During an evidentiary hearing Wednesday, Fayette County Judge Steve Leskinen heard arguments concerning eight proposed wind turbines the county's zoning hearing board rejected in June, including concerns about public safety. The towers, which are owned by Oregon-based Iberdrola Renewables, formerly known as PPM Atlantic Renewables are 262.5 feet tall and 12.5 feet higher than allowed under the zoning ordinance.

Vic Russo and Karen Dickinson think the wind that blows across their small farm is strong enough to spin the blades of a turbine and generate electricity. ...But the turbine, which would be one of the first in Centre County, has hit resistance from some neighbors worried about the way it could look and sound. The township's zoning doesn't cover turbines, so the supervisors would have to give conditional approval before it could go up.

If Monaca resident Chuck Thomas had been able to get his windmill up and running over the weekend, he would have been able to take advantage of Monday's stiff breezes. ..."One problem is that there is no provision for small wind turbines in his zone," Leone said Monday. "He has to get a variance for that, and his hearing isn't scheduled until Oct. 19."

A wind farm with up to 14 windmills, if approved by the state, would ease the financial stress on the county's Rock Run Recreation Area near Patton, while preserving the area's planned use for ATV trails and primitive camping, officials said. ..."We have to get approval from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources because the property was purchased with their funds," she said. The site was purchased through a $2 million DCNR grant almost six years ago.

The Butler Township (Schuylkill County) supervisors hosted the session to gather input on amending the township's zoning ordinance to deal with the issue, since the present ordinance mentions nothing about windmills. ...To begin the meeting, supervisors' Chairman Kevin Kowalick emphasized that no building permits have been issued for the project. He also clarified the supervisors' position on the project.

A public informational meeting will be held Wednesday at the Butler Township Municipal Building for input into amending the township zoning ordinance to address wind turbine issues. The meeting, slated from 6 to 8 p.m., was announced at last week's meeting of the Butler Township Board of Supervisors by Chairman Kevin Kowalick, a Republican-Herald employee. The decision to amend the zoning ordinance was spurred by the plans of Broad Mountain Development Co. LLC to construct 27 wind turbines, or windmills, in the Fountain Springs area.

For much of this year, the West Penn Township Board of Supervisors has been considering an ordinance regulating the use of wind turbines. The ordinance has been reviewed by the planning commission and revised after being under public scrutiny. When it came time for the supervisors to pull the trigger and vote on the proposed regulations, an oversight by the township's solicitor has the board delaying that vote again, at least for another month.

Township resident Gary Swope, who has expressed concerns about the impact of the turbines at past meetings, said he had given the supervisors a letter prior to the meeting listing some problems three residents in Somerset County have experienced. In one instance, a homeowner some 2,500 - 3,000 feet from a turbine said the noise at times was similar to a jet engine and added that 30y people in that area are concerned with the aesthetic impact that turbine have on the landscape. In a second instance, a woman who lives 1,300 feet from a turbine said she can hear the noise inside her closed house and that she has measured the noise level there at 55-65 decibels.

Millions in federal stimulus money was expected for Locust Ridge II wind farm near Shenandoah even before President Obama took office in January, according to the company that developed the project. "When we were lobbying (the Obama transition team), we said, 'You need to do something or we can't utilize the tax credit,' " Rich Glick, government affairs director with international wind power company Iberdrola Renewables, said in a conference call with The Republican-Herald late Thursday afternoon. "It allowed us to complete Locust Ridge."

The company that owns Highland Wind Farm has been sold as part of a nearly $400 million investment that will jump-start more projects, including a second phase of development here. A British investor has paid $350 million to acquire controlling interest in EverPower Wind Holdings Inc., the New York-based company that developed the 25-turbine wind farm off Dunlo Dip Road in Adams Township.

Despite reports to the contrary, none of the $294 million in stimulus money awarded Tuesday to Spanish wind company Iberdrola Renewables will be spent in Pennsylvania, according to company officials. ...Johnson said Iberdrola applied for stimulus money using projects already completed, like Locust Ridge II, as examples. She said the federal government was looking at a company's track record of success.

The Brady Township Supervisors held a workshop conference call in relation to developing a wind turbine ordinance. The conversation was with Thomas Tuffey, the director of PennFuture's Center for Energy, Enterprise and the Environment covered many areas of interest for the supervisors, who are currently writing an ordinance that will place regulations on the wind turbines currently being proposed by Iberdrola, U.S.A. in the township.

High atop Armenia Mountain, near this Bradford County borough and close to the Tioga County line, the first of nearly 70 giant wind turbines is rising into the sky. According to Matt Riel, general manager of operations and maintenance with AES Armenia Mt. Wind, as of Tuesday three turbines had been erected and four others have been partially built.

The Gilberton company that wants to build windmills in Butler Township has asked Schuylkill County Court to reinstate its zoning permit for the project. Broad Mountain Development Co. LLC wants the court to allow it to construct 27 wind turbines near Fountain Springs and alleges the township zoning hearing board incorrectly revoked the permit on July 29. Serious harm would result if the court does not reverse the board's decision, according to the appeal filed Tuesday.

The latest generation of wind turbines needs bigger blades than the 140-foot-long, 6-ton models that Gamesa Technology Corp. Inc. has been making at its factory in Fairless Hills. So company officials announced 184 layoffs in January and said the blade work would be transferred to a larger Gamesa plant in the center of the state, near Altoona. And just that fast, manufacturing jobs that Spain-based Gamesa had delivered to this region less than three years earlier - aided by more than $10 million in financial incentives from Harrisburg - were gone

The Butler Township supervisors on Tuesday reinforced last month's rejection of Broad Mountain Development Co. LLC's plans to construct wind turbines in the township by holding another vote on the matter. The vote was backed by a resolution and a three-page document explaining the legal basis for the supervisors' rejection.

Each spring for the past three years, people in my neighborhood buzz about the return of flocks of great blue heron. ...Part of the reason the birds return to Bell Acres is Big Sewickley Creek, a small stream where the heron can fish undisturbed. But how much longer they remain undisturbed is anybody's guess. At the July 20 meeting of Bell Acres' Planning Commission, a proposal was introduced to turn a field about a half-mile from the heron nests into an "alternative energy center."

A little more than a year since North Strabane first received a request from a resident to install a wind turbine on his property, a draft of a zoning ordinance amendment regarding small non-commercial wind energy conversion systems soon may be voted on by the board of supervisors.

Turbines already are taking a heavy toll in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Game Commission released a report last spring showing the death rate is highest for bats, which additionally face being wiped out by a mysterious phenomenon called "white-nose syndrome." The evidence has mounted since studies in 2004 showed 1,500 to 4,000 bats annually were killed by the 44 turbines on West Virginia's Backbone Mountain.