North Union Township may join other regional municipalities that have created or are creating wind turbine ordinances. At a supervisors' meeting this week, North Union Township Supervisor Gary Croll said a group from St. Francis University, Loretto, is interested in testing wind capacity with a meteorological tower in North Union. That group is investigating the potential for a commercial wind farm. ...The supervisors asked township solicitor Paul Domalakes to review turbine information further. Croll said he didn't want to discourage alternative energy but he doesn't want it to harm residents' quality of life either.

Near the town of Bettie in Carteret County, the Pauls plan to build a wind farm of three turbines that would generate enough power for about 900 homes, or about 4.5 megawatts. The 464-foot-high windmills would begin generating power in 2010. "This project, as small as it is, is 90 times larger than the largest wind generation facility currently operating in North Carolina," Nelson Paul wrote in an e-mail. Before the project can begin, the North Carolina Utilities Commission must approve the project and the couple must withstand opposition from neighbors who worry that the turbines will ruin the scenery, Paul said.

Property owners, including Wood, have talked with Iberdrola Renewables officials and have visited similar projects in other states, he said. Tall wind towers, even in the Bull Yard, could obstruct an airfield in Hales Lake. The two tracts are separated only by swampy woodlands, Wood said. Invenergy, a Chicago-based energy company, has also expressed interest in Hales Lake, he said.

It was a substantial platform on 16 pilings in the Pamlico Sound, built by a collaborative of North Carolina academic research scientists. A fiberglass instrument house was bolted to the platform, a wireless communication system and an antenna were in place, and a wind turbine and high-efficiency solar panels had just been installed. A product of a state initiative to spur innovative research, the 18- by-18-foot structure was ready for the installation of cutting-edge data collection instruments. That is, until a 71-foot steel trawler plowed it all down.

The North Carolina House continues to consider a bill that would ban all commercial-sized wind turbines in Western North Carolina. Introduced in March 2009, Senate Bill 1068 and House Bill 809 were originally designed to set up a statewide permit process for the construction of wind turbines in Western North Carolina.

A proposed wind farm in Ashe County should not be allowed because it violates the state’s Ridge Law, the public staff of the N.C. Utilities Commission said yesterday. Also yesterday, State Attorney General Roy Cooper filed a notice he intends to intervene in the issue.

But months of talks with neighboring power companies have failed to yield a contract. Iberdrola will not be able to finance the project until it can show institutional lenders a long-term contract with guaranteed cash flow. Progress Energy in Raleigh, one of Desert Wind's potential customers, ended talks with Iberdrola after the parties couldn't agree.

Three large wind-energy projects in North Carolina that promised jobs and electricity for thousands of homes have stalled, facing hurdles ranging from a lack of power purchasers to migrating swans.

The Senate's Finance Committee had approved a version of the bill that included rules for permits to build wind farms in the N.C. mountains on Tuesday. But in floor debate Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Steve Goss, D-Watauga, attempted to amend the bill to allow more wind development in the high country.

State regulators approved the location of a new wind farm in east-central North Dakota despite complaints from some nearby residents about potential disruptions from turbine noise. The North Dakota Public Service Commission on Wednesday said one of the project's 80 wind turbines must use an alternative location to avoid disturbing a rural bed-and-breakfast business.

"This limitation effectively limits the application of bill to two counties, Cumberland and Salem, because they are sparsely populated and are not contiguous to any counties with a high population density."

Dominion Virginia Power has proposed routes for a high-voltage power line that would cut through parts of Prince William, Loudoun and Fauquier counties, moving forward a project that officials say is necessary to avoid blackouts but critics contend will unnecessarily scar some of the most fiercely preserved land in the state.

The Town Board recently agreed to collaborate on a letter to the state attorney general asking his office to intervene in a conflict between a Naples property owner and a company that plans to build a wind farm in Prattsburgh. The board wants the attorney general to require that windmills be set back far enough from the town line to allow Naples homeowners full use of their property.

The Town Board most recently heard from Cohocton Town Justice Hal Graham, who signed a lease with First Wind for a turbine that began operating in January on his Lent Hill Road property, about 2,000 feet from his house. He now calls it a mistake. Since First Wind's Cohocton wind development went live - and even prior to that, during the construction phase - nearby homeowners have complained about turbine noise. Graham likened the noise from the tower on his property and another on a neighbor's property that's only 1,050 feet away to jet engines.

The town of Naples has taken a preemptive strike against wind farms moving into town. Monday night, the town board voted to ban industrial wind turbines.

There’s a spiritual quality. There’s something about the unmanaged areas deep in the woods, the places where birds and animals can live without being disturbed. The George Washington National Forest is a good place to get away from the hectic pace of one’s job and enjoy its lovely scenic qualities, they said. Most of the 50 or so people gathered Monday at Hot Springs Presbyterian Church told U.S. Forest Service officials that the GWNF, which covers 1,065,000 acres in this region, has been pretty well-managed over the years, and they don’t want much about it to change, even for the sake of renewable wind power on the electric grid.

WESTBOROUGH, Mass. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — Sept. 21, 2006 — In a white paper published today, National Grid urged federal and state policymakers to address current inadequacies in U.S. transmission policies that create obstacles for wind and other renewable generators in accessing the country’s electric grid. In the paper, entitled “Transmission and Wind Energy: Capturing the Prevailing Winds for the Benefit of Customers,” National Grid advocates for the development of a consistent and appropriate policy approach to support the transmission investment needed to harness wind power and integrate it into the U.S. electricity grid while continuing to maintain system reliability, and deliver its full benefits to electricity market users and customers.

Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority has responded to comments which criticised its decision to refuse planning permission for a wind turbine. An Assembly inspector recently overturned the authority's decision and gave the nine-metre high turbine, near Newport, the go-ahead, following an appeal. The authority's chief executive Nick Wheeler said: "National park authority officers are very well aware of the problems of climate change which face us all, but they are also charged with protecting and enhancing the landscape and implementing policies which have been adopted following widespread consultation with the public.

The Exmoor National Park Authority (ENPA) is opposing plans to build nine 360ft turbines on the edge of the moor. Campaigners fighting the Batsworthy Cross windfarm between Tiverton and South Molton last night welcomed the decision by the ENPA planning committee to object to the proposal, especially as the original recommendation to it was to offer no objection. Members of the Two Moors Campaign, formed to oppose the windfarm, said the decision had established a precedent that would help protect the National Park from the proposal, which would have been a few miles outside the boundary.

A National-led Cabinet would decide which crucial projects to fast-track under its plans to shake up the Resource Management Act (RMA), party environment spokesman Nick Smith says. National says fixing the act would be one of its priorities if it wins this year's general election. It wants to introduce a two-phase system in which priority consents would have to be processed within nine months. The proposal, announced by party leader John Key and Smith at the weekend, has generated cautious interest.