The Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board has voted 7-0 to authorize a Certificate of Environmental Impact for the Cape Wind offshore wind energy project. The board effectively granted nine state and local permits required for the project to proceed. In doing so, the board overrode the 2007 decision by the Cape Cod Commission to deny a Development of Regional Impact permit for the electrical cable.

On most sites a 40-foot wide road to the turbine location would to be built to allow for crane access. Tilly estimated the average wind speed across the sites at around 11 mph at 49 meters above the ground (150 feet) and 15 mph at an elevation of 80 meters. B&V relied heavily on measurements made by a test tower at the golf course. Wind speeds peak in March and hit a trough in August. Breezes from the southwest would generate most of the power.

While the Berkshire hills are being eyed as the primary location for wind power projects on state-owned land, turbines aren't likely to start popping up anytime soon, state officials said Wednesday during a public input session at Berkshire Community College. ...opponents accused the state of being misguided into believing wind power will help the state meet future energy needs.

The Renewable Energy Wind Power Committee presented its final report to selectmen Wednesday, recommending that the town consider building a single, municipally operated 600 kilowatt wind turbine in the Orleans Watershed, at Site 1, near the old swamp.

The influential Cape Cod Commission is appealing a state board's recent decision to grant the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm a suite of local permits, warning that the move could mean little local say in future energy projects across the state. The appeal, to the state's highest court, was one of three announced yesterday - the town of Barnstable and the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound filed others - over the consolidation last month by the Energy Facilities Siting Board of nine local permits for the 130-turbine project into one "superpermit.''

The Cape Cod Commission has petitioned the state's highest court to overturn the approval by the state Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB) of the Cape Wind project. At stake for the commission, though, is more than just the question Cape Wind's future; it is the broader principle of its power in regulating development, and by extension, the power of its sister body, the Martha's Vineyard Commission.

With the appeal period ended, the Douglas Woods wind farm project is moving forward with the installation of a test tower and negotiations over connection agreements. The Zoning Board of Appeals approved height and use variances last month for the 13-turbine farm proposed by American Pro Wind.

The Cape Cod Commission has announced it will appeal to the state's highest court to overturn the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board's approval of the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm. In October 2007, the commission denied the proposal by Cape Wind Associates to build 130 wind turbines in the sound, citing a lack of information necessary to approve the project.

A storm is brewing over who will end up as the primary construction contractor for the $45 million Berkshire Wind project on Brodie Mountain in Hancock and New Ashford. The Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corp. ...has selected Reed & Reed as the primary contractor for the 10-turbine wind power project. But with a bid of $10.9 million, Reed & Reed was not the lowest bidder. It was the third highest.

Officials in Massachusetts have approved a comprehensive permit allowing developers to go forward with Cape Wind, the long-stalled 130-turbine wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound. ...The Mass. Energy Facilities Siting Board's seven members voted unanimously last week to grant a Certificate of Environmental Impact and Public Interest to Cape Wind Associates LLC, the private developer behind the project.

The Alternative Energy Committee is returning $63,400 in unused wind turbine funds to the town to help cover the budget shortfall. Chairman David Dionne said the committee will now look into grant opportunities for building a much larger wind turbine at a different location. The turbine has been stymied by the Board of Selectmen ever since it was approved at Town Meeting a couple of years ago. As a result, although the funds were appropriated, it has never been built.

The council is also negotiating a conservation restriction for the 750 acres, preventing any future development on the land including wind turbines. Much of the land falls just west of ridge line in Florida and Monroe, where 19 windmills are proposed as part of the long delayed Hoosac Wind Project. The restriction would remain in place even if the land was sold in the future. "Our goal is a goal of public access for recreational purposes, not for energy production," Schroeder said.

If the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm is built, local officials want a say in how it affects their roads and wetlands. Selectmen and other town officials met last night with Cape Wind representatives to hear the latest on plans to connect the proposed wind farm to the electric grid. The meeting at the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School auditorium was public but not a hearing, so public comment was not allowed.

With the town needing cash, the Alternative Energy Committee has voted to give back $63,400 set aside two years ago to build a wind turbine for Town Hall. The project would die if voters at Town Meeting approve moving the money back into the general fund.

With all this talk about wind power, it may seem tough to believe that state officials have had a difficult time finding a buyer for two wind turbines. That's because it is tough to believe. But it's also true. Let's hope that state officials are more successful with plans for a wind turbine testing center in Charlestown - which is getting an infusion of $25 million in federal stimulus funds - than they've been with finding a home for these two wind turbines.

US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu is expected to disclose the funding today during a visit to the state. The money comes on top of a $2 million US Department of Energy grant awarded to Massachusetts for the proposed facility two years ago, as well as $13.2 million in grants and loans from the state's Renewable Energy Trust. Construction of the center is scheduled to get underway in September.

A new ocean management plan being prepared for the state leaves waters on three sides of the Vineyard wide open for development, raising the prospect of large-scale commercial wind generation as close as one mile off shore, the head of the Martha's Vineyard Commission said yesterday. MVC executive director Mark London said maps which formed part of a presentation made by state officials at a workshop in Woods Hole last weekend showed waters to the east, south and west of the Island open to unregulated development. "Theoretically, they could have a continuous belt of wind turbines . . . most of the way around the Island," Mr. London said.

A judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed last year by the Town of Barnstable against Cape Wind and the state's Energy Facilities Siting Board. The lawsuit claimed the Cape Cod Commission had exclusive jurisdiction over permitting transmission lines necessary for the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm. The commission refused to issue a permit for the transmission line portion of the project in 2007.

A Barnstable Superior Court judge threw out a lawsuit filed last year by the Town of Barnstable against Cape Wind and the state's Energy Facilities Siting Board. The lawsuit claimed that the Cape Cod Commission had exclusive jurisdiction over permitting transmission lines necessary for the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm.