Tempers flared last night after a wind farm hearing in Northumberland ground to a halt amid threats of legal action against borough planners. More than 200 people had packed Ancroft village hall almost to capacity to hear details of an application for 10 turbines on nearby Moorsyde. The controversial scheme had attracted massive publicity, with hundreds of letters of objection and the authority recommending approval.

With no discussion and a quick unanimous vote, residents approved a moratorium of 180 days on wind energy facility development to give time for a committee and selectmen to draft an ordinance to regulate commercial wind power development. Currently, no plans for development have been submitted.

Voters will decide on a wind energy moratorium at their March 7 town meeting. The moratorium would give the town time to prepare an ordinance to cover any potential development of wind farm projects. A committee of about a dozen residents formed Monday to discuss how to handle potential future projects in a way that best protects the town.

Tuesday night, the Temple Select Board unanimously agreed to allow Rob and Vivian Nicholl a permit to install a 40-foot Skystream wind turbine on their property.

It became clear to committee members Monday that their first task is to take the time to explore the options, Kimber said Tuesday. Seeking a moratorium on development for the next few months would allow the committee to work "without being under the gun," he said.

Voters at Monday's annual town meeting will consider a request to place a six-month moratorium on any wind-power project in Temple to give the community time to draft an ordinance regulating such facilities.

A potential wind energy project is moving forward in the North Country with the approval of two temporary wind measurement towers.

Each year, an estimated 2.5 billion birds are also killed inadvertently in the U.S. due to human activities. Such bird mortality includes collisions with lighted buildings and communication towers, pesticide poisoning, and free-roaming cat predation. Two million acres of bird habitat are also lost to development annually. New concerns over the potential impacts of climate change, especially among coastal, alpine, and Arctic bird species; as well as the spread of corn for biofuels which may replace vital bird habitats; and poorly placed wind farms that can kill thousands of birds are also causing serious concern. The combination of mass mortality and serious habitat loss poses a grave risk to many bird species across all regions and habitats.

The meeting opened with a public hearing on a 10-month extension to the wind-power moratorium instituted by the town last year, which had expired in March. The moratorium had been referred to the Clinton County Planning Board, but it didn't have a quorum at its March meeting and couldn't conduct business. Without the Planning Board's comments, the town wasn't able to approve the extension. The purpose of the moratorium has been to give the town time to complete a local law regulating wind-power facilities.

Deeping St Nicholas is bracing itself to discuss proposals to build 16 more wind turbines as another ten are proposed close to Holbeach Drove and Gedney Hill. The parish council will hold a special meeting at Deeping St Nicholas Primary School at 7pm today to discuss reaction to proposals by Spanish giant Iberdrola, one of the world leaders in renewable energy, for land at Church Farm. Parish councillor Julian Davis, who has experienced months of sleepless nights due to noise from existing turbines in the village, said: “It’s just disbelief at the moment – it has hit home and is shocking a lot of people. “I think people can’t believe there is research going on when there are unresolved issues with the existing turbines.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - An industry-sponsored poll suggests most Tennesseans support renewable wind energy, but don't count U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander among them. "I am all for renewable fuels. I am all for clean air and carbon-free electricity," the Tennessee Republican said Tuesday in a conference call from Washington, where the Senate is getting ready to debate an energy bill that could come with renewable energy mandates. But Alexander has no love for windmills. Wind power, he said, "is expensive and disfigures the landscape. It produces a puny amount of power, and it doesn't fit Tennessee."

The Power and Water Corporation says it has received four expressions of interest from parties hoping to build a wind farm at Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.

DECISION day is looming over a wind farm on picturesque moorland.

Toronto Hydro's wind farm may still be in the research stage, but it's already drawing fire. For now, the city-owned utility wants to set up a small device to measure wind speeds on the lake 2 kilometres off the bluffs. If winds are adequate, 60 turbines could eventually sprout 2 to 4 kilometres offshore, over an area stretching from Ajax almost to the Leslie St. Spit.

Voters won't be asked to approve the proposed 400-foot wind turbine at the upcoming Annual Town Meeting. But the turbine issue is far from dead. That was evident Tuesday when more than 125 people filled the senior center, many forced to stand along the walls as four speakers talked about the proposed Wellfleet turbine, in particular, and the turbines operated by the towns of Brewster, Harwich and Falmouth.

"But I am confident that our court will not be intimidated by the defective provision of a defective law, and will allow the appeals process to follow its normal, deliberative course. Rhode Island ratepayers and businesses, who stand to pay for this arrogance in the form of overpriced electricity for the next 20 years, deserve nothing less."

Tokyo Electric Power Co will sell part of its stake in Japan's biggest wind power developer, the troubled utility said on Tuesday, as it looks to raise funds to compensate those affected by the ongoing crisis at its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

The Teresians have sued Boston-based American Tower Corp., saying it reneged on its agreement to sell them a 99-acre site in central Massachusetts where they want to build a monastery and wind farm that would subsidize electricity for hundreds of low-income homes. The monks believe the company reversed its decision after realizing the property could be used for alternative energy.

On March 1, enXco, the US subsidiary of EDF Energies Nouvelles, received notification that the US utility Indianapolis Power and Light Company (IPL) would terminate the power purchase agreement related to the 201 MW Lakefield wind project currently under development (southwestern Minnesota).

The Northwest Territories government plans to pick a community later this year where it would like to begin work on its ambitious wind strategy by 2009. "Wind is a great opportunity for us. We have lots of it," Premier Floyd Roland said. ...Mr. Edworthy was with a private company that helped set up a wind turbine in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, in 1987. "Doing anything in the Arctic is more expensive and challenging," he said, adding that trained staff is hard to find and equipment wears out a lot quicker because of the cold and harsh climate. "The Arctic is incredibly hard on machines. If something has a design life of 20 years, in the Arctic that would be two or three," he explained. He said when those costs and challenges, such as maintenance and atmospheric issues, began to pile up, the industry and federal government lost interest in the North and concentrated its efforts in provinces such as Alberta and Ontario.