Two weeks ago, Patriot Renewables LLC told the Savoy Selectmen that it intended to put an eight-turbine wind farm in the mountain town, and on Tuesday they set their sights on Adams as well. Todd Presson, chief operating officer of Patriot Renewables, met with Adams Town Administrator Jonathan Butler to inform him that the company is in the "very entry level" stages of expanding the project across the border into Adams. "The site, as envisioned right now, will consist of 16 turbines," Butler said "I believe the breakdown is six in Savoy and 10 in Adams.

Former state Rep. Mark Howland, owner of a Freetown-based wind turbine company that was shut down for misleading consumers, has failed to pay nearly $500,000 in restitution to the state Attorney General's Office. A consent agreement reached last October set a deadline of Oct. 9, 2009, for Howland of WindTech-Co. to pay $488,000 in restitution. Howland notified the agency on Oct. 8 that he would not be making the payment, said Attorney General's Office spokeswoman Jill Butterworth.

Businessman Michael Bedard isn't just blowing hot air about wind turbines. ...Bedard plans to head before the park commission again in December with updated plans for building a wind turbine in North Attleboro. He did not want to go into specifics about the plans until after giving the presentation.

Construction on Berkshire Wind's $46 million wind turbine project atop Brodie Mountain has been halted indefinitely because of a dispute over its access road. Silverleaf Resorts Inc., which plans a $42 million vacation condominium project at the foot of Brodie Mountain, contends Berkshire Wind's 2004 road permit had expired because it took more than a year -- the life of the permit -- for "substantial construction" to begin, according to the injunction order issued last week by the Massachusetts Land Court in Boston.

Construction of 10 wind turbines along Brodie Mountain has stopped after Massachusetts Land Court issued a temporary injunction against Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corp. late last week. The injunction, obtained by abutter Silverleaf Resorts Inc. as part of a pending lawsuit, prevents Berkshire Wind from using part of a road that crosses private property in Lanesborough leading up to the site of the project. Tyler Fairbank, chief executive officer of EOS Ventures, Berkshire Wind's communications and public relations firm, said Tuesday that the injunction is temporary while a Land Court judge reviews a suit filed by Silverleaf about the validity of a special permit for the access road.

The Massachusetts National Guard took a giant leap toward generating its future electricity needs through wind this week with about half of its proposed turbines approved by the Federal Aviation Administration without restrictions. The FAA approved eight of 17 sites at the Upper Cape military base on Thursday, saying they pose no adverse effects to aviation.

The discovery of wetlands on the Chase Road site where two wind turbines are proposed means the project has to be temporarily placed on hold, proponents said Monday night. Word came the same night that an estimated 75 opponents came out in protest of the $9.5 million project, targeted for the 137-acre Chase Road site.

Starting on Monday, travelers in northern Berkshire County will be sharing the road with giant pieces of 10 wind turbines that will be transported to Brodie Mountain for the construction of the $46 million Berkshire Wind Project. Transporting the wind turbine parts is expected to take three weeks. ...Connection to the grid and the start-up of power generation is anticipated to take place in the spring.

Trucks carrying wind turbine components bound for the ridge line of Brodie Mountain will join traffic along Routes 43, 7 and Brodie Mountain Road beginning next week. Acting as spokeswoman for the Berkshire Wind Project, Betsy Strickler of EOS Ventures -- a renewable energy company, said Thursday project equipment will begin moving on Monday from Stephentown, N.Y.

A question of jurisdiction from the Old King's Highway committee has halted preparation work for Cape Cod Community College's 380-foot wind turbine project. The Barnstable Old King's Highway Historic District Committee believes the project requires a certificate of appropriateness in order to proceed. The entire college campus falls within the historic district, which extends from Route 6 northward. ...In an e-mail, college director of communications Michael Gross confirmed that the project is stopped.

Although the public hearing was the fifth and last in the comment phase of the state's process, state officials said they would plan to come back for further less formal discussions with Islanders. The public comment period for the draft plan ends November 23. "We would like to say to the governor, yes we can, but it's ‘we' - you have to come and talk to us," Dukes County manager Russell Smith said.

The Air Force has scrapped a ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled to celebrate its new 1.5-megawatt wind turbine while it waits for essential parts sitting in a New York port, a spokesman said yesterday. ...It's unclear when the Air Force will be able to move the parts to Massachusetts, he said, so the celebration and turbine are on hold indefinitely.

It's one step in what will be a lengthy process, but the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust will be undertaking a site assessment of several possible locations in Duxbury for the placement of a wind turbine. Emily Dahl, a spokesperson for the trust, said DNV Global Energy Concepts, a company with offices in Lowell, would be performing what she called a "desktop analysis".

Blue H USA, a Dutch-owned company that wants to anchor floating wind turbines some 20 miles southwest of Martha's Vineyard to harness offshore ocean winds, has applied for a permit from the U.S. Army Corps. The company wants to anchor a demonstration unit on the outer continental shelf approximately 23 miles off Squibnocket Point in Chilmark and about 32 miles southeast of Block Island, R.I. according to the Army Corps.

It may be a few years before the coal pile at Salem Harbor Station power plant has a windmill for a neighbor, but that possibility is starting to look a little more probable. The Park and Recreation Commission last night approved a request by the city's Renewable Energy Task Force to erect a 165-foot tower on Winter Island to test the wind.

State environmental officials are vetting their draft Ocean Management Plan with a series of five public hearings to be held in coastal communities across the state. Local residents are invited to share their comments during a hearing Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at the New Bedford Public Library. The hearing will take place in the main meeting room of the library at 613 Pleasant Street.

A wind turbine project to be built collaboratively between the schools and municipal light department will cost the school district $112,000 when a first bond payment is due by the end of December. The turbine will provide the power for the new Ipswich High/Middle School.

President Obama, now summering on the Massachusetts island with his family, is still at least a year away from seeing turbines take root anywhere off the U.S. coast, even though his administration promised to make offshore wind a priority and developers are lining up to string wind farms up and down the Atlantic seaboard. His administration, delayed by controversy and red tape, has yet to grant a single permit for wind or solar development on public land, onshore or off.