Lured by the prospects of reducing energy costs and becoming a "greener" community, Norwell is exploring the potential siting of wind-powered turbines in town. ...Because of state rules governing how wind-power generators are compensated by the regional grid, Lederer said, the best option for communities to derive financial benefits from wind turbines is to make use of the power themselves. She said selling the power to the grid would not offer significant returns. ...Clark said there are a number of significant hurdles that communities face in attempting to develop turbines, including urbanization, high land values, concerns from abutters about noise and visual impacts, and the price tag: A utility-scale turbine can cost $2 million to $4 million.

In some parts of the state, from Cape Cod to the Berkshires, wind turbines are springing up to power municipal offices, homes, and businesses as a push for cheap alternatives to fossil-fuel energy continues to mount. But in the suburbs west of Boston, where green sentiments often run deep, one major hurdle stands in the way of environmental advocates and energy cost cutters - insufficient wind speeds. ...The Stow Board of Selectmen has discussed building a wind turbine on town property, but its chairman, Stephen Dungan, said the panel found local wind speeds were simply not high enough to make it pay off. "Basically, the option wasn't there," he said.

A new proposal for a wind farm off the coast of Martha's Vineyard is promising what people on all sides of the Cape Wind debate can embrace: turbines in a location where nobody has to see them. Blue H, a subsidiary of a Dutch company, announced this week that it wants to build 120 floating wind turbines in deep water 23 miles off Martha's Vineyard and sought government approval to install a test turbine. Company officials then joined with the main opposition group fighting Cape Wind's proposed wind farm off Cape Cod in touting Blue H as a viable alternative that would be far from ferry lanes and invisible from shore. "If you had a horse and buggy and then the automobile was invented, it makes sense to embrace the technology moving forward," said Blue H spokesman Martin T. Reilly.

Market competition that Cape Wind would provide could drastically curtail operations at the Canal Generating Plant in Sandwich, according to state Rep. Matthew Patrick, D-Falmouth. The wind farm, combined with efforts to reduce electricity demand at peak times, could bring the oil-burning plant to a near standstill ...Patrick's conclusions do not ring true with everyone, however. Because wind is an inherently intermittent resource, traditional power plants are an important part of providing energy to any area, said Angela O'Connor, the president of the New England Power Generators Association, a regional trade group. "You shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket," O'Connor said.

"I think alternative energy is a great idea. I'm all for it, but Nantucket is the Indian word for not in my backyard," he quipped. Borgeson, like many Nantucketers interviewed yesterday and who later spoke at the hearing in the Nantucket High School auditorium, was torn between the nation's need for alternative energy sources and the belief that the Sound is the wrong place for wind turbines. Yesterday's hearing was the second of four scheduled this week on a draft environmental report on Cape Wind Associates' plan to build 130 wind turbines in the Sound.

The first of four highly anticipated public hearings on the wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound did not disappoint. ...Most elected officials joined O'Leary to speak out against the project, citing concerns over catastrophic oil spills and impact on the local economy. "Anyone who would suggest that looking out on these things is not a befouling of the coastline does not have the same sense of aesthetics as I do," said Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe. State Rep. Matthew Patrick, D-Falmouth, was one of the few politicians who defended Cape Wind. ...By 10 p.m. more than 60 attendees had spoken of the 186 who had signed up. Another hundred audience members waited their turn.

Backers of a proposal to build 130 windmills across 25 miles of federal waters in Nantucket Sound will get what may be their best, last chance to make their case to federal regulators at a series of four public hearings this week. The same goes for critics of the project. The hearings by the federal Minerals Management Service on their draft environmental impact report could be one of the fiercest showdowns to date on the contentious plan by CapeWind Associates. The project, which has been working its way through the state and federal regulatory process since November 2001, has also split the state's top political leaders.

Markey is among the half-dozen members of the state's congressional delegation who have neither endorsed nor opposed the controversial plan to build a wind farm off the Cape and Islands. Today, activists plan to rally outside Markey's Medford office, delivering 8,000 postcards from Cape Wind supporters and urging him to take a stance. ...Markey said he will endorse the wind farm if it passes muster in the National Environmental Protection Act review it is now undergoing. "If it meets the test, then certainly I am in favor of it," he said. "But it must meet the test."

The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) is extending the public comment period on the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the Cape Wind Energy Project for an additional 30 days. The extension is in response to requests from the public for more time to review the document. The MMS released the Cape Wind DEIS for public review on January 11, 2008.

Both the developers and the critics of the offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound are urging the public to make themselves heard on the issue, either by sending comments to federal regulators or by attending a public hearing in Yarmouth next week. ...Nickerson called the draft environmental impact statement "half baked," saying it lacks key information from the Coast Guard and the FAA about the project's navigational impacts. The statement also lacked an adequate explanation of the effects on migratory birds, Nickerson said. "Those of you who live in Chatham are keenly aware of the amount of bird activity," she said.

The 6 p.m. session at Mattacheese Middle School is the last opportunity, however, for public comment on the plan to erect 130 wind turbines on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound to generate electricity. "Everybody should keep in mind that it's not a dialog session," said Rodney Cluck, Cape Wind project manager for the federal Minerals Management Service. "We'll be there listening. The information will be brought back and analyzed in the final Environmental Impact Statement."

"Massachusetts is a difficult place to develop wind energy," says McCauley. "The topography and population density create permitting and cost issues Wind energy works best in farmland settings like the Great Plains and there are very few great plains in New England." McCauley acknowledges that the Not In My Back Yard, or NIMBY, factor plays a major role in keeping wind turbines off the list of a community's favorite things. "A big part of the problem is you have to do small projects in Massachusetts and those aren't as economical as larger projects," says the Wellesley resident.

The developer of the Fairhaven wind project has the rights to two turbines. Now he just has to find a way to pay for them. The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, which owns the turbines, agreed to sell them to CCI Energy more than a month ago. But James Sweeney, president of CCI Energy, is still finishing the project's financing, and until that's in place he can't complete the purchase. The project has low returns," Mr. Sweeney said. "That's the obstacle we're overcoming."

State environmental officials today gave an initial approval to the nation's first grouping of offshore wind turbines, to be built off the coast of Hull, 1.5 miles east of Nantasket Beach. A decision by Ian Bowles, secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, opens the way for Hull to build four power-generating windmills capable of producing enough electricity to power the town. The turbines are planned to be built on a shoal known as Harding's Ledge, and would be the first offshore series of wind turbines in the country. ...Before offshore turbine construction can begin, studies must be performed to determine whether the ocean floor could support the turbines and how the construction might affect lobsters and other marine wildlife, ESS Group officials said.

Calling the Mineral Management Service's Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Cape Wind project inadequate and flawed, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound ...Glenn Wattley, president and CEO of the Alliance, rejected the notion that the mostly favorable report forecloses all but political and legal challenges to the plan to plant 130 turbines on Nantucket Sound to convert wind energy into electricity. He argued that the comment period will allow the public, state and federal agencies, and affected industries to punch holes in the report, which found almost all impacts would be minimal or negligible. Tom Bernardo, community relations director for state Rep. Demetrius Atsalis, said the representative is seeking a doubling of the 60-day comment period to make sure everyone is heard. He criticized the project as being "not about green energy, or Greenpeace. It's about greenbacks." Yarmouth Selectman Bill Morasco, who had gone to Washington with Atsalis and other Cape leaders last month to meet with MMS officials and make local opposition clear, spoke of his disappointment. He described the project as "25 square miles of an industrial energy complex buried 81 feet in the ground in the middle of what we consider a conservation part of the community."

Cape Wind Associates, LLC has submitted a revised permit application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for work in waters of the United States in conjunction with a wind farm proposal in Nantucket Sound, Mass. A public notice and Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) were issued by the Corps of Engineers in 2004. Since that time, the Department of Interior, Minerals Management Service (MMS) has become the lead federal agency on the review and has recently issued a new Draft EIS (see http://www.mms.gov/offshore/RenewableEnergy/CapeWind.htm). Check that site for MMS public hearing dates and locations scheduled in March 2008. The applicant has provided a revised application to the Corps to show the minor revisions to the proposed project. The Corps is soliciting public comments on the project revisions.

The U.S. Minerals Management Service found little to complain about in a draft environmental report released Monday on Cape Wind's plan to build 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound. But a host of government agencies, opponents of the project and the general public are now delving into the federal agency's environmental review and its implications. And Cape Wind must still secure at least 19 assorted approvals and permits before construction can begin.

Nearly three months after selectmen signed a contract for a Town Hall wind turbine, the dispute between the town and the contractor remains unresolved. The prolonged dispute has raised doubts in some people's minds whether the project will ever happen. The contractor, Steve Pitney of Plymouth-based Alternate Energy LLC, objects to the town's plan to pay him in annual installments over 13 years, instead of a single payment. Meanwhile, town officials have argued the language formalizes a guarantee Mr. Pitney had made. ...While some town officials view the contract as a fair way to ensure the guarantee is met, Mr. Dionne said it is unreasonable.

The Nantucket Sound wind farm is poised to pass the most important remaining regulatory test after a federal review found no significant environmental harm associated with the project. ...In the draft environmental impact statement on the project released Monday, U.S. Minerals Management Service officials found only "negligible" and "minor" effects across most of the 117 areas they analyzed. A similarly positive final version of the report that could be out by the fall would open the door for Cape Wind to secure permits and begin construction, barring any changes or successful legal challenges.

A key federal agency said Monday that a proposed wind farm off Cape Cod would pose no major environmental problems, giving a boost to the project that has sparked a long and bitter public fight. A draft environmental report by the Minerals Management Service said plans by developer Cape Wind Associates to build 130 windmills across 25 miles of federal waters in Nantucket Sound would have mostly 'minor' or 'negligible' effects on wildlife, ocean navigation, fishing and tourism. ...A spokesman for the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the leading opposition group to the wind farm, said the report underestimated the project's environmental threats. 'We're disappointed because there are still gaps in what's been put in the report,' said Glenn Wattley in a phone interview with The Associated Press. 'Statements that there is minimal environmental impact, we think are wrong. There are very important and serious impacts.'