A third wind turbine has received City Council's seal of approval. Compared to the matched set of giants that will rise nearly 500 feet from a central high point in Blackburn Industrial Park and help Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates cut into its annual $2 million energy bill, the single tower authorized by the council last week is small. But the top of the blade, as designed, would be 180 feet above the granite ledge on which developer Mac Bell intends to construct an office building containing numerous "green" innovations other than the turbine. ...If it is built, Bell's smaller turbine will be much more obvious than Varian's to those coming into the city, since it would stand on the east bank of the Annisquam River...

While Massachusetts Gov. Deval L. Patrick continues to push for more renewable energy and conservation efforts, a plan to build 20 wind turbines in Florida and Monroe is stymied by a protracted legal challenge from environmentalists. ..."We want to be sure that the state's environmental regulations are properly enforced," said John C. Bartenstein, the attorney representing neighboring opponents and another organization, Green Berkshires.

But the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound cites more than a few environmental impacts in the DEIS that it believes the Minerals Management Service and the rest of the agencies reviewing the massive project need to pay closer attention to. Impacts on birds, scenic views, navigation, fish species, fishing and boating all received a moderate rating from the MMS. The Alliance also calls into question what it terms the excessive cost of Cape Wind's wind energy and air travel hazards over Nantucket Sound in proximity to the wind farm. Alliance President and CEO Glenn Wattley said the Alliance is working now to examine each impact that was given a moderate characterization by the MMS and figure out ways to address them. "We've been retaining experts," he said. "We have 40 experts on these topics, they are going over the topics [and] we're spending quite a bit of money putting together a professional response for the public comment period," he said.

The three-blade turbine reaches roughly 155 feet. That includes a pole that is 120 feet high. The owners recently decided to move the project about 150 feet north toward the back of the property. That should reduce the "shadow flicker," a complaint of some neighbors, Kenney said. The rotating blades create shadows. Moving the turbine also will slightly reduce the sound ...

Eighty-two residents of that neighborhood have signed a petition against the proposal. "In spite of significant neighborhood opposition and negative vote by the ZBA, they are still pursuing something that is not economically viable," said Anne Frasca, a certified public accountant whose property abuts the park and who organized the opposition. "The savings generated are minimal - $1,900 a year. . . . That's assuming estimates on wind in the area are accurate, but they never did a full analysis on the wind." The parks commission has said that a professional study doesn't make sense financially for a proposal that will cost the town so little. While Town Meeting approved $60,000 to purchase the turbine, a state grant would reimburse the town $45,000.

The biggest challenge to the proposed 1.5-megawatt wind turbine in Falmouth Technology Park may not come from the 14 local, state, and federal agencies that Notus Clean Energy LLC needs approval from. Instead it may come from nearby residents who are concerned that the machine will negatively impact their views, lower their property values, create noise pollution, and potentially cause health problems to those in the neighborhood.

City Council is considering seeking a financial contribution from the city's biggest company in return for allowing it to alter the horizon with wind turbines tall enough to be visible almost everywhere on Cape Ann. The issue was raised by Councilor Jason Grow as councilors inched toward a vote Tuesday night on permitting Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates to build what would be the tallest turbines in the state. "I support (Grow) on this," said Peckham. "The city will have to live with (the turbines) every single day."

A state arbitration panel has dealt a setback to the Hoosac Wind project by rejecting a state-issued wetlands permit that would be needed to access the site....... The Division of Administrative Law Appeals yesterday ruled that the developer's evaluation of the impact on wildlife habitat was insufficient and certain parts of the project didn't comply with the Wetlands Protection Act.

Town meeting voters Monday shot down a proposal to study the feasibility of creating a town-owned wind farm. Although wind power is an environmentally-friendly energy source and could potentially generate considerable revenue for the town, voters decided that putting a wind farm on the land near the Almeida Farm on Interstate 195 could pose a danger to the wetlands on the 22-acre parcel. John Ferreira, who donated the land to the town for conservation use, spoke against the proposed wind farm.

HANCOCK - Building inspector William Palmer Jr. said Friday he will accommodate the developmental delays of the Berkshire Wind Project, but only to a point. Palmer said he has issued several permits and extensions to Distributed Generation Systems Inc. since 2000 for 10 planned wind turbines on Brodie Mountain. In that time, contractors have dug five turbine foundations, he said. The latest six-month extension technically expires on June 15, and the project has been halted by a legal suit from the nearby Snowy Owl resort, whose owner, Silverleaf Resorts Inc. claims that construction cut trees from a portion of its land and that some of the turbines would mar the "viewscape" of a planned time share development.

A draft report released Friday by the federal agency overseeing the Cape Wind proposal said that wind farms built in appropriate locations will have ''negligible to minor" effects on the environment. ''We believe the statement is correct and that the experience with offshore wind, the successful European experience with offshore wind, shows that," said Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Cape Wind, the company behind the proposal to erect 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound. Charles Vinick, president and CEO of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, which opposes the project, said the impact of a properly sited wind farm may, indeed, be minimal. But he argued that Nantucket Sound is an inappropriate site for the project, citing concerns about marine habitat, disruption of commercial fishing and hazards to navigation.

"On Friday, June 23, we issued a unilateral order regarding the failure of their erosion controls and that it was a violation of the permits we issued," Tor said. "We ordered them to correct the control failures and submit a plan for addressing the problem areas."

Green Berkshires is alleging that a proposed 35-foot wide access road to the top of the ridge would harm vegetation and wildlife along 12 different points where the access road would cross intermittent streams that flow down the mountain.

A Science Unit report on the controversy over a proposed wind farm to be built off the coast of Massachusetts in the middle of Nantucket Sound.