Wind Energy News

March 21, 2007

The construction of a large scale wind farm on land would not be justified when considering its impact and the electricity generated, Minister Ninu Zammit said.  In reply to a parliamentary question by Opposition MP Charles Mangion on Tuesday, the Minister for Resources and Infrastructure tabled the report compiled by Mott MacDonald on 'Renewable Energy in Malta'. Minister Zammit said the report studied a number of sites on land for the generation of electricity from wind and the impacts associated with such wind farms.

ABCmoney.co.uk

March 20, 2007 

Mitsui & Co Ltd and Electric Power Development Co, or J-Power, have teamed with an unnamed Swiss company to launch a wind power project, totaling 10 bln yen, in Poland, the Nikkei newspaper reported, without citing sources. The partners have established a firm in which Mitsui and J-Power each own a 45 pct interest and a Swiss wind power company holds a 10 pct stake, the business daily said. The new firm will operate a wind farm that will be built in western Pomorskie Province in northern Poland.

US News & World Report

March 20, 2007

Denmark decided decades ago to wean itself off foreign oil. In 1973, Arab states angry about Denmark's support of Israel stopped oil flow to the country. To conserve energy, Danes took cold showers, and the government restricted auto use. The government eventually found its own offshore reserves, but by then, Danes were committed to finding a renewable homegrown resource: They took a gamble on the wind. In many ways, the gamble paid off.

March 19, 2007

Wind power company Airtricity is preparing to raise €500 million in fresh capital through a fundraising which could be completed by the summer. The company wants to use the money to fund its growing international portfolio of projects and is likely to meet its target of between €400 million and €500 million in fresh capital without difficulty, according to market sources. When complete, Airtricity will have raised just over €1 billion in the last five years to fund its wind farm expansion plans in Ireland, Scotland and the US.

March 19, 2007

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. plans to finance a Bulgarian wind farm by using the resulting greenhouse gas emission rights as collateral, the first such financing plan in the world, a report said Saturday. Japanese banks will extend a syndicated loan of 38 million euro (50 million dollars).  In the contract slated to be sealed Monday, future power sales generated by the project will also be used as collateral. The project will reduce CO2 emissions by about 80,000 tons a year as a result of the switch from existing conventional thermal power plants to the new wind farm, earning emission credits.

Tocqueville Connection -France

March 18, 2007

India's Suzlon Energy, the fifth-largest wind energy firm in the world, is likely to hike its offer to buy German wind-turbine builder REpower to 1.7 billion dollars, a report said Friday.     The new bid, worth nearly 160 euros (212 dollars) per share compared with its previous 126 euros, would be in response to a counter offer Thursday of 140 euros by French rival Areva that valued REpower at 1.5 billion dollars, India's Economic Times said.    REpower is Germany's third-largest maker of wind power equipment behind Vestas Wind Systems and Enercon..

March 18, 2007

Ministers are planning to boost efforts to establish large numbers of windfarms off the Westcountry coast in a bid to massively increase the amount of renewable energy that the region produces. Rules for licensing offshore turbines and tidal power generators are expected to be relaxed as part of a series of measures to tackle the threat of global warming. But the moves will be coupled with extra protection for the most endangered marine habitats...

Forbes.com – Spain

March 16, 2007

Acciona SA has threatened to withdraw its investment in Spain’s wind parks if the government continues with its plans to withdraw support for the industry. The constructor said it intends to invest some 7.4 bln eur in renewable energy projects to 2009, though Morras said that the money will be sent overseas if proposed regulation changes to both existing and new projects goes ahead. Acciona originally planned to keep some 50 pct of the investment in Spain.

BBC.co.uk – United Kingdom

March 15, 2007 

Bats at risk of being killed by the growing number of wind farms could be saved with the use of radars.  Bat deaths at wind farms are thought to exceed those of birds and it is feared some species could eventually become endangered if action is not taken. Now researchers at Aberdeen University believe radar may be key. They studied the behaviour of bats at radar installations and found they did not forage where electromagnetic radiation could be measured. Bat experts Paul Racey and Barry Nicholls studied bats at various distances from 10 radar sites across Scotland.

GreenPrices - Netherlands

March 14, 2007

According to a new report released last week the global market  for solar, wind, fuel cells, biofuels, and other clean energy technologies is poised to quadruple in the next decade. The global biofuels market in 2006 was slightly larger than solar or wind, reaching $20.5 billion. Solar photovoltaics are expected to grow even faster than most other technologies, from $15.6 in 2006 to $69.3 billion by 2016. The same applies to wind energy: from $17.9 billion to $60.8 billion.

March 12, 2007

Developers will be prevented from building wind turbines in Shropshire’s world famous Ironbridge Gorge under strict new planning restrictions, it was revealed today. The Government is introducing a series of “buffer zones” around recognised World Heritage Sites across the UK, in a bid to protect them from skyscrapers and other intrusive developments. And Telford solicitor Graham Davies.

Sunday Sun – United Kingdom

March 5, 2007

A number of wind farms planned for the region have been held up by red tape . . . putting the Government's energy plans in doubt. The Sunday Sun has found 18 projects bogged down in bureaucracy . . . and there are fears that fed-up investors may take their money abroad. The British Wind Energy Association, BWEA, is calling for the Government to tell councils they must conclude wind farm planning applications within three months.

March 2, 2007

More bad news followed as figures released yesterday showed that more than three-quarters of all applications for new onshore wind farms have been turned down by national and local planing bodies, in spite of the government's commitment to renewable energy. The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) said 12 out of 18 proposals had failed to win planning consent. This will make it difficult for the UK to meet its current target of generating 10% of electricity from renewables by 2010 - not to mention the ambitious target of 20% that Mr Blair has now decided Britain must reach.

Feb. 28, 2007

German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said renewable energies could meet around 16 percent of total energy supply by 2020 — triple the current amount.  Gabriel said such an expansion of renewable energy sources would not be difficult and has “great potential” for providing jobs. Gabriel said the alternative energies would be a “major success story.  Such expansion would gradually allow Germany to replace nuclear energy with renewables, Gabriel said.

Feb. 27, 2007

Spain’s wind power industry said on Monday new government regulations would knock its growth on the head, while the industry minister accused the sector of defending oversized profits.   Jose Maria Gonzalez Velez, president of the renewable energy association APPA, said the government’s calculations were wrong and its claims that wind power was overpriced were false. “With this new draft law, not one wind park would have been built,” he told journalists.

EDP24.co.uk  – Great Britain

Feb. 26, 2007

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has joined local efforts to stop a windfarm being built on the edge of a Norfolk village.  It says the proposed wind turbines at Hempnall would damage a beautiful part of the countryside it dubs the heart of rural Norfolk, and destroy an area to be included in its national rural tranquillity campaign. Opponents to the renewable-energy scheme welcomed the backing of their campaign by the CPRE.

Guardian Unlimited – Great Britain

Feb. 25, 2007

Wind farm projects that could supply power to one in six homes in the UK have been stuck in Britain's controversial planning system - prompting warnings that renewable energy has effectively been 'stopped in its tracks'. The latest blow to the government's energy and environment record comes as ministers are expected to admit within weeks that emissions of carbon dioxide rose again last year, despite repeated pledges to cut the main gas blamed for global warming. 

Oilweek Magazine - Spain

Feb. 21, 2007

Utility Endesa SA said Tuesday it is teaming up with another Spanish company to jointly develop wind-generating energy projects off of Spain‘s coasts. Endesa, which is based in Madrid, said its Endesa Congeneracion y Renovables SA affiliate and Enerfin-Enervento SA, which is part of the Elecnor Group, have created a joint venture company called the Cape Trafalgar Marine Wind Consortium.

Feb. 19, 2007

Two government bodies are facing a stream of criticism over proposals to control the connection of offshore windfarms to the National Grid. Ofgem, the energy regulator, and the DTI have been accused of putting forward plans that could lead to “stagnation” in the development of offshore renewable energy projects and could result in insufficient capacity to transmit electricity generated offshore back to the mainland.

Telegraph.co.uk - London,England,UK

Feb. 19, 2007

Plans for the largest onshore wind farm in Europe have been approved on the Western Isles. If the £500 million project is given the go-ahead by the Scottish Executive, it will result in the construction of up to 181 giant turbines on the windswept Isle of Lewis. The scheme has attracted more than 3,000 objections, but was approved by councillors by 18 votes to eight.