The state's Energy Facility Siting Board made a series of key rulings yesterday on the wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound, including reasserting that it has more authority than the Cape Cod Commission over parts of the project. "The bottom line is they defined the scope of the proceedings," said siting board spokesman Timothy Shevlin. The siting board is hearing a petition by Cape Wind Associates that would give the panel almost complete authority over parts of the project that fall under state jurisdiction. ...The siting board is responsible for ensuring a reliable energy supply in the state at the lowest possible cost and minimum impact on the environment.

The president of the board of directors of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod has resigned over a dispute about whether to endorse the wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound. Jack Barnes, 72, of West Falmouth, sent his letter of resignation to fellow board members at the prominent local environmental organization Friday, citing his belief that the organization's executive director, Maggie Geist, plans to push for an endorsement of Cape Wind's proposal.

North Andover is joining Haverhill and other Massachusetts communities that are testing to see if wind turbines will work for them. The Covanta company's trash incinerator at the edge of Interstate 495 in Haverhill has a small turbine that collects wind and converts it to electricity. The company is also studying wind patterns on top of a hill on its property along the Merrimack River to see if larger turbines will work there. Now consultants are trying to decide whether North Andover would be a good place to put a wind turbine.

The size, height and number of proposed turbines has not been finalized. Michelman, whose firm, Boreal Renewable Energy Development, was hired under a $50,000 study grant, said they were favoring one or two, a little larger than the one installed at Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay. The tower supporting the turbine would be 65 feet taller at 229 feet and the height to blade tip would be 390 feet. ...Trees would block views from most of North Eastham, but the turbine would be seen from the Nauset Light Beach parking lot, from Fort Hill and by properties bordering the school athletic fields.

Following Hayden's appeal of the board's decision to approve the tower, the principals and their attorneys reached agreement on a plan to move the turbine monopole 76 feet to the south and reduce its height from 126 to 100 feet. The revisions will keep the area of flicker, or shadows, almost entirely on Peck's property, according to Conrad Geyser, design consultant and construction engineer.

Museum officials are asking Boston and Cambridge officials for permission to erect nine wind turbines on the museum roof, a project they say will help educate the public and government agencies about the pros and cons of wind energy. ..."We want to introduce the public to the thinking of wind turbines," Rabkin said. "But we also want to know what are the practical problems we face in the Boston area with the use of them. . . . Cities are trying to develop zoning laws, and there is no good data."

Opponents are dead set against the project being placed off Cape Cod in federal waters and have pledged to use every means possible to fight it. In fact, they have been challenging incremental decisions all along, from filing a lawsuit trying to block a wind test tower more than five years ago to challenging a decision allowing transmission lines to be laid in state waters. Cape Wind has perservered in all the cases - included two recent ones.

The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative temporarily froze a program that supported small renewable energy projects, pending possible changes. The $63,400 Town Hall project will only go forward if the town secures a $45,000 rebate. "We're really not accepting applications right now," James L. Christo, the collaborative's program director of green buildings and infrastructure, said in a telephone interview Monday. The contractor for the Westport Town Hall project, Steve Pitney, said earlier Monday he had not submitted an application because he is waiting to receive a building permit from the town. The MTC made the decision in light of a consultant's analysis that showed previously funded wind turbines were producing on average less than a third of the electricity predicted by installers.

A company that wants to build a floating wind farm off the coast of Martha's Vineyard has received a boost from the state's congressional delegation. In a letter dated June 26, the entire Massachusetts delegation asked the U.S. Minerals Management Service to review an application by Blue H USA LLC for a lease to test floating platform technology and collect data at the site for the proposed wind farm. The company announced the congressional support for its application at its U.S. headquarters in Boston yesterday.

A row broke out last week over how to proceed with a proposal to build a wind turbine at the transfer station. Some selectmen were surprised to find out the recycling and renewable energy committee had applied to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission for input on putting a 250-foot turbine at the transfer station. ...board of selectmen chair Michele Couture was concerned that the recycling committee was getting ahead of the town in its interest in generating its own electricity. The committee should have asked selectmen for permission to contact the FAA and MAC, she said. "When it comes to siting a structure in town, the selectmen need to be involved in this. We're responsible for town property," she said, adding, "It was disconcerting to hear [Leger] talk like their committee was this independent entity."

After three years of planning, Medford's first wind turbine will be constructed at the McGlynn School sometime this fall. The City Council recently approved a $600,000 loan order for the city to start construction of the turbine. The turbine will stand 131 feet tall with 33-foot blades that will spin around 12 miles per hour. ...The turbine will be located behind the McGlynn School, about 150 feet from the playground and 200 feet from the river.

Wind farms are springing up in Midwestern fields, along Appalachian ridgelines, and even in Texas backyards. They're everywhere, it seems, except in the windy coastal waters that lap at some of America's largest, most power-hungry cities. That's partly because the first large-scale effort to harness sea breezes in the U.S. hit resistance from an army led by the rich and famous, waging a not-on-my-beach campaign. For almost eight years the critics have stalled the project, called Cape Wind, which aims to place 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound about five miles south of Cape Cod.

The latest version of the contract for the Town Hall wind turbine has been given to selectmen, who are scheduled to vote on it Monday. Key details of the contract were changed after former Selectwoman Veronica Beaulieu protested to the state attorney general. The latest proposal calls for the 120-foot turbine to connect to Town Hall as originally proposed and requires The Highway Department to dig trenches, excavate and backfill for the tower. A clause requiring the contractor to pay the town if the turbine doesn't produce a certain amount of energy was removed.

The presiding judge in a lawsuit against the state of Massachusetts and the company that wants to build 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound dismissed the bulk of the suit this week. Barnstable Superior Court Judge Robert Kane ruled in favor of Cape Wind Associates on most of the company's requests to dismiss five complaints in the case, which challenged the adequacy and jurisdiction of the state's review of the project under the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act. Last year, the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs approved the project in an environmental impact statement required under state environmental law. That approval set the stage for other state agencies to issue permits for Cape Wind.

Barnstable, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, and a group of residents had challenged the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act certificate allowing the developer to seek permits to build a wind farm in federal waters off Cape Cod. The group argued unsuccessfully that the state should have reviewed the entirety of the project - not just the cable that will run through state waters and deliver wind turbine power to the grid.

Plans for the Town Hall wind turbine project could revert to how they were laid out more than a year ago in a request for bids: the turbine would again power Town Hall instead of the Highway Department garage, the contractor will be responsible for foundation work and there will be no performance guarantee. The Board of Selectmen will be asked by the town attorney to vote on a new contract at its earliest convenience. The latest changes are the result of a bid protest made by former Selectwoman Veronica Beaulieu to the state Attorney General's Office. ..."Essentially, we're exactly back where we were over a year ago when the selectmen refused to accept what the energy committee had put together for them," he [David Dionne] said.

A recent Energy Department report said wind power could supply 20% of the country's energy needs by 2030. Community leaders in this blue-collar town of 11,000 think they might be able to top that by building an offshore wind farm that would supply all of their town's power. That would be a first. ...There are already more than 20 offshore wind farms producing electricity in Europe but, in this country, such proposals have sparked opposition from the Great Lakes states to Long Island. Opponents, including seafront homeowners, say such installations would threaten avian and aquatic life and ruin scenic vistas. With such environmental concerns pitted against the demand for clean energy, there is not a single offshore turbine anywhere in the United States. ...Building offshore would allow developers to produce electricity closer to big cities, particularly along the East Coast. The downside is that it would also boost construction costs by 30% or more. Erecting turbines within view of pricey coastal real estate also increases the odds of a backlash since a typical utility-grade unit includes a tower nearly as tall as the Statue of Liberty and a rotor roughly as wide as a football field is long.

CCI Energy's planned installation of two wind turbines adjacent to Little Bay at the end of Arsene Street have been stalled by an appeal and a lawsuit initiated by residents abutting the project. Project abutter and Attorney Anne Ponchitera Denardis filed an appeal with the Department of Environmental Protection and a civil lawsuit against the town concerning the Planning Board's approval of the project. The DEP appeal concerns the Conservation Commissions approval of the turbine project under the Department of Environmental Protection's Wetland Protection Act.

Limbacher said the feasibility study for the turbine is complete and several items related to the turbine should be ready for a vote at special town meeting in the fall. The turbine, according to a feasibility study conducted over the last 18 months, will provide enough power to run the wastewater treatment plant about 88 percent of the time. The price of wind power will remain the same, even as other energy costs rise in coming years, he said. Limbacher said several items in the state's Energy Bill, now in the Legislature, would simplify the permitting process for towns that want to install turbines.

The Berkshire Wind Project on Brodie Mountain has a new owner. Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corp. — a collaboration of 14 members of the nonprofit Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co. — closed the $4 million sale yesterday, according to a statement issued after the closing. Officials said they will move quickly to get the $25 million project back into construction. The venture to build the wind project had languished under the previous owner, Distributed Generation Systems Inc., because of a lawsuit filed by a neighboring development project, Silverleaf Resorts. The lawsuit since has been settled. ..."The critical item is the purchase of the turbines," said David Tuohey, a spokesman for the new owners. "Demand for turbines has gone through the roof, and they can be hard to come by. But we are determined to have them installed and operating by 2010."