The Connecticut Siting Council, best known for deciding where cell towers are placed, is about to tackle its first wind-power proposal, one that has already generated considerable controversy in Prospect.

General Connecticut

"It's a safety issue. It's a quality of life issue with the noise and what's called shadow flicker, as the setting sun goes through the blades," said Tim Reilly of Prospect. "There's so many issues here that it makes this the wrong place." Reilly led a protest rally Saturday morning.

Impact on People Impact on Landscape Connecticut

Those protesting against the proposed wind farm say the turbines, which would stand 330 feet up in the air, would be taller than the Statue of Liberty. Katie Lanouette lives 14 hundred feet from the proposed site. "I don't think any of us have an issue with alternative energy and wind turbines, but it's the location of where they're putting it."

Connecticut

A pair of related wind power projects faced scrutiny in an informational meeting Wednesday. BNE Energy, a Delaware company with a presence in Connecticut, sought to inform residents of the details of their project - or, as regulations require, projects.

General Connecticut

BNE Energy, a Delaware company based in West Hartford, held an informational meeting Wednesday night to inform residents of the details of their project - or, as regulations require, projects. The windmills will be split over two parcels on opposite sides of Route 44, with one adjacent to Rock Hill Road and another at 29 Flagg Hill Road.

General Connecticut

This meeting is for informational purposes only and is solely for questions and informal comment and receipt of information. There will be no votes or official testimony taken nor will minutes or transcripts be made available. According to current state laws, the Connecticut Siting Council has exclusive jurisdiction over the siting of any electrical conducting facility with a capacity over 1 megawatt.

Zoning/Planning Connecticut

Optiwind's quixotic mission to build a wind turbine came to an end Monday night. The Planning and Zoning Commission voted 4 to 1 to deny Optiwind's application to revise the current zoning regulations, citing the time element and information deficit over possible benefits of the wind turbine.

Zoning/Planning Connecticut

Optiwind first attempted to obtain a site at Woodridge Lake in Goshen to construct one of its turbines, but the concept was turned down following months of meetings with the Goshen Planning and Zoning Commission. In the meantime, Klug approached the company asking that they consider his farm as a possible site, in the hopes that having wind energy would lower his farm's high electricity costs.

General Connecticut

As of yet, no alternate source of funding yet exists. However, the committee is scheduled to meet soon, according to Chairman Bob Yamartino, at which time he plans on reviewing other potential funding sources for a wind study. Yamartino's currently looking into the Department of Energy, which he believes may be willing to fund the project.

General Connecticut

Jason Ross makes his living installing solar power panels on homes and businesses. His Brookfield-based company, Ross Solar Group, has work lined up for the immediate future. But Ross said the state's Clean Energy Fund has only about $1.5 million to offer homeowners as incentives to add solar panels to their homes.

General Connecticut

In the drive for renewable energy, Connecticut is giving up on large-scale wind power, surrendering to poor topography and the limited reach of a shoreline that stops short of the Atlantic Ocean. ...The report said the state's potential to tap into renewable resources is more limited than elsewhere in New England, "due principally to the relatively poor wind resource in Connecticut."

General Connecticut

Officials from the Water and Sewer Commission and the Torrington-based Optiwind company say concerns over a wind turbine's construction in town are premature and unwarranted. The Planning and Zoning Commission is currently in the process of weighing whether or not to amend zoning regulations to allow for turbines in certain rural areas of town.

Zoning/Planning Connecticut

Power companies in New England are beginning work on a nearly half-billion-dollar plan to upgrade the region’s electric grid to make way for appliances that can shut down to reduce electric bills, improve energy conservation, and connect to wind and solar energy. The first step is replacing decades-old meters with so-called smart meters that detail the use of computers, appliances, TVs, lights, and other household equipment.

Transmission Connecticut Massachusetts Rhode Island

A wind turbine being built on Klug Hill Road in Torrington is scheduled to come online for power this summer, according to Optiwind Vice President of Marketing David N. Hurwitt. The turbine being built by Optiwind, the first the company has built, will provide power to Klug Farm, owned by George "Butch Klug".

General Connecticut

Last May, 10 one-kilowatt wind turbines were installed on top of the Becton Engineering and Applied Science Center to remind passing Yalies of the University's sustainability efforts. But almost a year later, the turbines' actual economic and energy savings value is still unclear. ...Two Yale engineering faculty members interviewed said they are skeptical the small turbines can generate enough electricity to be cost-effective.

General Connecticut

Halfway into a 20-year program to increase the use of renewable energy in Connecticut, leaders of the legislature's energy committee want to drastically alter the program's goals, saying it is not promoting investment in the state. "The bottom line is, (renewable energy) projects aren't being built," said Rep. Vickie O. Nardello, D-Bethany, co-chairman of the Energy and Technology Committee. "It hasn't worked up to this point and it's been there for a number of years."

Energy Policy Connecticut

Although few residents seem to realize it yet, this rural town on the eastern edge of the Litchfield hills could well determine the future of wind energy in Connecticut. For the past year, a 180-foot meteorological tower has bobbed above the tree line along Route 44, measuring the wind's speed and constancy to test the feasibility of erecting the state's first commercial wind farm.

General Connecticut

Last week, the New England Governors' Conference raised green fantasy to new heights with the release of its Renewable Energy Blueprint, which said the region "has a significant quantity of untapped renewable resources, on the order of over 10,000 MW combined of on-shore and off-shore wind power potential." Neither the report nor the news articles about it bothered to do the math. At 7 MW, New England would need 1,429 E-126s to tap that potential. Though the turbines likely would be clustered in "farms," that's an average of 238 per state, or more than one for each town in Connecticut. The cost would be $221 billion that the states don't have, though they might get a bulk-purchase discount of a billion or two.

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Construction on a 199-foot wind turbine on the Klug Hill Farm property is set to begin within the next two weeks, said property owner George "Butch" Klug. ...residents had opposed its construction on grounds it would be noisy and unsightly.

General Connecticut

The Optiwind company cleared what was likely its biggest hurdle toward the eventual construction of a 199-foot wind turbine Wednesday night as the city's Planning and Zoning Commission granted it a special zoning exception. The proposal was unanimously approved with little discussion from the commission and no public comment.

Zoning/Planning Connecticut