Italian finance police have arrested two prominent businessmen - including one with ties to a former investor in the Cape Wind project in Nantucket - in the wind energy sector on charges of fraud, reports the Financial Times. Arrested were Oreste Vigorito, head of the IVPC energy company and president of Italy's National Association of Wind Energy, and Vito Nicastri, a Sicilian business associate, according to the article. According to the European Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, Oreste Vigorito has ties to Brian Caffyn, a former investor in the Cape Wind project, which has been criticized as a poor investment for taxpayers, reports Dakota Voice.

Italian finance police, mounting an operation code named "Gone with the wind", yesterday said they had arrested two of the country's most prominent businessmen in the wind energy sector. Police said the charges related to fraud involved in obtaining public subsidies to construct wind farms. They are also investigating the sale of wind farms to foreign companies.

Shares in Spain's Gamesa (GAM.MC) drop 5.8 percent on uncertainty after its chairman resigned late on Thursday, with concerns over regulation for the Spanish renewable energy sector also weighing on sentiment.

"Given the outrageous manipulation orchestrated by those who, since 2004, are seeking to site eight turbines, I decided to officially launch this hunger strike September 29th at noon in solidarity with citizens." In these terms, Tuesday, Fabienne Chovet publicly explained her decision to begin a hunger strike.

Residents of rural France are seeking a moratorium on wind-farm construction, jeopardizing government plans to expand wind energy sevenfold over the next decade and hampering projects by EDF Energies Nouvelles SA and GDF Suez SA. Organizers of a national petition that started this week demanded a debate on the economic justification for wind energy and the "visual blight" it creates in villages and at tourist sites such as Mont Saint Michel off the Normandy coast.

Shares in Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC) plunged Wednesday as its announcement to increase its capital by EUR1.325 billion raises questions about the viability of its divestment program. Iberdrola Wednesday said it will issue 250 million new ordinary shares, at a price of EUR5.30 each. That increases the company's capital by 4.9977%.

The downgrades reflect Fitch's opinion that the energy production achievable by the wind farm portfolio is materially lower than that originally forecasted and that operating expenditures were significantly underestimated in the original budget. Energy output during 2008 at 540.9 GWh was some 12.5% and 19.6% lower than the 10 year-P90 and P50 forecasts respectively. This was partly due to below-average wind conditions as well as lower-than-expected technical availability.

Spain's Iberdrola said on Tuesday its brokers successfully placed 10 percent of wind turbine maker Gamesa at 16.10 euros per share, but traders said the price was at the bottom of the price range.

Wind parks in Spain, a world leader in the renewable energy source, are increasingly being disconnected due to a fall in power demand caused by the economic slowdown, a report said Monday. "Due to the fall in demand, it has become necessary to disconnect the wind parks which already produce more electricity than the system can absorb," business daily Expansion reported without citing sources.

The Lal Lal Wind Farm in the Moorabool Shire has been given the go-ahead by Planning Minister Justin Madden. ...Moorabool Shire Council mayor Cr Michael Tudball said he hoped the minister had considered concerns held by local residents, including the effect on local flora and fauna, the ability for the turbines to link into existing power grids, flickering, noise and proximity to residential areas.

Multinationals are starting to find out something that is well known to Italian investors: that concealed beneath Europe's most generous system of incentives - supported by "green credits" that industrial polluters have to purchase - there exists a web of corruption and shady deals.

The 56-year-old politician, who unabashedly courts controversy, is taking court action against the wind farms built near his historic hilltop fiefdom in western Sicily, some of which he alleges were built by Mafia-linked companies after corrupt deals with local politicians. Mr Sgarbi's strident campaign has exposed deep divisions within the environmental movement.

Operation "Aeolus," named after the ancient Greek god of winds, netted eight suspects, arrested in the Trapani area of western Sicily, as well as in Salerno on the Italian mainland and in the northern city of Trento. Police in Trapani said the local Mafia bribed city officials in nearby Mazara del Vallo so the town would invest in wind farms to produce energy. The project, worth hundreds of millions of euros (dollars), was first devised in 2003 and later uncovered by an investigation that included wiretaps, police said in a statement.