The Menino administration is turning red over efforts to go green as the bungled installation of a wind turbine on City Hall's roof is running up a bill for taxpayers - all to create enough electricity to power just 19 lightbulbs. Making matters worse: City officials may have inadvertently violated bidding laws in the scramble to get the little turbine engine spinning. ...The city had trouble securing the turbine to the roof, which is made of concrete reinforced with steel, Hunt said. The turbine also had to be on a hinge so city engineers could safely repair and maintain it.

Steve Pitney of Alternate Energy, the company chosen to build the turbine, said he is considering Westport-based Aerostar Wind Turbines or a West Coast company instead of Bergey, the Oklahoma-based manufacturer that received poor reviews in a recent local report. Pitney called Paul Gay, the owner of Aerostar, last week to tell him he was interested in using an Aerostar turbine, which Gay said is "vastly different" from a Bergey. Gay said he was interested in the project but that he had "no idea" if Aerostar might end up building the turbine.

Harvard is planning to install small-scale wind turbines on top of the Holyoke Center and a parking garage, according to a media report. While the wind turbines are not expected to generate a significant amount of electricity for Harvard, they will function as "outward symbols of our commitment to renewable energy and sustainability here on campus," James Gray, associate vice president for Harvard real estate services told The New York Times. ..."It is important to realize that [the turbines] are symbolic, and are not an alternative to doing something more substantive," Schrag said.

If you ask the Sewer Commission how they feel about wind turbines, they would probably say, "great", but ask them how they relish the idea of placing such a structure hovering over the sewer plant and you will get a different answer. On August 27 the Commission wrote a four page letter to the Green Committee essentially tearing apart every aspect of the turbine, its placement and its financials. That correspondence outlines how the height of the turbine violates Kingston's own by-laws and places the sewer plant directly under its fall zone "rendering it inoperable for an indefinite period of time.

Consultants recently told the Nauset Regional School Committee that the district will be able to pay off a proposed $2.7 million wind turbine at the high school in less than three years. But others with knowledge in the field say that is way too optimistic. ...Nauset business manager Hans Baumhauer is skeptical. Without knowing the size of the turbine, the height, or cost, he said it is too early to speculate on profit. "I have grave concerns about that number," Baumhauer said of Michelman's estimate.

The new owners of the Berkshire Wind project on Brodie Mountain are on the brink of ordering 10 1.5 megawatt wind turbines for installation at some point during the coming two years. According to Ed Kaczenski, lead staff engineer for Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corp., four requests for bids were sent out in early August to the only four manufacturers of the 1.5 megawatt turbines - GE, Fuhrlander, Suzlon and AEER. ...The Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corp. borrowed $8 million from PeoplesBank of Holyoke to finance the purchase of the project and to begin the purchase process for the wind turbines.

The state's suspension of a rebate program for small wind turbine projects has led Mashpee Commons to rethink its proposal to mount two turbines to the roof of the Talbots' building in the middle of the commercial and residential development. Douglas S. Storrs, a vice president of both Mashpee Commons LP another related development firm, said this week that in light of the suspension the developers are now investigating using the two small turbines, purchased nearly a year ago, at other properties in Rhode Island.

Boston planners are rewriting the city's zoning code to allow wind turbines in certain areas. "We want to give predictability to the private sector, and lay clear ground rules for wind project development, while being sensitive to neighborhood concerns," said James Hunt, the city's environment and energy chief, about the proposed changes. As the demand for alternative energy sources surges, there has been increased interest in non-polluting, energy-generating wind turbines.

The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative owns two turbines and wants to get rid of them. CCI Energy, developer of the Fairhaven wind project, needs two turbines. It would seem to be a perfect match but, despite months of discussions between the two parties, it now appears unlikely that the turbines the collaborative is selling will be the turbines CCI buys.

Almost nothing is known for sure about how offshore wind turbines being proposed for the Gulf of Maine would affect lobster and groundfish habitats and migrations. Experts on tapping the energy inherent in Maine's strong offshore winds who met recently in Northport agree that's a problem. Giant wind turbines located 20 miles or more offshore would generate underwater noise and vibration. The underwater cables that will link the turbines to the mainland would also generate an electromagnetic field. ..."It's something to be concerned about, but how concerned, we don't know," he said. "It's a difficult thing to study."

Scituate has been working to put at wind turbine at the wastewater treatment plant for years, but recent events, including increasing energy prices and a change in state law, have made a turbine potentially even more attractive to town officials. Next week, in anticipation of funds for a turbine being on the warrant of an upcoming Town Meeting, Scituate will host an information session for residents interested in learning about the project.

Building and installing the turbines, however, would take 1½ to 2 years after approvals were in place and equipment was ordered, Robert A. Shatten, principal with Boreal Renewable Energy Development, told the council Committee on Health and Environmental Affairs. "There's that much backlog. It's very hard to get a machine," Shatten said. He said demand was particularly high in the Texas area. ...The recommended General Electric turbine would cost an estimated $4.3 million, or about $2,851 per kilowatt.

Last week, Boston approved the Museum of Science's plans to install nine wind turbines on its roof as part of an exhibit on wind power. Now only one obstacle remains before the installation can begin: the city of Cambridge. The museum's David Rabkin said that he hopes that the Cambridge Zoning Board of Appeals will approve the project by late August. ...the museum aims to provide information on the feasibility of generating power through urban wind turbines, which are quiet and small enough to install on the roof of a house. While much research has been done on larger wind turbines, the new, smaller urban turbines have yet to be extensively studied.

Wind turbines atop a mountain in the Berkshires could soon help four area communities meet their power needs. Municipal utilities in Ipswich, Marblehead, Peabody, and Wakefield, along with those in 10 other communities, recently teamed with a nonprofit corporation to acquire the assets of a planned 15-megawatt wind farm on the summit of Brodie Mountain in the western Massachusetts town of Hancock.

Governors of the six New England states met July 9 for their New England Governors Conference meeting in Boston to discuss energy and try to forge, among other things, an agreement on funding new transmission lines to bring electricity from remote wind and biomass power plants in Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire to the urban centers on the Eastern Seaboard. The state chief executives met in private for what was reported to be some free and candid bargaining, but participants later confirmed that New Hampshire will likely have to go it alone if it wants expand transmission capability in Coos County in order to make renewable energy projects with a total of between 300 and 400 megawatts a reality.

A state report released this week shows that two proposed wind turbine sites on school property appear to offer only mild breezes, potentially keeping the green energy initiative from getting off the ground. The assessment is based on a computer model's projected yearly average and was made by the Renewable Energy Research Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst for the state's renewable energy agency, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative in Westborough. The town will now have to decide whether it wants to pursue the project ...

A state panel has sided with the developers of Cape Wind, after the Cape Cod Commission denied the project a permit for an electric transmission line. ...The board ruled it had the authority to review the commission's denial and that the review would be limited to the transmission line - not the impacts of the wind farm.

The state House of Representatives unanimously approved on July 24 an environmental bond bill that includes $1.5 million for the construction of a wind turbine in Braintree that would provide power for the regional water treatment plant to be built along the Great Pond reservoir. ..."Using wind power instead of oil and gas will reduce operating costs for the treatment plant," Ayers said. According to Timlty, the use of wind power also helps the environment. "From an environmental standpoint, the technology is at a point where it is reliable, efficient, and beneficial to our natural resources," he said.

The town attorney will contact the contractor for the Town Hall wind turbine to find out why the project has been delayed since the Board of Selectmen signed a contract a month ago. Steve Pitney of Alternate Energy hasn't submitted an application for a rebate from the quasi-public agency Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, a necessary step before construction can begin on the turbine.