| Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005. |
Wind Power News: March 2007
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch in its noncommercial educational effort to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law.
Debate over proposed Potter County wind-energy plant intensifying
There were some verbal fireworks Tuesday night at the Ulysses Firehall, as opponents and supporters of plans to build a massive wind energy plant in northern Potter County squared off, trying to sway the public on a complex issue with multi-million dollar implications. Most of the three hour meeting was a broadside attack on the proposal by international energy giant AES Corporation to string a series of 400 – foot high turbines along a wide swath of high altitude farmland. Bob . . . Complete story »
Debate over proposed Potter County wind-energy plant intensifying
There were some verbal fireworks Tuesday night at the Ulysses Firehall, as opponents and supporters of plans to build a massive wind energy plant in northern Potter County squared off, trying to sway the public on a complex issue with m u l t i – m i l l i o n dollar implications. Most of the threehour meeting was a broadside attack on the proposal by i n t e r n a t i o n a l . . . Complete story »
Reap the wind: issue sets neighbour against neighbour
Stanbridge Station – When farmer Pol Petit shifted in his chair, indicating he had something to say, the clamour of conversations around the kitchen table of the farmhouse evaporated. President of a local chapter of the Union des Producteurs Agricole and a devotee of writer Victor Hugo, Petit is a homespun philosopher. Recently, he has pondered the notion of massive wind turbines planted across the region’s rich agricultural land. “Over a couple of centuries, your ancestors worked this land, clearing trees, . . . Complete story »
Bill calls for wind power criteria; Panel would decide which areas are best
Maine Rep. Thomas Saviello made no secret of his opposition to a plan to install 30 electricity-generating wind turbines in Redington Township. “I didn’t see an economic benefit for us,” Saviello, U-Wilton, said of Maine Mountain Power’s proposal, which was rejected by the Land Use Regulation Commission in January. “If they were going to come with that power and light up (School Administrative District) 58 I’d have to think about it differently, but this was just going to go into . . . Complete story »
Buchanan targeted for wind power project
A rural area of mostly farmland in the southeast corner of Outagamie County is being explored as a possible wind power project site. Wisconsin Public Power Inc., the Sun Prairie-based power supplier that serves Kaukauna Utilities and many other municipal electric utilities, is working with an Illinois developer, EcoEnergy, to find a location to build three to five wind turbine towers nearly 400 feet in height in the Town of Buchanan. It’s part of WPPI’s renewable energy initiative that includes . . . Complete story »
Glenmore's plan for new wind turbines generates controversy
Sandi Zirbel recalls when she could hardly leave her dairy farm without being stopped by a neighbor or reporter to talk about wind energy. It was 1998 when former Gov. Tommy Thompson helped dedicate Wisconsin’s first two 197-foot wind turbines on the Zirbel farm in the town of Glenmore. Sandi and husband Mike Zirbel had lived through the 1970s energy crisis; they were eager to help demonstrate a clean new source of energy. “We haven’t experienced any problems with them,” . . . Complete story »
Miller, Senate put wind at donor's back
Long-stalled efforts to develop wind-powered turbine fields in Western Maryland have shifted this year to the state capital, where the firepower behind the proposed legislation is potent. The Senate earlier this week passed a bill that would streamline the public approval process for wind-generating stations, which proponents argue will put Maryland on par with other states that have already invested millions of dollars in renewable energy. The key figure asking the state to relax its regulations is Wayne Rogers, a . . . Complete story »
Protect our moors from wind farms
After reading Chris Mackin’s comments about windfarms (“Back new wind farms”, Mailbag, March 22) I can only conclude that the writer is extremely naive or deluded. While there is definitely a case for wind generation on a small, local scale, large groups of huge turbines in remote areas are not only destructive to the environment but inefficient. It is basic physics that the more cable that is needed to transmit what power is generated the greater the amount lost through . . . Complete story »
Uniform wind farm law takes shape; Bill would set property tax assessment method
A legislative effort to figure out how to assess wind farms for property tax purposes is gaining momentum, state Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, said recently. At present, Illinois counties can use different methodologies to assess wind farms, a situation that complicates assessments for any wind farm straddling county lines. Wind farms are a relatively new, but growing, industry in Illinois. “There’s nothing like it out there,” Mautino said. “How do you make a statewide standard for something that didn’t . . . Complete story »
Mulmur meeting opposes gravel, wind farms
A standing-room-only crowd, largely of Mono Mulmur Citizens Coalition members, left little doubt that they were solidly opposed to rumoured gravel/ quarry development at Redickville plus conversion of Arbour Farms on Airport Road to a gravel pit, as well as to the development of wind farms on the hills of Mulmur, when they met in the basement hall of the Mulmur Township building at Terra Nova Saturday. Jim Jackson, who said he’d returned to his native Horning’s Mills after a . . . Complete story »
