The Boston Globe reports that the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the formidable nonprofit that led the crusade against Cape Wind, the first offshore wind farm, is in financial difficulty.
According to the Globe:
Raising an average of $3.6 million a year in 2003, 2004, and 2005, the organization aired television ads, paid a public relations firm, and staged a $1.5 million lobbying drive to try to persuade Congress to kill the controversial plan, which has become central to a national debate over the future of clean energy.
But last year, after losing …

Time-lapsed video of wind turbine construction.

A joint maritime investigation by the Coast Guard and the Interior Department is looking into the possibility that the firefighting response by private boats triggered events that caused the Deepwater Horizon to sink and the oil to spew. The Coast Guard’s actions are also part of this investigation.
According to the testimony outlined in a report by the Center for Public Integrity published this week:
” An official maritime investigation led by Coast Guard Capt. Hung M. Nguyen in New Orleans is examining whether the salt water that was sprayed across the …

In Mr. Obama’s weekly radio address at the beginning of July (that was Day 75 of the BP oil well disaster), he touted the country’s transition to a “clean energy economy” and announced the Department of Energy’s “award of nearly $2 billion in conditional commitments to two solar companies.”
One government beneficiary is Abengoa Solar, a Spanish engineering company, that has agreed to build a solar power plant in Arizona. The other beneficiary is Abound Solar, a Colorado company, which will use $400 million in loan guarantees to expand solar-panel …

Every time some new information comes out about clean energy technologies, it can be very exciting - seeing lower costs for solar panels - or depressing- realizing that clean coal is probably a pipe dream.  Popular Mechanics takes a look at clean energy technologies and sets about “Debunking the Top 10 Energy Myths” here.

The Solar Impulse took off early this morning for a 24-hour test flight from an airfield in Payerne, Switzerland, approximately 80 miles northeast of Geneva.  Andre Borschberg, the pilot, will fly the plane at 28,000 feet throughout the day.
We reported on early test flights  of this solar plane here and here.
UPDATE - Success!  The Solar Impulse lands after 26 hours.

A debate between Stewart Brand and Mark Z. Jacobson.

This week has been a good week for Cape Wind.
On Wednesday, Ken Salazar, U. S. Secretary of the Interior, announced that the Interior Department has given its final approval of the Cape Wind project. At the same time, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit against Cape Wind brought by the Town of Barnstable and the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, among others, seeking to stop the off-shore wind farm.
The plaintiffs in state action argued that the state Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs limited its review of the …

An historic day in Massachusetts. See our earlier interview with James Gordon after this video.

Two items of interest in the news with regard to wind energy from Reuters: