The plan to erect some 60 windmills around nearby Herrick Mountain and Susie's Peak would ruin the precious scenery, say the town's residents. "Suddenly you're thrusting an industrial complex into what's really a rural residential neighborhood," said David Potter, who represents Ira in the Vermont House of Representatives. "In my opinion, [the windmills] don't fit."

The Zoning Board of Adjustment says it needs more information before approving a variance that would allow for the construction of a small wind energy turbine on a property bordering Lake Winnipesaukee. Members of the Zoning Board voted to continue the application made by Richard Lavalliere and in the mean time, have the applicant hire an independent licensed engineer ascertain potential noise level and the amount of energy production that will be done on the site.

A meteorological testing tower to be erected on Susie's Peak will face continued opposition from the town of Clarendon. The Select Board has filed documents with the state Public Service Board requesting authorities to reconsider a decision to issue a certificate of public good for Vermont Community Wind Farm to install the structure.

Europe's second-largest utility is investing in a proposed Ira wind farm, developers announced Tuesday. Vermont Community Wind Farm spokesman Jeffrey Wennberg said Enel North America, a subsidiary of Italian company Enel SpA, will provide capital and expertise to VCWF's effort to build an 85-megawatt wind farm in and around Ira.

The wind turbine being set up this week next to the fifth green of the Mountain View Grand golf course won't be considered a hazard for golfers on the fifth hole, but when it's put into operation later this fall, it will provide as much as half of the power needed for the hotel's needs. Crews began laying out the three sections of the 121-foot tower yesterday morning, which will be put in place over the next day or so next to the 128-foot water tower.

As tensions around a proposed meteorological tower on Tuttle Hill boiled over Tuesday, the property owner spoke out about the divisiveness of the issue. ...Resident Mark Schaefer echoed the caveat of all other abutters and residents in opposition to the tower by saying he is entirely supportive of renewable energy, but not in a rural conservation district. "I've raised four children under that ridge," said Schaefer, who said he moved to the area 25 years ago specifically for its rural appeal. "It would take away everything we've moved up here for."

The Site Evaluation Committee will hold a public meeting at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 28, to consider motions for rehearing on a recent decision to allow a wind farm along a northern Coös ridge line. ...On Aug. 14, just inside the 3-day appeal window, the state Fish and Game Department filed a motion for rehearing or amendment. That same day, motions for rehearing were also filed by GRP, Counsel for the Public Peter Roth of the state Attorney General's Office, and Lisa Linowes, executive director of the Industrial Wind Action Group (IWAG).

A group of Ira residents say it may not be quite so clear which way the wind is blowing. Opposition has thus far dominated public discussion of a proposed 80-megawatt wind farm, most or all of which would be in Ira. However, a group calling itself Friends of Ira Wind has informally organized, saying the proposal has backers in town as well as detractors.

A proposed wind farm in and around Ira has cleared its first bureaucratic hurdle. The Public Service Board issued certificates of public good Friday allowing Vermont Community Wind Farm to place meteorological testing towers on Herrick Mountain in Ira and Susie's Peak in Clarendon.

Saying it acted without adequate financial information, the state's Counsel for the Public has asked for a rehearing of a decision to approve a wind park for Coos County. Peter Roth said the New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee approved Granite Reliable Power Company's request for site and facility of a 99 megawatt wind park without necessary assurances that the company can come up with the money to build the $275 million facility.

Granite Reliable Power LLC, the company that plans to build a 33-turbine wind farm in Coos County, asked the state last week to deny two motions for a rehearing. The motions were frilled Aug. 14 by the state attorney general's office, which serves as counsel for the public, and the Industrial Wind Action Group, which opposes the project. In his motion, Senior Assistant Attorney General Peter Roth argued for a rehearing, stating that GRP does not have the financial capability to carry out the project and there is no "assurance the project will be constructed and operated in continuing compliance with the certificate."

Arguments over wind power can take on a “does not”/“does too” quality to the technically unschooled. Even the basic question of what the technology can do for the environment seems to get mired in contradictory claims. Can wind power displace fossil fuel consumption, thus reducing the amount of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere? “Of course, that’s the point,” say the developers. “No it can’t, because …” reply anti-wind activists, before launching into explanations that sound arcane to those unfamiliar with the workings of the power grid. Whom to believe?

Abutters and area residents of the Tuttle Hill area in Antrim rallied against the proposal of a temporary meteorological (met) tower at the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) meeting on Tuesday. The tower would collect wind and weather information to assess whether wind turbines would be practical in the area. Chairman John Kendall, faced with a growing amount of information for board members to consider for a height variance, continued the meeting to Sept. 15.

Green Mountain Power is continuing to investigate the possibility of a seventeen-turbine wind farm outside of Lowell Mountain, in Orleans County, Vermont. ... Dave Hallquist, CEO of VEC, ...acknowledged the "aesthetic issues" at play in the decision to build a wind farm. Hallquist said that since the billboard ban in 1968, he felt that Vermont had worked hard to preserve an open, rural image, and that he understood the need to maintain that image.

Vermont's energy future could become clearer in the coming months, with key decisions possible by year's end on the relicensing of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and on the renewal of utilities' contracts with Hydro Quebec. Together, Yankee and HQ provide about two-thirds of the electricity currently consumed by Vermont residents and businesses.

Following fiery criticism Tuesday of an application for a meteorological tower on Tuttle Hill, the zoning board will continue the public hearing in September. Eolian Renewable Energy of Portsmouth has applied for a height variance under the small wind systems ordinance to construct a 197-foot meteorological tower (met tower) on a 290-acre parcel owned by Michael Ott on Tuttle Hill, the fourth highest peak in Antrim.

Granite Reliable Power already has state approval to move forward with its plan to put 33 wind turbines on peaks in Coos County. But can the company afford its project? That question is at the heart of several motions for rehearing, including one from the company itself, filed Friday with a subcommittee of the state Site Evaluation Committee. ...Throughout the approval process, Senior Assistant Attorney General Peter Roth, who is representing the public, has questioned whether the company has the financial resources or will be able to attract investors in a tough economy.

The state renewable energy law that made it feasible for controversial new "wind parks'' will also cost New Hampshire consumers in higher electricity bills. They may pay $2 billion by the year 2025 under the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) -- an extra $5 a month, a University of New Hampshire study concludes. But these are just estimates. The state's consumer advocate and utility companies say there really is no way at this point to figure the actual cost.

Green Mountain Power is moving forward with plans to develop a wind farm in Lowell. The company is asking the Vermont Public Service Board for permission to measure wind in the Lowell Mountain range.

Who doesn't have a soft spot for a brimming, backwater lake or the misty cascades below a spillway? Who isn't transported back to the quaint, mill-spun days of early European settlement - and forward, to a low-carbon energy future? Short answer: It's complicated. Vermont's 78 hydropower dams are popular with many ecologists - and condemned by many others. The pros and cons have supplied a bracing charge of alternating current to Vermont's green movement. "It's hard to see people who are normally bedfellows in the environmental movement banging heads," said Jack Price, a habitat specialist.