Passage of a bylaw that sets limits for wind-turbine noise could be another step toward town use of wind power. The planning board's bylaw proposal calls for using noise standards that were adopted by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The bylaw, which will be voted on at town meeting, would require that any application for permission to install a turbine include information about the current noise level and how much noise the turbine would produce. It also would limit the noise increase. The measuring of noise would be done at the base of the turbine and the property line. ...‘‘There is a tremendous opportunity for wind turbines, but there are a lot of questions that need to be answered, but we can eliminate any undue expectations about (turbines ) being too noisy,'' he said.

Staples officials say they aren't planning to wait for the town to adopt a wind turbine bylaw before getting a ruling from the Zoning Board of Appeals on their appeal of a height variance for their 240-foot tower. ...Precinct 10 Town Meeting member Kathie McCarthy joined the group asking for Staples to slow down its planned turbine, which was first discussed with town officials at a Planning Board meeting in June 2006. "It's to the benefit of Staples to do this right, not slide it through," she said. Zoning Board Chairman Phil Ottaviani noted that the turbine is an allowed use and that the appeal is based only on the height of the proposed structure, which would be three times the town's 80-foot limit. "I think we need to put science before politics," said Town Meeting Precinct 16 Chairman William LaBarge, who added he doesn't believe Framingham has enough wind to support the turbine.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy said yesterday that a wind farm located in Rhode Island waters between Newport and Block Island would be a bad idea because it would hurt the state’s tourism and fishing industries. Those waterways are frequently used by people who sail between the two locations for recreation and racing, said Kennedy, a recreational sailor. “I’m sorry, you can’t tell me that’s not going to affect tourism, the fishing industry and everything else. It just is. There is no other convincing me that it won’t,” he said. ...Asked whether he thought there was any site in Rhode Island waters that would be suitable for a wind farm, Kennedy said, “I don’t think it would be a good idea. A lot of it depends … we’re talking size, location.” He backed off a bit from that statement, saying “I’d have to take a look at it. ... I wouldn’t rule it out.”

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.'

There will be no second showdown between opponents in the Town's wind turbine development debate. The Planning Board voted 4-1 during a special meeting on Wednesday night to rescind its promise to bring forth a bylaw that, if approved at a special town meeting, would have replaced the wind turbine regulating bylaw townspeople adopted on Jan. 3. in a 155-56 vote. "We don't want to aggravate the town," said Thomas Sadin, who resigned from his position on the Planning Board during Wednesday's meeting. "If there had been a low turnout at the vote last week, it might have been a whole different story. But, a significant portion of the town showed up and we have to take that seriously."

Nantucket's Planning & Economic Development Commission voted unanimously last week to support Edgartown's proposed tidal generation project between Muskeget and Martha's Vineyard. ...The NP&EDC also voted unanimously at the meeting to direct Blue Wave Strategies of Boston, Mass. to apply to the Minerals Management Service for a lease of one square mile of ocean south of Tuckernuck Island for the installation of a data collection tower to be used to determine the viability of building an offshore wind farm. Both actions are in line with the Planning Commission's and Nantucket's belief that alternative energy installations are good for the Cape and islands, but not for Nantucket Sound.

The massive offshore wind farms proposed for Nantucket Sound and Buzzards Bay generate most of the headlines. But most of the progress in renewable energy in Massachusetts this year will be seen among much smaller turbine projects. The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative estimates that 10 wind turbine projects could be built and connected to the grid in 2008. Nearly all of them, however, are just one- or two-turbine projects.

Savoy has leapt closer to welcoming wind turbine development on its ridgelines. Voters who attended last night's special town meeting decided by secret ballot 155-56 to adopt a turbine-regulating bylaw in an approval that satisfied the required two-thirds majority. ...Planning Board Chairman Jamie Reinhardt said he hoped to put the board's bylaw to a vote at another special town meeting some time in the next four weeks. The vote would specify that the board's bylaw would supersede Malloy's if passed.

This is Savoy's last shot, Harold "Butch" Malloy of Chapel Road said on Wednesday inside his small, two-story log cabin: Either Savoy residents want wind-powered electricity turbines in town or they don't — and they will need to decide tonight at a special town meeting at 7 p.m. in the fire station. Malloy has written a bylaw using a state-designed template that would allow wind turbine developers to apply for a special building permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals. ...The members of Savoy's Planning Board disagree with Malloy's sense of urgency. The board has written its own bylaw and intends to put that one to a vote at another special town meeting, tentatively scheduled for Jan. 17. Planning Board Chairman Jamie Reinhardt has contended that the board's bylaw, which has a 350-foot turbine height limit, is not so restrictive that it would deter all development. Instead, he has said the board's bylaw would do more to protect the rights and interests of residents than Malloy's.

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.

Governor Deval Patrick's administration proposed several changes to state environmental-protection laws yesterday that could help speed construction of offshore wind-power farms, including the controversy-plagued Cape Wind project that Patrick strongly backs. ...One major change would be to declare cables conveying power from offshore renewable-energy projects - including wind farms and hydroelectric generating units - to be water-dependent. That designation would get those projects speedier, more favorable consideration by department regulators, who are required by Chapter 91 to apply heavier scrutiny to nonwater-dependent projects in protected waterfront and river areas.

Planning Board chairman Gary Gilbert said his board has begun that exploration, which will include hiring a consultant and visiting wind facilities. Gilbert has prepared a draft bylaw, but "the board is not ready to go through that yet because they want to learn about the general subject matter first," he said. "It's new to many people on the board." Board of Selectmen chairwoman Sue Thorne said she supports developing a comprehensive wind bylaw "as long as there are reasonable and sensible guidelines. By having a bylaw in place, it gives any applicant an opportunity to be aware of what the parameters are" for building a tower to harness wind energy.

The Zoning Board of Appeals, Wednesday night, granted Mulcor Wind Inc. a special permit to erect a 197-foot meteorological test tower on Mountain Hill Road in South Plymouth. A 20-day appeal period follows this approval. According to the permit, the test tower cannot exceed 199-feet and must be dismantled after 18 months. The tower will measure the velocity and amount of wind on the site to help the developer determine if there’s enough wind to merit the installation of three wind turbines on the property.

The town’s plan to put up a wind turbine at Fairbanks Park will not get its day in court, but advocates say the environmentally conscious, money-saving project is far from dead. Park and Recreation Commission Chairman Donald Reisner announced Monday that to spare Dedham a potentially expensive and messy court battle between town boards, he would not launch a legal challenge to the Zoning Board of Appeals ruling that derailed the windmill this fall. Instead of seeking a lawsuit, Reisner, the project’s lead proponent, said he would investigate bringing the plan before the ZBA again for another crack at a special permit, a move that would require permission from the Planning Board.

Town Meeting members in April approved $57,000 to purchase and install the wind turbine, expected to save around $1,900 annually in energy costs. The town's plan required a permit from the ZBA, because the proposed windmill would have exceeded the 85-foot maximum height of structures allowed by town bylaws. At public hearings on the permit, residents from the neighborhood adjacent to Fairbanks Park expressed concern that the turbine would create noise and be visually unappealing. The ZBA voted 3-2 in favor of the plan, but four affirmative votes are required for approval. ...In the written decision, filed with the town clerk Nov. 13, ZBA Chairman John Kearney listed neighborhood opposition, lack of a ‘‘comprehensive study'' of the project and failure to consider alternative sites as reasons to deny the permit.

A recently approved House bill, which is on its way to the Senate, may not set the blades spinning on a proposed 30-megawatt wind project in Monroe and Florida, but it could make similar renewable projects easier in the future. The legislation, co-sponsored by state Rep. Daniel Bosley, D-North Adams, would increase the state's reliance on cleaner, renewable energy and would create a Department of Clean Energy charged with replacing 20 percent of the state's electric load with generation from renewable energy and creating a division specifically charged with promoting wind, solar and bio-fuels projects. Meanwhile, the 20-turbine Hoosac Wind project, first proposed five years ago for Monroe's Crum Hill and neighboring Bakki Mountain in Florida, is still stalled in a superior court appeal by project opponents.

Cape Wind Associates today asked a state energy panel to overrule a decision by the Cape Cod Commission that blocked a plan to build a 130-turbine wind farm in Nantucket Sound. Cape Wind asked the state to green-light the project and approve all state and local permits needed for constructing the turbines. In a sweeping, 32-page petition, the developer of the wind farm proposed off the Cape and Islands seeks a "composite certificate" that would overturn a decision by the Cape Cod Commission and grant all other required permits.

...a 350-foot wind turbine may be too much of a good thing for Mountain Hill Road residents. ...The planning board made its decision Monday night, despite stiff opposition from neighborhood residents who packed town hall to protest the plan. ‘‘It's not that we're against wind energy, but the drop zone for one of the turbines would be within 85 to 200 feet of our neighbors,'' Mountain Hill Road resident William Gould said. ‘‘These things are monstrous, and they are right on top of our neighborhood. The impact would be devastating. ‘‘The bylaw says five acres and wind is enough for a turbine. If this is approved, what neighborhood is next?''

The town's plan to erect a temporary wind gauge tower next to the reservoir - part of a project to see if wind power would be economical for Somerset - is on indefinite hold because four residents have gone to court to challenge the Zoning Board of Appeal's approval of the test tower. ...Joseph Fingliss ...said he wouldn't support anything that might lead to having a turbine on the Cordeiro site. "It will definitely be visible from my house as it would Mr. Stafford's and many other people in the residential neighborhood," he said. "It's only going to lead to the possibility of the actual turbine itself being installed there."

A public hearing ended in a yelling match Thursday night, after a two-hour discussion about a proposed zoning bylaw, which would allow developers to build wind turbines in Savoy by special permit. Resident Marshall Rosenthal, whose comments made him appear skeptical about the proposal, refused to stop raising his hand when town officials attempted to draw the meeting to a close. "I will not put my hand down until I'm recognized," Rosenthal said ...Emotions seemed to spike among a handful of the nearly 80 residents who attended the meeting. Most of those who spoke raised concerns that wind turbine construction would lead to a marred viewscape and a series of nuisances, such as noise and light pollution. ...During the meeting, two Planning Board members repeatedly reminded residents that the Planning Board would soon be submitting another bylaw proposal for the town's consideration - one with many more restrictions.