As two companies press ahead on projects bringing natural gas to Boston through offshore terminals, a third group is also looking to the sea for a new source of energy — a 140-mile underwater electric cable from Maine to South Boston. The project, which could bring enough electricity into the Hub to meet the needs of about 500,000 homes, has only started to run the gantlet of state and federal approvals and isn’t expected to be in service before 2013.

A new federal study on the effects of submarine electric cables on marine wildlife should not delay a decision on the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm, according to an e-mail statement from the lead agency reviewing the project. A formal "record of decision" necessary for Cape Wind Associates LLC to obtain a lease to build 130 wind turbines in the sound is "not tied to" the study of electromagnetic fields announced this week, U.S. Minerals Management Service spokesman John Romero wrote in the e-mail received yesterday by the Times.

A group of four European energy companies on Friday revealed plans for a subsea electricity cable to bring more power from Germany to Norway from 2011. The 700 megawatt (MW) cable which would boost power flows between continental Europe and the hydropower reliant Nordic region would cost 500 million euros (USD 659.8 million), the consortium said in a statement issued in Germany. The cost would be shared equally by Agder Energi and Lyse of Norway, EGL of Switzerland, and northern German utility EWE, a spokeswoman for EWE said.

The rare discovery of two large underwater 'caves', found on the reef where the government plans to build an offshore wind farm, could pose a threat to the project. The reef off Mellieħa was chosen as the site of Malta's first offshore wind farm because it is the only area of the seabed around the islands that is shallow enough to cater for today's technology.

Parkinson said his focus so far has been on developing Kansas' energy industry, particularly ethanol and wind. Not only will this again make Kansas an energy exporting state, but it will help rural Kansas. " (Ethanol) is very exciting not just as an alternative source of energy, but also for its impact on commodity prices, its impact on the value of land in rural Kansas and the great boost it has the potential to provide for rural Kansas for many years to come." On wind power, he said the state needs to help with the development of the transmission lines through western Kansas and to get the Kansas Corporation Commission to approve rates friendlier to wind farm development. By 2011 or 2012, he expects western Kansas to feel the powerful effects of wind power on the economy. And that economic development will likely overflow to Wichita, he said.

The Cape Cod Commission isn't the only entity that thinks it should review the entire Cape Wind project, not just the portions on land and in state waters. In a report by Elizabeth White aired this week on WCAI/WNAN FM, Barbara Hill, the executive director of Clean Power Now (which supports construction of the 130-turbine project in Nantucket Sound) said she would not object to the agency performing a full review as long as it did not delay a decision.

David Dionne, a major local proponent of such projects, recently sent a letter to selectmen announcing his intention to resign as chairman of the Alternative Energy Committee, effective immediately. Dionne cited conflict with new members of the committee.

"In reality we've been astonished in looking ... at how little research has been conducted," he said. "This has polarised communities and people are debating over a research question that really we should be able to set up a study and get an answer."

A bill to create uniform siting standards for wind power projects across Wisconsin is being introduced in Madison after stalling a year ago. ...The bill is expected to fare better this year because it is being handled earlier in the legislative session and there is less confusion about what the bill would do, Plale said. But opponents are raising similar concerns as they did a year ago - that the bill is taking away local control.

A legislative effort to figure out how to assess wind farms for property tax purposes is gaining momentum, state Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, said recently. At present, Illinois counties can use different methodologies to assess wind farms, a situation that complicates assessments for any wind farm straddling county lines. Wind farms are a relatively new, but growing, industry in Illinois. "There's nothing like it out there," Mautino said. "How do you make a statewide standard for something that didn't exist during your whole 150 years as a county?" For about a month and a half, Mautino has been negotiating with other interested parties - including county assessors and the Taxpayers' Federation of Illinois - to try to settle on a methodology for assessing wind farms. The legislation is House Bill 380. The negotiating group has decided that the assessment should be based on the cost of construction. Mautino said his legislation would specify a number - still subject to change - to represent the cost of construction, and a formula then would be applied to come up with a final calculation.

On Monday, the borough was granted a stay pending appeal by Judge Mary Catherine Cuff of the state Superior Court's Appellate Division.

In August, it was ruled that the authority needed site plan approval from the borough Planning Board before it could install and operate the wind turbine. Now, BRSA will be asking Union Beach to correct what Fischer has called a mapping error. The borough's zoning map places the BRSA property in a residential zone.

Unlike the deluded hero Don Quixote, municipal officials in this Bayshore town think they have the clout to derail a giant windmill proposed for their town. In this case, it's a 380-foot wind turbine with 118-foot blades that, according to a plan proposed by the Bayshore Regional Sewerage Authority, would sit on authority property in the west end of this 1.2-square-mile town.

The Planning Board will hold a second meeting on Dec. 8 to consider the Bayshore Regional Sewerage Authority's application to purchase a tract of land adjacent to its facility so the three rotating blades of its $7.7 million wind turbine rotate over BRSA property, officials said.

Residents of this Bayshore town say they're not ready to give up their fight. They are trying to stop the Bayshore Regional Sewerage Authority's proposed electricity-producing wind turbine. More than 80 Union Beach residents attended the Borough Council's Dec. 3 meeting. ...90 percent strongly opposed construction of the estimated 360-foot-high wind turbine.

The Bayshore Regional Sewerage Authority has been given the OK by the state Department of Environmental Protection to go out to bid for construction of a 380-foot-tall, energy-producing wind turbine, officials said. ...The project price tag is estimated around $7.7 million. ...Union Beach officials have opposed the project, and they sent a formal objection in writing to the DEP in September.

John Gibbons and the other four members of the town's land use ordinance revision committee have drafted an ordinance that would regulate the types of wind turbines that could be allowed in the town. "The big concern with the windmills is the noise - the sound of the slowly rotating blades," Gibbons said Thursday.

Between 15 and 25 union members held what they call an informational picket outside the St. Joseph Community Centre during the two-day job fair hosted by Mortenson Construction for the upcoming wind farm project. The members were protesting what they called an unfair decision by Mortenson to pay non-union wages to some workers.

The Union Township Zoning Commission voted unanimously Tuesday night to reject the wind turbine zoning recommendations made by the Union Neighbors United group, which was submitted at the last zoning commission meeting. However, the buck doesn't necessarily stop there. The zoning commission now must forward the resolution to the Union Township Trustees with a recommendation to reject it. It's up to the trustees from there.

A Lafayette-area union claimed a company working on the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm in Benton County is using an out-of-state workforce instead of local workers. Members of the Operating Engineers Local 103 were picketing jobsites near Remington and in Benton County.