson said.

Just about 300 people packed the Essex Civic Center to hear the latest proposal from Ray Duhamel and the Jones Consulting Group. Among their objectives are to increase the renewable energy supply and make sure it's done in appropriate areas. ...Only a few people were fully in favour of the wind turbines.

Environmental campaigners last night condemned the sale of a proposed wind farm site to a French company planning to build a nuclear power plant on the plot. The site at West Hinkley, Somerset, has been bought by Electricite de France (EDF), one of the world's largest nuclear power generators. Your Energy, which tried for five years to win planning permission to build a wind farm there, confirmed it had sold the project rights to EDF. Jim Duffy, spokesman for the Stop Hinkley campaign, said objectors like British Energy had thwarted the wind farm plans by arguing nuclear power was a better use of the land.

Equipment shortages and rising costs are stalling as much as $120 billion of offshore projects the European Union and other governments are counting on to reduce the use of fossil fuels and combat global warming. Royal Dutch Shell Plc on May 1 said it planned to sell its 33 percent stake in the London Array, the world's biggest sea-based wind park. "It's been more difficult to build offshore projects than everyone thought,'' said Goeran Lundgren, head of Nordic power generation at Stockholm-based Vattenfall AB, which has put a 640- megawatt wind farm in the Baltic Sea on hold. ...Vestas hasn't sold a sea-based turbine since December 2006. The company suspended sales of its 3-megawatt V90 offshore model after it had to replace faulty gearboxes at three wind parks. It began offering the model again this month. Offshore "is a niche,'' said Chief Executive Officer Ditlev Engel.

With northern Logan County embroiled in a controversy over a plan that would dot the rural landscape with 400-foot-tall wind turbines, a new government report is predicting that in two decades, Americans could get as much electricity from windmills as from nuclear power plants. ...If achieved, it would be an astounding leap. Wind energy today accounts for only about 1 percent of the nation's electricity, although the industry has been on a growth binge with a 45 percent jump in production last year. ...But the report cautioned that its findings were not meant to predict that such growth would, in fact, be achieved, but only that it is technically possible.

Central Government has extended an off-shore exclusion area in the Strait of Gibraltar. ...Central Government, acting on a request from the regional Junta de Andalucía, has ordered that there will be no new wind farms off the coast of Zahara or Barbate. A previous exclusion zone there has now been extended, prohibiting the windmills along the entire Strait of Gibraltar, from Algeciras to Trafalgar.

As millions of people approach the summer vacation season under the threat of $4-per-gallon gasoline, Congress is scrambling to respond. But don't wait for anything that will drive down prices at the pump. A Senate vote on a GOP plan is scheduled for Tuesday, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has promised to bring up a Democratic package before the Memorial Day congressional recess. Except for halting the flow of oil into the government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, neither plan is likely to go very far. Both will be challenged by filibusters by opponents, meaning they would require 60 votes to advance.

A landmark bill designed to better manage everything from wind farms to whale watching in the coastal waters off Massachusetts is making its way through the Statehouse and could emerge from a key legislative committee as soon as this week. ...A single, compromise version of the bill is expected to be released this week. ...Senate President Therese Murray, D-Plymouth said the bill is needed as the ocean waters are increasingly coming under pressure. "Our ocean is the last great stretch that has not yet been developed," Murray said when the Senate approved their version of the bill. "We have well-established laws for planning how we use our land, but nothing for our ocean."

Duke Energy Carolinas is ramping up plans to generate some of its own renewable energy, with the company primarily warming up to solar power. ...Duke has been considering its options on owning alternative energy capacity or buying it. Chief Executive Jim Rogers says the corporation has decided its utilities will do both. ...Rogers says some of Duke's utilities will also own their own wind capacity. But he says wind energy is a less likely alternative in the Carolinas. Duke may negotiate the purchase of wind energy here. But the only place wind farms would work in Duke's footprint is along the ridge lines in the western mountains and along the coast. "I'm not sure many environmentalists would salute that proposal," Rogers says.

"Wind-mapping shows that ... Norway is among the (world's) most ideal locations for wind power, both on the coast and offshore," said Norwegian Deputy Petroleum and Energy Minister Liv Monica Stubholdt. Yet the Scandinavian country, one of the world's leading oil and gas exporters, today lags far behind others in taking advantage of this natural resource. ..."Of course, we don't want to fill our entire coast with wind turbines but even a fraction of that would be good," ...A major reason for the slow uptake is Norway's virtually unlimited access to renewable hydro power, which today covers about 99 percent of its domestic energy consumption, Deputy Minister Stubholdt explained.

Snowflakes tumbling along the Old Dunstan Road hint at a long winter to come. Here, 700m up on the northern fringes of Central Otago's Lammermoor Ranges, is giant state-owned power company Meridian Energy's latest bid to produce enough electricity to allow South Islanders to enjoy a more secure power supply. Flurrying snow marks out small eddies but there's little real wind up here today on the 200sq km site where Meridian plans to spend $1.5 billion and install as many as 176 wind turbines with the potential to generate up to 630 megawatts (MW) of electricity ...The true extent of Project Hayes, which spreads across five private properties, is difficult to gauge as the windfarm site disappears into the snowy mists. It has been controversial, as all proposals to generate more electricity are these days, attracting the ire of high-profile Central Otago landscape-lovers ...

Centrica, one of the UK's biggest energy generators, has warned that the prospect of making money from wind farms is looking "marginal". The company says that the rising cost of off-shore wind farms could end up ruining the government's renewable energy targets. The comments come a week after Shell withdrew from a project that was set to become the world's largest wind farm. The government wants 33 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity built by 2020.

The state would open up ocean sanctuaries to renewable energy development under a legislative agreement that could allow a controversial wind farm in Buzzards Bay to be built under certain conditions. ...Under current law, development can only take place in the state's ocean sanctuaries if it is deemed a "public necessity." The five protected sanctuaries are on the North Shore, Cape Cod Bay, the southern Cape and islands and Buzzards Bay. The new law would allow renewable energy projects, but they would be subject to an ocean management plan to be drawn up by a special commission by Dec. 31, 2009, according to people familiar with the agreement. The commission will decide the specific regulations, including allowable distance from shore, scale and type of technology, community benefits and environmental impact.

A legislative move to keep Delmarva Power from having its customers foot the bill for the Bluewater wind farm fight fizzled today, at least temporarily. House Concurrent Resolution 50, whose prime sponsor is Rep. John J. Kowalko, D-Newark South, recommends that the Public Service Commission deny any request by Delmarva to pass on the costs to ratepayers. But Kowalko's resolution encountered heavy weather in the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee, whose chairman, Ocean View Republican Rep. Gerald W. Hocker, blasted it as "one of the most anti-business pieces of legislation I have seen."

Delmarva Power said Wednesday that it has selected six companies with which to negotiate contracts for 460 MW of power from onshore wind farms. Delmarva had 31 offers in response to a solicitation for alternatives to a power purchase agreement with Bluewater Wind, an offshore wind developer. That PPA, tabled in December and still under debate, was the result of a state law that required Delmarva to contract for power produced in the state.

Released Tuesday, the 443-page Energy Report 2008 shows state and local subsidies of $1.4 billion on energy produced in Texas, plus a similar amount of federal subsidies for Texas energy. ...[Texas Comptroller Susan] Combs said Tuesday that subsidies can have unintended consequences -- especially when policymakers favor "winners" by providing greater subsidies for one fuel source over another. "Such assistance must be applied carefully," the report says. "Public policies that attempt to pick winners in the race for new energy technologies are an inefficient way to achieve policy goals and run the risk not only of wasting taxpayer money but also of directing private investment away from more promising use."

When the Sustainable Energy Utility was formed last year, lawmakers envisioned a small nonprofit that could help Delawareans insulate their homes, buy energy-efficient refrigerators or install solar panels. But the SEU's scope could grow dramatically, thanks to a regional effort to tax polluters. Its coffers could swell by $5 million to $12 million per year, thanks to so-called "carbon taxes." At a time when other agencies are cutting back, the SEU could become a big player in the state's environmental efforts, and influence the debate about whether Delaware needs more power plants or alternatives, such as offshore wind turbines.

While public hearings are meant to air both the positives and negatives about a project, the Public Service Commission heard nothing but good about the Ashtabula Wind Farm during a hearing held Friday at Valley City. The PSC hearing concerned the citing of a proposed 200-megawatt wind farm planned for Barnes County. During the same session the commission also took testimony on a route permit for about 9.5 miles of electric transmission line associated with the wind farm. Both are projects of Ashtabula Wind, LLC, a subsidiary of Florida Power and Light, and are planned for Barnes County.

"Offshore (wind turbine sites) can be a can of worms," said Dickens, who is part of the Michigan wind outreach team from the Michigan Energy Office. "We don't have to go there yet. There are a lot of inland areas that we can use for wind development." Dickens might not want to "go there," but there are plenty of people considering the huge potential for wind turbine development on Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes. ...From an environmental standpoint, a lot more study is needed, according to Alan Steinman, director of the GVSU Annis Water Resources Institute in Muskegon. He suggests looking at the affects of such off-shore wind farms on birds and fish.

Supervisor Frank Duserick said the town of Naples is investigating what legal standing it may have to protest the placement of wind turbines planned for neighboring Prattsburgh. "We're not against wind towers," Duserick said. "But we are for appropriate placement of towers. Our concern is they should have put them a minimum of 1,500 feet from the town line." Ecogen of West Seneca, near Buffalo, has proposed building up to 53 turbines - though the number could fall to 31 if it switches from a 1.5 to 2.5-megawatt model - in Prattsburgh in 2009.