Green Energy News

Rumors of a potential third wind farm in Marion County turn out to be untrue. County commissioners have clearly heard the rumor. Commissioner Dianne Novak, speaking at a recent commission meeting, said she’s heard talk that a wind farm is signing lease agreements in the Goessel area. Commissioner Jonah Gehring said he’d been contacted about a wind farm allegedly recruiting for leases in the Goessel area as well. NextEra Energy did sign some leases in the Goessel area about three . . .

Proposals for two offshore wind farms have been opposed by councillors concerned that substations will damage the look of a conservation area. Scottish Power Renewables wants to build two wind farms, a cable route through Thorpeness, as well as three substations in Friston, Suffolk. Suffolk County Council said it backed the principle of renewable energy but was concerned about the impact. The energy firm said it had taken care to minimise any impact on the area. The plans will go . . .

The government has unveiled a first draft of a long-awaited offshore wind act, which outlines more than 10GW of capacity to be awarded by 2028.

Use of an AC rather than a DC electric field can improve the piezoelectric response of a crystal. Now, an international team of researchers say that cycles of AC fields also make the internal crystal domains in some materials bigger and the crystal transparent.

A new article presents a theoretical analysis of electron spins in moving semiconductor quantum dots, showing how these can be controlled by electric fields in a way that suggests they may be usable as information storage and processing components of quantum computers.

FROSTBURG – Roughly 70 people attended Tuesday night’s meeting conducted by the Allegany Neighbors and Citizens for Home Owners Rights Limited who oppose a plan to place 17 wind turbines on Dan’s Mountain. Darlene Park, ANCHOR president, and Erin Stark, secretary for the group, gave an update on the project and took questions from citizens. “We thought this project was dead in 2015 but we found that it had come back,” said Stark. “We will continue the fight. They claim there . . .

Those who have been fighting hard against the wind farms that they believe are attempting to take over Marion County were pleased on Tuesday by Marion County Eighth Judicial District Court Judge Steven Hornbaker’s rulings. “I think it went good,” said Plaintiff Randy Eitzen who filed against the Board of Marion County Commissioners regarding decisions they have made involving Expedition Winds business in the county. The judge heard both sides regarding allowing more time for discovery before determining if the . . .

SOUTHEAST KANSAS – Tensions heighten with Bourbon County residents as they go before commissioners to voice their concern with the Jayhawk Wind Farm Project. This afternoon, commissioners held a forum along with representatives from Jayhawk Wind to hear how the turbines could affect the community. Kim Simons lives in the county and isn’t happy about the possibility of a turbine being on her property. She says she’s afraid the turbines won’t benefit those whose land they’re on. And, she adds she . . .

FARMERSVILLE – More than a dozen people spoke Monday at a public hearing the Farmersville Town Board held on a proposed new wind law in the town. Many speakers praised the more protective wind law proposed by the new anti-wind majority on the Farmersville Town Board, but some questioned the haste at which the board introduced the law. Some of the major features of the proposed new wind law are a 455-foot height limit, a 3,000-foot setback from property lines, and . . .

The five-member committee charged with studying the impact of wind energy in Labette County on Tuesday began digging into the weeds of topics related to wind development. Tuesday was the second meeting for the group that organized in late December. The next meeting will be at 5 p.m. Jan. 28 in the Labette County Public Works building in Altamont, 901 S. Huston. The Labette County Commission formed the committee to look into wind farm regulations after a German utility expressed . . .

(Clarinda) – After months of discussion and two public meetings, Page County’s Board of Supervisors has decided to leave the county wind turbine ordinance as is. Meeting at the county courthouse Tuesday morning, the supervisors took no action on the wind energy conversion system ordinance, opting instead to leave the current language intact. The decision comes after the supervisors held public meetings in both Clarinda and Shenandoah last month to gather feedback on wind turbines in the county. Much of the . . .

Council chiefs have objected to proposals for two offshore windfarms on the Suffolk coast, claiming it will do “untold damage” to the area. Scottish Power Renewables have submitted plans for two windfarms, which also includes a cable route overland through Thorpeness and Leiston, as well as three substations in Friston. Suffolk County Council’s cabinet on Tuesday afternoon said it backed the principle of renewable energy projects, but could not support the scheme as it had not been developed thoroughly. Among . . .

The European Union’s (EU) €1 trillion green investment plan could help finance innovative technologies that deliver on climate neutrality, according to industry body WindEurope.

A new method of infrared spectroscopy developed at BESSY II makes single-measurement observation and analysis of very fast as well as irreversible reaction mechanisms in molecules feasible for the first time. Previously, thousands of such reactions have had to be run and measured for this purpose. The research team has now used the new device to investigate how rhodopsin molecules change after activation by light -- a process that is the basis of how we see.

ROCHESTER – The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal of a court decision in December to overturn the 2018 Freedom Wind Law. The Appellate Division’s Fourth Department, also denied a motion by Alle-Catt Wind Energy LLC, developer of the proposed Alle-Catt Wind Farm, for intervenor status in the case. The justices dismissed the motions challenging the decision by State Supreme Court Judge Terrence Parker in Cattaraugus County to overturn the local law which was enacted unlawfully. . . .

After more than two years of sometimes heated debate and discussion the Seville Township board has approved a wind ordinance that will allow turbines to be constructed in the township. However, some think the new rules will be too restrictive to attract any interest from a utility wanting to build a wind farm The ordinance passed 3-2, with Supervisor Tish Mallory, Clerk Terresa Frisbie and Treasurer Ashlee Gibson voting in favor, while trustees Doug Brecht and Marlin Brush voted no. . . .

The Public Service Commission is still working through some issues regarding a proposed 205 megawatt wind farm in northern McLean County. The Ruso wind farm would have 60 to 63 turbines. The issue is the new light mitigating technology. It would use radar to detect planes in the area of the wind farm, to turn on lights. State law says wind farms permitted after June of 2016 have to have that technology. But Commissioner Julie Fedorchak said the Ruso case . . .

Massachusetts electric ratepayers will have to wait a little longer before finding out just how low the promised “lowest cost offshore wind energy ever in the US” will cost them. The long-term contracts between state utilities and Mayflower Wind, the joint venture of Shell and EDPR Offshore North America that has been picked to build and operate a wind farm approximately 26 nautical miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and 20 nautical miles south of Nantucket, were not filed with the . . .

(Clarinda) – Changes could be coming to Page County’s wind turbine ordinance. The Page County Board of Supervisors are scheduled to consider an amendment to the county’s wind energy conversion system ordinance at its regular meeting Tuesday morning at the county courthouse. The proposed amendment comes after the supervisors held two public meetings last month – one in Clarinda and one in Shenandoah – to gather public input on wind turbines. At the first meeting, Supervisor Alan Armstrong said the board was trying . . .

Don’t call Public Service Co. of Oklahoma’s plan to add 675 megawatts of additional wind power to its portfolio “Wind Catcher II.” A witness testifying Monday before an Oklahoma Corporation Commission administrative law judge and two of three elected commissioners who sat in on the hearing said there are several reasons why that description would be inaccurate. “I have kind of bristled at the comparison,” Matthew A. Horeled, PSO’s regulatory and finance vice president, testified on Monday in response to . . .