Proponents of small wind systems got a lift this week when the county attorney said a proposed bill designed to streamline the permitting process would not open the county to legal or financial liability should an applicant's windmill kill an endangered seabird. The announcement, delivered by Deputy County Attorney Ian Jung, who specializes in planning issues and advises the Kaua‘i Planning Commission. ...While Jung's statement could go a long way to resolving one issue standing in the way of the bill's passage, there are several other factors that have yet to be addressed.

A 2.3-megawatt North Kohala wind farm will remain shut down until late next week while workers try to bypass a high-tech "shock absorber" that was severely damaged Monday in a fire believed to have been caused by Sunday's earthquakes.

The new wind farm on the Big Island's South Point is steadily producing power for Big Island residents. But it's not steadily shrinking local electricity bills...... But the wind power isn't lowering electricity bills even though it is locally generated, unlike the imported oil the state is so heavily reliant on. HELCO pays for the wind farm electricity by calculating the "avoided cost" or the cost the utility would have to pay if it were to build or generate power on its own. Lee said rates vary because they are tied to oil prices.

First, he ripped out the pineapples. Then he put up Four Seasons hotels and luxury homes. Next, he envisions 200 windmills towering next to a Hawaiian beach. ..."It's a place a lot of people use for hunting deer, fishing and diving," said Robin Kaye, 62, a retired photographer who lives on Lanai. "Why should this island be the power generator for Oahu? Let them build a wind farm there."

Kilauea farmer Sam Pangdan sensed change was in the air when it came to erecting wind turbines on his property. Nearly a year and a half later, he is still waiting for that change to blow through the county Planning Commission, which worries the alternative energy resource could be a hazard for endangered birds and bats. "We have competing interests between clean energy and birds," said Commissioner Hartwell Blake, at a commission meeting last month.

HONOLULU – A request to negotiate a lease for state land on the Kealaloloa Ridge for expansion of the Kaheawa Wind Power plant was approved Friday but with strict conditions for additional studies on environmental and visual impacts. The state Board of Land and Natural Resources also made clear that the authorization for the state Land Division to initiate negotiations for a direct lease did not mean a lease will be granted, Land Board Chairman Peter Young said. Approval of a lease “will be subject to a review of all of the environmental issues,” he said.

UPC hopes that the nineteen towers would eventually be part of an overarching plan that includes a total of 140 wind turbines on Molokai, most of which would be on the island's west end. ..."We don't want to be the ones on the back burner," one attendee said during a question and answer session. "Our electricity is high...We have the right to take care of our community." "Let Oahu build their own propellers," homesteader Hana Yasso said later.

Former Hawaiian Electric Industries Chairman Bob Clarke says the transmission of electricity from Lanai to Oahu by undersea cable is feasible because the ocean isn't as deep as on some other paths considered in the past. Castle & Cooke, which owns most of Lanai, said last week it not only has hired a Mainland company to build a solar power farm for Lanai's electric needs, but it is also seriously considering a massive wind power farm with the idea of selling the power to Hawaiian Electric for use on Oahu.

"The real issue is that you have a high penetration wind environment" in the electric utility, says Juan de Bedout, the global technology leader for power conversion systems at GE Global Research in New York. That means the amount of energy on the island that comes from unstable wind is very high in proportion to the total demand for power - 15 to 30 percent.

A proposed change to the Big Island's zoning law that would allow construction of wind energy facilities in open zoned districts will be discussed by the Hawaii County Council's Planning Committee Tuesday in Kailua-Kona.

Maui Electric Co.'s sales, measured in kilowatt-hours, are down nearly 10 percent this year, a drop that tracks closely with declining visitor arrivals, said company President Ed Reinhardt. Before the island's economic downturn and fewer visitors coming to the island, MECO had been forecasting that it would need its next increment of firm power generation in 2011. Earlier this year, because of declining demand, it revised that forecast to 2014.

The Oregon developer looking to erect wind turbines on a Kahuku ridge is moving forward with permitting for the project. West Wind Works wants to put up 10 wind turbines for a project it's calling Na Pua Makani, which is expected to generate 25 megawatts of renewable energy.

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.

Most Molokai residents who attended last Thursday's meeting would be happy if the deal never went through. First Wind's current plan calls for the installation of up to 20 turbines on Hawaiian Homestead land in Ho`olehua, followed by as many as 60 turbines on Molokai Ranch land.

ATLANTA — General Electric Co.'s GE Energy unit said Monday it will supply wind turbines for use in municipal projects in Los Angeles and Hawaii.

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) – GE Energy Financial Services announced Thursday that it was investing $270 million in wind farms in Illinois and three other states. The company, a unit of General Electric Co., is investing along with a subsidiary of Wachovia Corp. into six wind farms owned by affiliates of global investment and advisory firm Babcock & Brown. “This transaction continues the expansion of the geographic footprint and technology mix of our wind holdings,” said Kevin Walsh, GE Energy Financial Service’s managing director and leader of renewable energy. All the wind farms have either been completed or will be completed by the end of April, except the Pennsylvania operation, expected to be finished by December. In Illinois, the farms are in Lee and LaSalle counties. The other states are California, New Mexico and Pennsylvania. The announcement is the latest in a series of deals to expand GE’s foothold in wind power production. On Wednesday, GE Energy Financial Services announced that it would sell 165-megawatt wind farms in Germany for 5.2 million shares of Theolia, a Paris-based company that generates electricity from wind power. GE Energy Financial Services also purchased an additional 1.2 million shares of Theolia stock for about $26 million and could increase its ownership to up to 22 percent of Theolia. In September, GE Energy Financial Services announced it would finance the construction and operation of Tawhiri Power LLC’s wind farm in Hawaii.

Harnessing wind Power is not new to Hawaii. Since 1980 various wind farm projects have been built in the islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai and the Big Island, including the world's largest turbine for its time (1987) with mixed results and outcomes.

Down a dirt road on America's southernmost island, 16 windmills tilt their sleek blades toward the ocean, as dependent on the whims of Hawai'i's tropical breeze as residents are on the electricity they help produce. The Hawi wind farm on the Big Island makes clean and affordable energy, but the 100-foot-tall wind turbines stop when the air is still. Most forms of renewable energy face a similar difficulty nationwide - they're cleaner than oil and coal but fall short on reliability and convenience.

Hawaii is about to get another major wind power project, and the details about it will be announced this week at the State Capitol.

With its ocean breezes, ample sunlight, pounding waves and a continuously erupting volcano, Hawaii seems blessed with the means to produce clean electricity and achieve energy independence. But that isn't anywhere close to happening. For one thing, the technology isn't quite ready. The big drawback with wind and solar energy, for example, is that the flow of electricity stops when the breeze dies down and the sun sets. Since there is no good way to store the power for use later, homeowners need conventional electrical service - meaning fossil fuel-burning plants - as a backup.