Siemens Gamesa had warned that a victory for GE would have a “profound” impact on the wind turbine market. While maintaining that it wasn’t using the specific technique covered by the patent, Siemens Gamesa also sought a broad range of exemptions, including repair parts and turbines that had already been ordered but not yet installed.

Legal USA

Virginia’s new Republican governor is moving to withdraw his state from a regional carbon emissions-trading exchange to which 10 coastal and New England states currently belong, a move that promises to be a major setback for the left-wing environmentalist agenda. On Jan. 15, the day he took office, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed Executive Order 9, which directs state officials “to re-evaluate Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and immediately begin regulatory processes to end it.”

Energy Policy Virginia

A federal judge has blocked a power line under construction in Iowa and Wisconsin from crossing the Mississippi River after finding the government’s environmental review was inadequate. Judge William Conley’s ruling throws the fate of the Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line into question just months after utilities began construction on the $492 million project. ...The utilities announced they had begun work on the Wisconsin portion of the $492 million project despite an injunction temporarily prohibiting work on or near federally-protected waters.

Legal Transmission Wisconsin

“What we’re doing this for is information gathering,” Calverley added. “We’re not making any policy because of this. We’re just trying to get the temperature of the township. “If we start getting into this windmill stuff, there’ll be a lot of scrutinizing no matter what we say,” he added with a chuckle. “I talked to (Douglass Township Supervisor) Terry Anderson the other day and he said ‘I never,’ he said, ‘you sit and wonder why are we doing this?’” Stearns noted.

General Michigan

Township board also negates its own recent vote regarding attorney presence

Noise Zoning/Planning Michigan

HAZELTON TWP. — A local businessman’s campaign to stop a second solar farm from going up in the township appears to have succeeded, with township officials recently imposing a year-long moratorium on any new solar farms.

Michigan

Asked how a crack in a blade on the windmill could cause the main tower to collapse, as occurred on Sept. 16, Matt Dallas, a spokesman for wind farm parent firm Pattern Energy, explained Tuesday, “The crack propagated over time, causing the blade to detach, which in turn led to the turbine collapse.” After the incident, the federal Bureau of Land Management ordered the facility’s 112 windmills shut down while Pattern investigated the cause and developed a plan to prevent further such incidents.

Safety Structural Failure California

Commercial fishing advocates stressed that BOEM needs to make a priority of avoiding and mitigating negative impacts their industry and the nation’s seafood supply. The waters between. New York and New Jersey are some of the most productive on the East Coast and account for much of the sea scallop harvest, valued at $746 million in 2019, according to the Fisheries Survival Fund. ...“It is unquestionable that the proliferation of new turbine arrays will have detrimental impacts on the scallop fishery and other fisheries,” according to a statement from the Fisheries Survival Fund. “Windfarms will and demonstrably do change ocean ecosystems. The goal of mitigation should be to strike a balance that ensures mutual prosperity, not merely an uneasy, zero-sum co-existence.”

Offshore Wind USA New Jersey New York

Commercial fishing advocates stressed that BOEM needs to make a priority of avoiding and mitigating negative impacts their industry and the nation’s seafood supply. The waters between. New York and New Jersey are some of the most productive on the East Coast and account for much of the sea scallop harvest, valued at $746 million in 2019, according to the Fisheries Survival Fund. ...“It is unquestionable that the proliferation of new turbine arrays will have detrimental impacts on the scallop fishery and other fisheries,” according to a statement from the Fisheries Survival Fund. “Windfarms will and demonstrably do change ocean ecosystems. The goal of mitigation should be to strike a balance that ensures mutual prosperity, not merely an uneasy, zero-sum co-existence.”

Offshore Wind New Jersey New York USA

Commercial fishing advocates stressed that BOEM needs to make a priority of avoiding and mitigating negative impacts their industry and the nation’s seafood supply. The waters between. New York and New Jersey are some of the most productive on the East Coast and account for much of the sea scallop harvest, valued at $746 million in 2019, according to the Fisheries Survival Fund. ...“It is unquestionable that the proliferation of new turbine arrays will have detrimental impacts on the scallop fishery and other fisheries,” according to a statement from the Fisheries Survival Fund. “Windfarms will and demonstrably do change ocean ecosystems. The goal of mitigation should be to strike a balance that ensures mutual prosperity, not merely an uneasy, zero-sum co-existence.”

Offshore Wind New Jersey New York USA

Blackouts are unavoidable with solar and wind because the wind can stop blowing strongly, sometimes for weeks, and the sun sets daily and may be blocked by clouds for many days consecutively. Massive storage to date cannot fill in for more than a few hours at anything like an acceptable cost. Blackouts can cost electric customers their lives. 

Energy Policy USA

The future of the Scituate Wind turbine could be up to annual Town Meeting voters this spring. A citizens’ petition has been submitted to the Town Clerk for placement on the April 11 Town Meeting warrant asking for approval to have the Scituate Wind turbine shut down permanently.

General Massachusetts

A temporary moratorium on developing large-scale, ground-mounted solar projects, defined as ones that generate at least 250 kilowatts of power, is winning support from residents. ...If passed by a two-thirds vote of the Town Council, the moratorium would remain in effect until as late as May 2023, or until a solar siting bylaw is developed. 

General Massachusetts

Jefferson County is nearer to finalizing adjustments to laws governing wind farms. At a gathering of the Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Committee held the night of Thursday, January 6, on the Jefferson County Courthouse, some adjustments to mentioned laws have been agreed upon. Others have been tabled till the subsequent assembly.

Zoning/Planning Nebraska

If approved, the exemption would cost the town about $12,000 a year in tax revenues and the town would have to raise the tax rate to cover the loss, he said. A total of 24 homes and businesses have solar panels in Canaan. The town already has a $50 exemption for solar energy systems, which four households took advantage of in 2020. But with several installations costing over $15,000, a credit of $50 “really isn’t going anywhere,” Samson said.

Taxes & Subsidies New Hampshire

A group of New Jersey residents have sued the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to seek the reversal of its March decision to pursue the development of an area of ocean 30 miles off the coast of New Jersey for wind turbines.

Legal Offshore Wind New Jersey

A wind turbine in Kingfisher County caught fire on Saturday afternoon. At 12:46 p.m., a fire was reported in the nacelle of a wind turbine at the Kingfisher Wind project in Kingfisher County.

Safety Structural Failure Oklahoma

Upon hearing input from some of the newest members of the Maple Valley Township Planning Commission, commissioners voted Thursday to make a number of more restrictive changes to a draft wind energy ordinance.

Impact on People Noise Zoning/Planning Michigan

Last year, the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) denied the project due to concerns for wildlife. So, the company has been researching. ...Despite opposition, Circle Power has pledged the project will have minimal impact on residents due to distance from homes and says it would bring substantial economic benefits.

General Michigan

“In 2019 when legislation was passed that opened the door for a large-scale increase in solar development, we started getting calls from tons of farmers who were being contacted by solar developers looking to site solar installations on their land,” Ellen Griswold, policy and research director at the trust, said Wednesday. Though economic development and consumer factors are important, Griswold said developers should also consider the impact energy projects would have on agricultural resources as part of their site evaluation criteria.

General Maine