Compared to those ultramodern windmills, the Eastham Mill is a relic: When the canvas sails are tied up, the arms look like pieces of wood and cloth washed ashore from a shipwreck. They don't move in the wind. But a few times a year the sails are unfurled, the arms turn in the wind, and Owens dumps corn into the mill, making cornmeal.

Wind power is just one aspect of Atlanta-based GE Energy, which sells products and know-how to all areas of the energy industry. Those areas range from coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power to emerging energy industries like solar power. In 2005, GE Energy generated $16.5 billion in revenue for its parent company. With respect to wind, the company has wind turbine manufacturing plants in Germany, Spain, China, Canada and the United States. It boasts a "knowledge base" earned by the installation of more than 8,500 wind turbines worldwide with a total output of 7,600 megawatts.

Construction in the bay is tightly restricted by a state law governing ocean sanctuaries because the bay is within a state-designated zone known as the Cape and Islands Ocean Sanctuary. But the state law is unclear: One section doesn’t allow for any structures to be built on the seabed or for offshore power plants in such sanctuaries, while another section appears to make an exception for energy generation, distribution and transmission projects.

Cantwell, a member of the Senate Energy Committee, helped push through Congress a two-year extension of a production tax credit for wind energy, which helped seal the current Vestas deal and provide jobs at the Port, Clark said. The credit was to expire on Dec. 31, 2005. The extension provides a 1.9 cent per kilowatt hour tax credit to the wind farm owner -- which passes the savings to ratepayers -- for electricity generated with turbines over the first 10 years of a project -- a break that has been crucial to wind farm development, port officials said. Cantwell said she also has proposed a bill for the development of clean energy that would ensure the tax credit until 2015. The lengthy extension would provide more predictability for investment and allow the wind power industry to grow, she said.

The phrase ''not permittable'' is typically the last thing a developer wants to hear. But that's exactly what the state environmental office has called Boston construction magnate Jay Cashman's proposal to build a 120-turbine offshore wind farm in three clustered Buzzards Bay sites. If Cashman wants to pursue his renewable energy plan, he ''proceeds at the risk of denial'' because the sites fall within the Cape and Islands Ocean Sanctuary, according to a certificate written by former Secretary of Environmental Affairs Stephen Pritchard that lays out the state's scope of review over the project.

The U.S. is seeing a big rise in cleaner wind energy as companies work with communities on issues ranging from noise to bird migration

Details and a registration form are available at the link below for the Wildlife and Wind Energy Conference to be held on Saturday, December 2, 2006 at Kutztown University in Kutztown, PA USA.

LUDLOW— When it comes to addressing the worldwide problem of greenhouse gas emissions, Okemo Mountain Resort Owner Tim Mueller said, you've got to start somewhere. That's why Mueller and wife, Diane, are purchasing enough renewable energy certificates from Sterling Planet, a retail renewable energy provider, to power all the electrical needs of their three ski resorts, which include Okemo, Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Colorado and Mount Sunapee Resort in New Hampshire.

The first in a series of articles on issues facing the next governor. With electricity prices close to the highest in the nation, Massachusetts is no friend to the energy consumer. It lies at the end of the energy pipeline, getting its oil by ship and natural gas from far away fields. But the next governor will have a chance to make a significant improvement in supply by bringing more power, cleanly and efficiently, to the state. Energy demand in Massachusetts is rising close to 2 percent each year and a growing queue of energy projects are proposed on land and offshore.

A Romney administration report has concluded that a proposal by a prominent Boston developer to build up to 120 wind turbines off Buzzards Bay would violate state law and could threaten an endangered species of bird.

Bingaman said he had supported tax credits aimed at developing wind power plants. With those credits ending in 2007, he said companies developing those operations were getting wary about starting new projects. The senator said he would propose extending those credits.

Coverage of The Cape Codder's Wind Energy Roundtable kicks off a series of articles and analyses of the proposed Cape Wind project that will appear in the paper through Sept. 1.

The Cape Codder's Wind Energy Roundtable: Fact versus Fiction will be shown on Lower Cape Public Access TV Channel 17 in the coming weeks. The roundtable features a lively discussion of the controversial Cape Wind proposal to develop a 130-turbine wind farm in Nantucket Sound.

Wind energy capacity in the US now exceeds 10,000MW, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).

Bourne Water District ratepayers have asked commissioners to explore the possibility of investing in a wind turbine to help defray annual operating expenses.

With the addition of more than 445 megawatts of new wind capacity since January, FPL Group, the parent company of Florida Power & Light Co., has become the largest owner and operator of wind power in the world.

Boston developer Jay Cashman's proposed wind farm in Buzzards Bay faces more significant hurdles than other major coastal wind projects reviewed by the state, according to Bay State environmental secretary Stephen R. Pritchard. In a certificate commenting on the environmental notification form Mr. Cashman submitted to the state in May, the secretary concluded that "the proponent proceeds at risk of denial of required permits on completion" of the state's environmental review of the project.

As in many area communities, the idea of attracting wind-power turbines to town is looking better and better to officials and residents of Plymouth. But the town continues to struggle with a fundamental challenge: formulating rules over how and where turbines should be sited.

Whenever energy prices rise, the government promises to subsidize oil alternatives," said Jerry Taylor, an energy expert with the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that opposes government intervention in economies. "It's flushing money down the toilet."

BOSTON --Trying to stave off power shortages and high electricity costs, Gov. Mitt Romney on Friday unveiled a plan to both reduce demand and increase supply in Massachusetts. Within the next month, Romney will require more efficient energy use in state buildings, increased use of biofuels in the state automobile fleet and the creation of a lottery in which prizes will be awarded to consumers who buy energy-efficient equipment.