WindAction EDITORIAL (18 Nov) USA - After billions in public hand-outs spanning nearly four decades, big wind has never been able to stand on its own and there's no reason to believe this will change. ...If yanking the handouts causes the industry to flat line then so be it. The US has elected a businessman at the helm who... → MORE Recent Articles (18 Nov) Maine - PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s top court struck down a joint venture among Emera Maine’s parent company and two power generators in a ruling Thursday that leaves open many questions about financial relationships between companies that supply power and those that transmit and distribute it. → MORE (17 Nov) USA - Continental Resources Inc. chief Harold Hamm, Mr. Trump’s chief adviser on energy issues, said subsidies for renewable energy like solar and wind, and credits for electric cars, should be eliminated. “None of it should be subsidized, none of it,” Mr. Hamm said Wednesday. “If it makes it in the market,... → MORE (17 Nov) Hawaii - "It's phenomenally complicated. It is very, very difficult to do. It's by a fact of a minimum ten times more complex than any other project ever tried anywhere on earth," Petersen said by phone. → MORE (17 Nov) North Dakota - Billings County Commissioners rejected the application for a 114-turbine wind farm on Tuesday. ...The majority of the audience voiced concern over the proposed wind farm, sighting the visual impacts as a deterrent for tourism, potential decrease in land value and the proximity of the towers to the Painted Canyon Visitor... → MORE (15 Nov) USA | Vermont - Although it cannot be stated definitively that wind energy was the deciding factor in Scott’s win over Minter, it is abundantly obvious that wind has been one of the most divisive issues in the state. → MORE (15 Nov) USA - The ITC and PTC that were agreed to at the end of 2015 and run through the early 2020s “are factored into the long-term growth of the solar and wind industries,” former Colorado Public Utilities Commission Chair Ron Binz, now president of Public Policy Consulting, told Utility Dive. A change to... → MORE (15 Nov) Illinois - The Lake Land Board of Trustees voted Monday evening to authorize removing the north wind turbine near the West Building. In addition, the board authorized removing the blades from the nearby south turbine so this unit can continue to be utilized for educational purposes for Lake Land students. This project would... → MORE (15 Nov) North Carolina - Perquimans County commissioners have rejected a proposed $300 million wind farm, voting 3-2 Monday night to deny the project a conditional use permit. A majority of the board’s five members favored the project, but three individually had problems with at least some aspect of Apex Clean Energy’s Timbermill Wind proposal. → MORE (14 Nov) Ohio - “If wind farms cannot be developed without borrowing or stealing their neighbors’ nonresidential property in order to satisfy the setback, health, and safety requirements, then perhaps they should not be developed at all,” state Sen. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) asserted in comments filed on October 31 with the Ohio Power Siting... → MORE (13 Nov) Texas - Future wind farm projects in Clay County might have to be put on hold after new regulations were recently put in place. Energy producers are now required to notify the Department of Defense and complete a "screening study" before connecting to the Texas power. → MORE (12 Nov) Ohio - A national birding organization based in suburban Washington is working with northwest Ohio’s Black Swamp Bird Observatory again on a lawsuit to block the Ohio Air National Guard’s plan for a commercial-scale wind turbine along the western Lake Erie shoreline. → MORE (11 Nov) Pennsylvania - The wind turbine in Bear Creek Township caught fire Thursday afternoon. ...Smoke from the fire could be seen for miles. → MORE (10 Nov) USA - Federal regulators made final a rule Thursday overhauling how wind and solar power companies lease public land. The rule from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) creates a competitive bidding process. → MORE (9 Nov) USA - Shares in Vestas Wind Systems A/S plunged after U.S. voters unexpectedly propelled Republican nominee Donald Trump to the presidency, sparking concern that the renewable- energy industry will face future political headwinds. → MORE (5 Nov) Oklahoma - An Oklahoma tax credit that provides millions of dollars to the wind industry yearly is overly generous and should be curtailed sooner than planned, according to a consultant's report considered by a state committee Friday. → MORE (4 Nov) New York - The company, which brought suit under the name of its Lighthouses Wind subsidiary, contends that the Planning Board failed to comply with a legal deadline to make a decision on the site plan and special use permit it sought for the two 197-foot meteorological towers on Lake and West Somerset... → MORE (3 Nov) Oregon - Some of the biggest names in Oregon's renewable energy and forest products industries landed on a list of suspicious state giveaways during an investigative audit of Oregon's Business Energy Tax Credit Program. ...The audit details ongoing and costly failures by staff at the Oregon Department of Energy in applying the... → MORE (3 Nov) Indiana - "I want what is best for us, and I don’t like making comment about what others do on their own land," Etchison wrote in an email. "But when they plant a forest of 500-foot towers with rotating tops in my world, and when it’s a precarious endeavor only held up... → MORE (2 Nov) Texas - Shortly after the firefighters arrived, Roye said, one of the burning blades broke loose and fell to the ground, causing a pendulum motion where the wind turbine began to sway back and forth. A second burning blade then broke loose and fell to the ground. → MORE (1 Nov) USA | Nevada - A federal appeals court has dismissed a Virginia energy company's request to overturn a federal judge's ruling last year that threw out the Obama administration's approval of what was projected to be Nevada's largest wind power project. → MORE (31 Oct) UK - Complaints about noise disturbance can range from the steady swishing noise from the blade to a louder thump which can sometimes occur, the review said. But, it added, the annoyance is not just limited to the thunderous sound a wind farm can create. Flickering shadows can similarly irk those who live near... → MORE (28 Oct) New Hampshire - As the state’s Site Evaluation Committee decides whether to permit a proposed new wind farm in Antrim, New Hampshire Wind Watch is citing Groton Wind’s estimate four years ago that its facility would have a capacity factor of 33 to 36 percent. The capacity factor measurement is the average power... → MORE (28 Oct) Missouri - NextEra and the other companies said they received a special use permit six years ago to develop the project. That agreement, however, has since been terminated by the zoning panel, the document added. The firms said they have continued efforts to obtain leases for the construction, and that a subsequent application... → MORE (22 Oct) Michigan - A single blade on two different wind turbines at wind farms bounded by Verona, Redman, Huron City and Kinde Roads were hanging by a literal thread this morning after having apparently snapped in half. → MORE (14 Oct) Germany - The levy German power consumers pay on their electricity bills to finance the build-up of renewables (EEG surcharge) next year will jump by 8.3% to €0.0688 ($0.0758) per kilowatt hour of electricity consumed, re-igniting a heated debate on the cost of the country’s energy transition. → MORE (14 Oct) Texas - "No one is talking about banning wind turbines, but we do have to be careful when we talk about their proximity" to bases, said Cornyn, R-Texas. "We're just trying to make sure it's safe for our pilots, both those in the military and those who use civilian aircraft." → MORE (7 Oct) Hawaii - The blades, hub and nacelle of one of eight Auwahi Wind turbines in the Kanaio area separated from the tower and fell to the ground Sunday, an official with the wind-power generation company said Monday. → MORE (6 Oct) Iowa - Public officials must stop gearing energy policy around the promise of guaranteed profits for well-connected energy investors like Warren Buffett. This hits average Americans once in their taxes and twice in higher electricity bills, which raises the prices on goods and services as well as utilities. → MORE (27 Sep) Ontario - Blinking in the face of a growing political backlash against rising electricity prices, Ontario is suspending plans for more green energy. The surprise announcement by Ontario’s Liberal government Tuesday — affecting wind, solar, hydro and energy-from-waste projects — is forecast to save the province billions of dollars. → MORE (3 Sep) Missouri - The zoning commission voted to entirely prohibit “commercial wind energy conversion systems” in Clinton County on Thursday, September 1 ...Before the ban can go into effect, it will need to be approved by the Clinton County Commissioners. → MORE (15 Aug) UK - Highland-based industry watcher Stuart Young said: "I was disgusted how people were crowing about how much electricity had been generated by wind when customers are going to be hit so hard in their pockets. "The number of megawatt hours wasted - constrained off - was 46,150. → MORE (8 Aug) Ohio - “We conclude the (wildlife) service failed to comply with its NEPA obligations when it failed to consider an economically feasible alternative that would take fewer bats than Buckeye’s proposal, and we reverse the district court on that point,” [Circuit Judge Robert L.] Wilkins stated. → MORE (7 Aug) Missouri - A wind farm company proposing a project in Northwest Missouri has raised the concern of the Missouri Department of Conservation over potential bird and bat deaths. → MORE (3 Aug) Minnesota - “We respectfully request our permit for the Sibley Wind Project be canceled while we work out a solution that will meet everyone's requirements relating to avian studies on the project,” wrote Steve Estes, president of Star Distributed Energy, in a letter to the state Public Utilities Commission. Star controls Sibley... → MORE Recent Documents (7 Nov) UK - Summary → MORE (31 Oct) New York - As part of the New York State Article 10 process for reviewing wind energy proposals, the Department of Health has submitted these scoping comments to the developer of the proposed Eight Point wind energy facility. Project developer NextEra plans to erect 32 wind turbines totaling 103.4 megawatts on land leased... → MORE (4 Oct) - This important peer-reviewed paper examines 15 years of the authors' combined experience with wind turbine noise issues. The authors respond to the various responses by the wind industry regarding turbine noise and explain why audiologists, particularly those interested in community noise, should embrace the notion that all forms of noise, if sufficiently... → MORE Recent Pictures (7 Nov) Minnesota - On Monday, November 7, 2016, Kristi Rosenquist visit with friends in south-central Minnesota. For 5 1/2 years, Kristi's friends have been living with the constant sound and motion of the Bent Tree wind project (200 MW, 122 turbines) owned by Alliant Energy - a life they describe as torture. This is not... → MORE Recent Videos (29 Aug) Germany - A wind turbine in Germany burned for hours because fire fighters did not have ladders long enough to tackle the 100 metre high blaze. The flames struck this morning in the town of Isselburg in North Rhine-Westphalia. → MORE (5 Aug) Germany - Burning blades fell to the ground and set fire to small grain field areas. Special thanks to Friends Against Wind for providing closed caption English subtitles. → MORE
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