The feds have awarded $502 million under a new $3 billion program that gives the cash equivalent of a 30 percent investment tax credit. The U.S. Department of Treasury has doled out $502 million under a new program to provide grants to renewable energy developers who opt for cash instead of the 30 percent investment tax credit.

About 60 people took time out of their day Monday to hear a presentation and give comments to the state's Wind Energy Resource Zone Board. ...One thing Walter stressed over and over again throughout the hearing was that people shouldn't focus on individual properties included or excluded in the report. The board's charge was to identify on a "macro" scale where the best potential wind and available land coincide. It eliminated sensitive areas, areas around airports, assumed a setback of one mile for Great Lakes shorelines

As offshore wind farms in the U.S. move closer to becoming a reality, there are still questions about the potential environmental impacts and best sites for in-the-water wind turbines. Coastal resource managers in New Jersey are getting in front of this burgeoning business by conducting an environmental baseline study that will help guide wind farm development off that state's coastline.

When Congress adopted higher standards for the use of corn-based ethanol, a gold rush of ethanol plant construction in Nebraska and the Great Plains resulted. A similar decision concerning wind energy, which will soon face federal lawmakers ...Shelley Sahling-Zart, a lobbyist for the Nebraska Power Association, said utilities have varying abilities to meet such mandates. She said they should be free to pursue renewables as "they make economic sense for our customers."

In May, 62 wind turbines started sending electricity from southern Washington state to the Turlock Irrigation District. Next year, a nearby wind project in northern Oregon will start supplying the Modesto Irrigation District. ...Outsourcing renewable power irks some activists. "It totally takes the focus off building our green-tech economy," said Laura Wisland, a clean energy analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists in Berkeley.

When it comes to the biggest decision facing CPS - how to meet the energy shortage looming in the next decade or so - utility officials are adamant that renewable resources like solar and wind are not yet ready to shoulder the lion's share of the load. The proposed solution instead is to add two nuclear reactors to the South Texas Project. Utility officials insist the proposed $5.2 billion investment is cheaper and more reliable than solar or wind. The situation has the local anti-nuclear coalition Energia Mia and statewide renewable energy proponents outraged.

At the State Capitol, boosting the use of solar power, wind generators and other renewable energy sources is seen as a boon for both the environment and the economy in electricity-hungry California. But with two weeks left in the legislative session, Democrats are hustling to fulfill a commitment they made to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to pass a law to require all utilities to get a third of their power from "green" sources by 2020.

Either way, the sound of wind turbines is making more ears perk up as a bill moves forward in the Legislature that would empower the Public Service Commission to create statewide rules governing wind power and pre-empt local government control over their placement. The rules would govern the distance between turbines and homes along with their noise and the flicker effects of shadows from their turbine blades.

Draft legislation backed by Gov. Deval Patrick has again placed the Vineyard front and center in the statewide push to build large-scale wind farms on land and at sea, sparking some concern here that the rush to adopt clean energy technologies could come at the expense of fishing grounds, scenic views and the Island's unique powers to regulate development through the Martha's Vineyard Commission.

Granite Reliable Power LLC, the company that plans to build a 33-turbine wind farm in Coos County, asked the state last week to deny two motions for a rehearing. The motions were frilled Aug. 14 by the state attorney general's office, which serves as counsel for the public, and the Industrial Wind Action Group, which opposes the project. In his motion, Senior Assistant Attorney General Peter Roth argued for a rehearing, stating that GRP does not have the financial capability to carry out the project and there is no "assurance the project will be constructed and operated in continuing compliance with the certificate."

It might be tempting to imagine some sort of collegiate atmosphere among the developers of renewable technologies as they lead the charge towards a low carbon economy. But don't bank on it. Professional jealousies and business rivalries simmer below the surface and are often not contained. ...But the biggest schism highlighted in the past week is between "the intermittents" (the wind industry) and the "baseload" renewables (most of the rest).

California's electric utilities have accepted that they'll be required to get a third of their power from renewable sources by 2020. Now, they are battling environmental and labor groups over where it's going to come from. Utilities say they can't meet the 2020 goal unless the state allows them relatively free access to renewable power generated far beyond the state's borders, in places like Wyoming and British Columbia.

The latest generation of wind turbines needs bigger blades than the 140-foot-long, 6-ton models that Gamesa Technology Corp. Inc. has been making at its factory in Fairless Hills. So company officials announced 184 layoffs in January and said the blade work would be transferred to a larger Gamesa plant in the center of the state, near Altoona. And just that fast, manufacturing jobs that Spain-based Gamesa had delivered to this region less than three years earlier - aided by more than $10 million in financial incentives from Harrisburg - were gone

To satisfy San Antonio's demand for power with two plants out on hotter-than-normal June days, CPS had to buy power - very expensive power - from the operator of the Texas grid. Customers saw those higher prices reflected in their bills this summer. It's a scenario CPS doesn't want to repeat. The city-owned utility wants to have power available that can satisfy the city's demands for electricity, with a safety cushion above that.

Ministers are considering whether to establish a "conservation bank" to help overcome planning objections to wind farms and other renewable-energy projects. Planning problems have held back British onshore wind farms. Vestas blamed nimby (not in my back yard) objections for its recent decision to shut Britain's only wind-turbine plant, on the Isle of Wight (see panel below). Vestas and other energy groups say planning delays and uncertainties make it riskier to invest in Britain than in other countries.

Vermont's energy future could become clearer in the coming months, with key decisions possible by year's end on the relicensing of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and on the renewal of utilities' contracts with Hydro Quebec. Together, Yankee and HQ provide about two-thirds of the electricity currently consumed by Vermont residents and businesses.

The provincial government plans to release more information regarding its proposed changes to wind farms under the Green Energy Act, a plan which has municipal officials wor ried about future development in Elgin county. Ontario's Ministry of the Environment received about 1,000 comments during a 45-day consultation period asking whether wind turbines should be set back a minimum of 550 metres from buildings, with different setbacks for roadways and property lines.

State utility regulators today authorized an auction to distribute $95 million to new power plants fueled by the wind, the sun, biomass or other renewable sources. The auction will be the fourth conducted under a standing state mandate to derive 25 percent of New York's electricity from renewable energy sources by 2013. Members of the state Public Service Commission ...noted that the time is right for new renewable energy projects.

The Coalition has scored a victory on climate change by forcing a series of changes to the renewable energy legislation. As a result, the Senate last night was scheduled to pass the legislation, which mandates that 20 per cent of electricity be generated from renewable sources by 2020. The passage of the bill ensures the focus returns to the emissions trading scheme.

Dubbed "biomass energy," the push to help wean the state off coal-burning plants by incinerating trees and wood has the backing of state officials and many environmentalists. The Patrick administration already has invested $1 million to help jump start the development of four wood-burning plants in the western Massachusetts ...But a coalition of neighborhood groups and other environmental advocates is pushing back.