Wind turbines may soon be allowed on West Des Moines residential properties, but proposed requirements would severely limit where in the city they could be located. Under the proposal, only lots that are an acre or larger are eligible, which disqualifies a majority of residential property. ...Chittenden said the city must find a delicate balance. "We're trying to respect the wishes and desires of residents, but we must also have some protection for neighbors as well," he said.

Homeowners who want a wind turbine on their property will need to have at least an acre of land, the West Des Moines City Council decided Monday. That decision runs counter to a recommendation from the Plan and Zoning Commission last week to eliminate a lot size requirement for residential turbines that generate electricity. "This is uncharted territory for us," Councilman Jim Sandager said. "We certainly can go back and review it. We wanted to err on being more conservative."

The NedPower wind turbine project at Mount Storm is the first case that will be heard by the West Virginia Supreme Court on Tuesday as it convenes for the 2007 LAWS program.

The concept of public welfare is broad and inclusive. … The values it represents are spiritual as well as physical, aesthetic as well as monetary. It is within the power of legislature [to have] determined that the community should be beautiful as well as healthy, spacious as well as clean, well balanced as well as carefully patrolled. …

“The County found that placing the complexes of wind farms, of the size and scope necessary to accomplish their intended purpose, would have a dramatic, and adverse, effect upon all of the general welfare issues found in the comprehensive plan. …

“The Court finds there is substantial evidence which a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support the conclusions reached by the County.

“[I]n the County’s denial of placing wind farms in the entire county[,] [t]he County didn’t take any existing rights away but only refused to expand the existing rights including wind rights.”

Trustee Mike DeMarco admitted the Village Board's Planning and Plats Committee felt it was necessary to study the issue more before any decisions could be made about how to regulate the use of wind energy by residents or large-scale users. "Our ordinances do not have any height restrictions for wind power," DeMarco said. "They are more related to windmills than wind turbines."

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.

A school district in Waldo County is looking to become the first district in the state to use wind power. SAD 3 is teaming up with Unity College and Coastal Enterprises Institute exploring whether there is enough wind to put an industrial scale wind turbine near Mount View High School.

Labour Neath AM Gwenda Thomas today welcomed the decision by the Planning Inspectorate to uphold Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council's decision to refuse planning permission. The planning application, lodged by community group Awel Aman Tawe, was opposed by many residents in Tai'rgwaith and Rhiwfawr, including Gwenda Thomas on the basis of an overbearing visual impact on both communities and the fact that the wind farm would have been outside the TAN 8 strategic search area.

TRAVERSE CITY — Some of his neighbors on Old Mission Peninsula may not like the idea, but State Rep. Howard Walker continues his push to bring windmills to Michigan by overriding local zoning.

An Ontario company is planning to invest $200 million in the expansion of two separate wind farm projects in Cumberland County. Springhill Riverhurst Wind Power Ltd., represented by 3G Energy Corp., is holding a pair of public meetings in Rodney and Westchester next week to discuss the addition of 72 turbines between the two locations before 2010. "There are other areas of the province but we like these ones," 3G Energy Corp. vice-president operations Graham Findlay said Thursday. "If you're going to build a large wind farm you have to do it in a place that's not going to react to it and Cumberland County is an area that needs the economic development and is compatible to wind farm development."

After consulting with Village President Robert Brasen and reviewing current maps, LeSage recommended limiting wind turbines in the 1 to 1.5 mile range to the industrial use areas on the northwest and southeast areas of the village. Brasen said those areas would go along with the village's future plans, which would likely continue industrial growth in those areas.

WIND farm developers are to lodge an appeal against Berwick Borough Council's refusal of its 10 turbine scheme near Ellingham. RidgeWind's proposal for Wandylaw was turned down by councillors last month even though planning officers had recommended approval. ...There was also a late reversal by the Ministry of Defence who objected to Wandylaw just before the hearing, despite having issued three letters of no objection in the prior 18 months. "During the appeal process, we will continue to work hard to counter misleading information about wind farms we have seen recently which only deflect reasoned discussion away from the genuine merits of the project," said Mr Goodhew.

BERWICK Borough Council has refused the Wandylaw windfarm planning application from RidgeWind Ltd for 10 turbines, situated near Ellingham, by eight votes to two at a special meeting of the planning committee on Tuesday night. The reasons given for the refusal of the application included the "detrimental visual impact on north Northumberland", the cumulative effect had both Wandylaw and Middlemoor windfarms been given the go-ahead, the proposed extension of the Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding Beauty (AONB) right up to the A1, and also national security and public safety issues regarding Ministry of Defence radar interference.

Proposed schemes ‘could change face of East Riding forever’ A senior Tory councillor has warned that the landscape of the East Riding faces a fundamental change with planners facing an uphill struggle to resist a flood of wind farm applications. East Riding Council is holding a special planning meeting in the new year to decide four applications for wind farms, which could together produce more than 90 megawatts of energy. Two of the applications concern the isolated Holderness village of Roos, which could end up as one of the worst affected by the developments in the area.

MONMOUTH - Warren County leaders want to be prepared if a wind energy developer decides to build turbines in the region. With a wind energy developer interested in Warren County, zoning officials spent the last several months researching the issue and creating an ordinance that regulates wind energy systems. The Warren County Board unanimously approved the ordinance Wednesday.

WARREN - John Rosenthal has his eyes on the heavy current pulling hard underneath the Warren River Bridge. The president of Meredith Management — the company planning to develop the 14-acre former American Tourister property into hundreds of condominiums — wants to harness the river's tidal energy and use it to supply electricity to the proposed residential complex. The state's Office of Energy Resources is already on board with Mr. Rosenthal's idea. In late August, the agency awarded a $20,000 grant to Meredith Management to fund a feasibility study. On Thursday, Sept. 14, the same day Mr. Rosenthal formally submitted the plan for the redeveloped Tourister property, the company president said work had begun on the tidal energy study, and that he was optimistic about its potential. "We hope it will be fiscally feasible," he said. "This is better than wind energy ... water is denser than air, and it is invisible to the public."

Washington Township, Lehigh County, officials see wind power as a potentially clean and affordable source of energy. They also worry that it could be ugly and unneighborly. Earlier this week, township supervisors voted to limit where residents can set up wind turbines on their properties and restricted their height. The new ordinance also limits turbines to one per property, and requires the energy from them to be used only by the owner, although excess power can be sold back to PPL Electric Utilities.

The Washoe County Planning Commission late Tuesday night delayed until Feb. 4 deciding whether to grant permits for a wind farm that would put 44 turbines on the ridges of the Pah Rah Range east of Warm Springs Valley. The continuance came after a vote to reject the project and another vote to approve the Nevada Wind project failed. At the end of the four-hour hearing, all but Commmissioner Roy Hibdon voted for the delay so that "holes" in the project could be filled in. He had favored the $190 million project.

Officials of a company called Nevada Wind want to build $300 million worth of turbines above Warm Springs Valley in the Pah Rah Mountains, the first large wind farm in the state. ...County planners are reviewing Nevada Wind's recently submitted application for a special-use permit. John Berkich, assistant county manager overseeing renewable energy initiatives, said he expects hearings would be held by the planning commission and county commission in the fall.

With the backing of construction workers and with future neighbors opposed, the Washoe County Planning Commission voted 7-0 Wednesday night to allow a 44-turbine wind farm north of Sparks. About 200 workers, many wearing green T-shirts saying "Vote Green Jobs," urged to approval ...Neighbors worried about noise, dirt from construction, changes of scenic views and other issues they fear would change their rural lifestyle.