Residents at Thursday's Special Town Meeting voted to implement new wind energy bylaws to regulate the construction and maintenance of wind turbines. "I think people in general saw these bylaws as favorable things," Town Administrator Kevin Paicos said. He said the laws would encourage the regulated use of wind energy while regulating residents' property rights. "You don't want these things just popping up all over town and becoming an eyesore," he said.

The Commission is an intervenor in Cape Wind's request to the state Energy Facilities Siting Board for a comprehensive certificate of public need that would roll up several outstanding state, regional and local approvals. The company needs them before it can run seven-plus miles of cable through state waters from its proposed 130-turbine wind generation facility in federal waters in Nantucket Sound. EFSB approval would compel the Commission, the towns of Barnstable and Yarmouth, and state agencies to issue necessary permits. It would overturn the Commission's denial.

The winds of change blew through the country this election week and the town of Orleans is once again making moves to harness one of Cape Cod's most abundant resources for energy. The board of selectmen agreed to allow the renewable energy/wind committee to use about $10,000 allocated by a 2003 town meeting vote for wind energy to study putting a wind turbine in the town's watershed. The committee said the plan was to examine placing one wind turbine in the watershed reviving an issue many thought was killed for good last year.

On Wednesday night, battle again was joined between supporters and opponents of a proposed wind turbine farm for the waters of Nantucket Sound. The prize this time was the approval or denial of a Chapter 91 permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection. The law regulates the use of state-owned tidelands either filled or under water along the coast of Massachusetts. This piece of the wind farm puzzle pertains to the proposal by Cape Wind Associates, the developer of the project, to run two power cables from the proposed project site through the seabed of tidelands in Barnstable and Yarmouth.

Residents will have to wait until Monday, Dec. 1 to hear more about the proposed Graham Waste wind turbine project. Last Thursday, the applicant, Jim Sweeney of CCI Energy, formally requested the public hearing set to continue on this past Monday, Oct. 27 be postponed to allow him to collect further data. In anticipation of the planned public hearing last week, talk and opinion of the wind turbines were blowing around.

One of the largest businesses in town is working toward going green. Decas Cranberry Company in South Carver has proposed installing a test tower to measure the wind on the property in an effort to determine whether a wind turbine would be a viable future energy source for the company.

The Planning Board found itself short-changed at the Special Town Meeting when the discussion turned to proposed changes in the town's zoning bylaws to cover "wind energy conversion facilities." The proposed bylaw amendment was only the first of three articles brought by the Planning Board, but lack of a quorum prevented any action from being taken. ...If the measure had been approved on Monday night, the bylaw as written would have limited windmill towers to a height of 65 feet, established a review process for applications and required a special permit for large-scale facilities.

The Planning Board's continued public hearing on the proposed wind turbines at Graham Waste originally scheduled for this coming Monday Oct. 27, has been postponed to Monday, Dec. 1. The applicant, Jim Sweeney of CCI Energy, has formally requested that the continued public hearing be postponed. According to an e-mail sent by Planning Board administrator Jo-Ann Pilczak on Thursday morning, Sweeney explained that although they have collected most of the requested data, his project team are still working on collecting further details.

The winds of change are wafting through the town's regulatory process as the planning board begins to shape a new bylaw allowing larger commercial wind turbines to be located in the town. But there are concerns by some members of the board that the height and number of these structures could change the character of the town.

A local couple will take their quest to build a private wind turbine to the courts. Wendie and Francis Howland started thinking about putting a 120-foot high turbine on their Barlows Landing property ...But twice the Howlands have been turned down by the town's planning board. The second rejection took place Oct. 9 by a vote of 5-2.

A final dispute over a windmill on the county farm was not enough to derail long-sought plans for a conservation restriction on the 90-acre property. Selectmen on Tuesday voted 4-1 to allow a windmill on the property in a last-minute amendment to the conservation restriction. Selectman Richard Quintal cast the dissenting vote. Selectmen and county officials are poised to sign off Oct. 24 on a $300,000 conservation restriction for the county-owned property.

That denial came after an appeal to Superior Court that had resulted in the court remanding it back to the board for reconsideration. After considerable discussion of the Howlands' application to build wind turbine on their residential property, the board voted 5 to 2, with Douglas Shearer and new board member Louis R. Gallo dissenting, to deny the request based on public safety concerns. The Howland turbine was the first to be reviewed under the town's Residential Wind Energy Conversion System bylaw.

A feasibility study says that a 450-foot wind turbine installed on city-owned land could cost about $4.7 million to build, but could produce a revenue stream of about $180,000 per year for the city. City officials paid a Sandwich-based engineering firm to see if a wind turbine could be installed near the Water Department's Falulah Water Treatment facility in northwest Fitchburg. It's estimated the 1,500 killowatt wind turbine could produce enough power for the entire Water Department ...The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative -- a quasi-public agency that advocates for renewable energy resources -- did a study of the site in 2007, Streb said, and found that the site may not have enough wind to support the cost of a turbine.

Two wind turbines could stretch 462 feet into the Cohasset skies as early as next fall, but neighbors are urging the town not to rush. CCI Energy LLC, run by Plymouth businessman James Sweeney, is leasing part of the Graham Waste Services property off Route 3A with plans to build two, 1.65-megawatt wind turbines there. ...At the opening hearing held by the Planning Board this month, Sweeney and other project planners immediately ran into flak from residents of Sanctuary Pond Road and other neighboring areas, as well as from a developer who has permits to build a 200-unit apartment complex nearby under the state's 40B affordable housing law.

The winds of change are blowing, and not everyone is happy about it. In an effort to make its Carver processing plant more efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly, the Decas Cranberry Company is looking to install a wind turbine to help run the facility. ...Although Carver has been very proactive on the green-energy front, this particular project has raised some concerns. Firefly, Inc., an agricultural flying service that utilizes helicopters, is situated right next door to the proposed site.

Chairman Vincent Russo will ask his fellow selectmen this evening to enact a moratorium on wind turbine installations. Russo said he wants to prohibit new turbines until the town can draft a bylaw regulating them. "I'm mostly concerned about small, residential lots," Russo said. "Right now anybody could put (a wind turbine) anywhere, and we'd have no recourse." Russo said the benefits of individual wind turbines are being oversold by manufacturers and installers.

At Monday night's first public hearing on two proposed wind turbines, the applicant did not have "fair winds." Scores of residents turned out for the meeting that was moved to the Town Hall auditorium last minute to ensure it would be able to accommodate the crowd. Throughout the meeting, residents (many of whom gave addresses from Sanctuary Pond Road) asked tough questions about the project and many of those questions were left unanswered. The Avalon developers came out in strong opposition to the project. Once built, Avalon will be the turbines' nearest neighbor. Developers were particularly concerned because the approved - but yet-to-be-built - 200-unit apartment complex was not addressed in any of the impact studies presented in the application.

Developers of a proposed energy-producing wind farm off Cape Cod have been granted a key environmental permit. The state Department of Environmental Protection has issued a water quality certificate for Cape Wind Associates' plan to install nearly eight miles of transmission cable in waters off Yarmouth.

Erecting the city's first 600-kilowatt wind turbine just got a little tougher for Mark Richey Woodworking of Parker Street, as two neighbors living in the vicinity of his proposed turbine site have filed a complaint with Essex County Superior Court to overturn an Aug. 13 Zoning Board of Appeals decision granting a special permit for the turbine construction project.

Steve Pitney had waited more than two months to sign the contract since the Board of Selectmen approved the latest contract June 30. The 120-foot turbine needs approval from the Building Department before the MTC would review an application for a rebate. After a series of contracts, the specifics of the project have returned to what was originally proposed. The contractor won’t guarantee that the turbine will produce a certain amount of energy, and the town won’t spread payments to Pitney out over 13 years. The project is to be completed by next Feb. 1, the contract says.