facts, analysis, exposure of wind energy's real impacts Windaction http://www.windaction.org/articles/c58+117?theme=atom Xarayar 2006-06-12T02:16:27Z .21432 2009-06-02T11:40:11Z 2009-06-02T11:40:11Z

Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the International Energy Agency, says it is "inevitable" that the manufacturing of renewable energy components - mainly solar modules and wind turbines - will move to China and, to a lesser extent, India. "The PV cells made there are not of as high a quality yet [as those made in Europe] but they will get there." This view is echoed by George Frampton, former chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and a member of the Obama campaign's transition team. He says: "There is a very strong momentum. And it's not just because of the cost, it's also that I'm not that optimistic that this market is going to boom in the US."

.19740 2009-01-31T03:12:20Z 2009-01-31T03:12:20Z

Concerns emerged this week over the effectiveness of carbon trading in encouraging alternative energy development after a tumbling carbon price made investment in projects more expensive. The price of carbon has fallen by nearly 70 per cent since reaching a high of €32.90 in April 2006 to a new low of €10.81 last week, although it recovered this week to just under €12.

.19567 2009-01-19T14:49:30Z 2009-01-19T14:49:30Z

Wind turbine blade maker LM Glasfiber Group has announced that it will lay off up to 600 workers at plants in Europe and the United States. The Danish company plans to cut a fifth of its domestic workforce - 450 employees - and to close one of its two blade plants in Little Rock, Arkansas, with the loss of 150 jobs. ...Despite this, the company stressed it is confident in the long-term outlook for the wind turbine business.

.16179 2008-06-04T04:00:50Z 2008-06-04T04:00:50Z

Consumers face years of rising gas and electricity bills as the UK heads towards an energy crunch, according to the chief executive of one of Britain's biggest power companies. Paul Golby, of E.ON UK, said it was time for the industry and Government to come clean about the extent of the UK's energy needs - and what it will mean for domestic prices. ...Mr Golby, who was launching E.ON's energy manifesto, said his call for an "honest debate" about Britain's energy future must include a recognition that new coal-fired generation "will play a significant role in restraining prices". He said: "Without coal, bridging the energy gap will mean allowing gas to dominate our energy mix and a second "dash for gas" is something we need to avoid." But new power stations must include carbon capture and storage technology.

.12996 2007-12-04T01:14:55Z 2007-12-04T01:14:55Z

...global investment bank Lehman Brothers agreed to advise and finance the $700m Cape Wind project, the US’s first offshore wind farm located near Nantucket Island and a landmark cause for many environmentalists. This March, Goldman Sachs sold its investment – redubbed Horizon Wind Energy – to Portugal’s largest utility, EDP, for more than $2.1bn, making a profit of $900m. But Lehman Brothers’ project, despite early state-level approvals, has been stuck in bureaucratic purgatory from which it is unlikely to emerge soon. The problem: Nantucket’s millionaire residents oppose the wind farm, which they claim would ruin their ocean views. The contrast between the outcome of the Zilkha investment and the Cape Wind project illustrates the unpredictability of the clean technology sector. “There is no doubt in my mind that renewable energy is like other tech start-ups, where some will succeed and many will not.”

.12524 2007-11-05T23:28:33Z 2007-11-05T23:28:33Z

The Norwegian fish industry fiercely fights goverment plans to build windmill parks at sea. The windmills will hinder fishing and shipping, a fish industry association argues. In its annual conference this weekend, the Norwegian Fishery Association unanimously supported a proposal to fight the development of windmill parks at sea.

.11510 2007-08-24T11:45:43Z 2007-08-24T11:45:43Z

European power companies are making billions of euros in excess profits in the European Union's battle to beat global warming by cutting emissions of carbon gases, and consumers are paying for it, economists say. The electricity generators are given, free of charge, permits to emit millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide which are currently worth around 20 euros a tonne, but are then charging consumers as if they had been made to pay for the permits. Michael Grubb, Chief Economist at the Carbon Trust and Director of Climate Strategies, calculates that this practice which he says is economically justifiable gives the industry windfall profits of some 20 billion euros ($27.14 billion) a year. "It is free money," he told Reuters. "It's how you'd expect companies to behave, but politically and morally it is going to be hard to justify making so much money out of a scheme designed to reduce emissions - with consumers footing the bill."

.10847 2007-07-20T11:03:25Z 2007-07-20T11:03:25Z

An Internet-style bubble is looming in renewable energy stocks with valuations reaching the ozone layer and businesses managing to secure flotations with little or no turnover, a French investment fund has warned. With raw material prices showing no sign of abating, companies that supply renewable energy or equipment such as wind turbines and solar panels could see their margins suffer, Matteo Novelli of Star Innovation at CFD Capital Management said. "There is clearly a bubble forming in the eco-energy market and there could be a hefty correction at some point," Novelli told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. European Union leaders have pledged to get a fifth of the bloc's energy from renewable fuels like wind, solar and biofuels by 2020, three times the current level. Political pressure for a cleaner environment and high oil prices have sparked an investment rush into alternative energy. But Novelli said such businesses were so fashionable that valuations could not be sustained in the short to medium term.

.8315 2007-03-08T17:13:12Z 2007-03-08T17:13:12Z

Offshore wind farms could seriously damage tourism in some of the country’s most scenic beauty spots, it was warned yesterday. Failte Ireland is particularly concerned about plans to build up to 400 wind turbines off the coastline between Killiney, Co Dublin and Arklow, Co Wicklow. All of them, at 160 metres-high, would be visible from the shoreline. Failte Ireland said it was not ‘anti-wind farm’ but had to protect the country’s tourism industry.

.7770 2007-02-05T12:45:27Z 2007-02-05T12:45:27Z

The Environment and Public Works Ministry is in favor of developing wind farms on Greek islands but wants to place strict restrictions on such development. The Greek islands, buffeted by winds for most of the year, have great potential as wind park locations. Ministry officials estimate that as many as 7,000 turbines could be installed, producing about 14,000 megawatts of energy annually. Private investors are fighting over prime locations. The islands also happen to be among Greece’s major tourist attractions. An overdevelopment of wind farms would create both aesthetic conflicts and great noise pollution, as anyone who has visited a wind park can confirm. Thus, the new land use plan for renewable energy sources being prepared by the Environment and Public Works Ministry would limit wind parks to 4 percent of a municipality’s area (versus 8 percent on the mainland and on the island of Evia), which should limit the number of wind turbines to 2,000, producing some 4,000 MW of energy.

.1011 2005-12-19T12:00:34Z 2005-12-19T12:00:34Z

Only a massive immediate investment in wind energy and the installation of thousands of wind turbines over the next decade will permit France to reach its target of further reducing carbon dioxide emissions, according to a new report by a state agency.

.643 2005-11-30T14:50:21Z 2005-11-30T14:50:21Z

The Wind Farms Awareness Group before the meeting. The encroachment of wind farms into Perthshire was again halted by councillors as another five proposed schemes were knocked back.

.628 2005-11-30T00:13:36Z 2005-11-30T00:13:36Z

West Devon councillors are to debate plans for a wind farm of 390-foot turbines in the face of an objection from a national charity.

.21233 2009-03-27T07:11:22Z 2009-03-27T07:11:22Z

US President Barack Obama defends his energy subsidy package to invest billions into alternative energy generation by citing examples from Spain, Germany, and Japan. He has pointed to the renewables industry as a way to create new and sustainable jobs during a period of economic downturn. But this recent report prepared by Dr. Gabriel Calzada, an economics professor at Juan Carlos University in Madrid, shows that for Spain the “green employment opportunity” has proven elusive and unsustainable. The executive summary of Dr. Calzada’s report is posted below. The full report can be accessed by selecting one of the links at the bottom of this page.

.9111 2007-04-23T11:28:00Z 2007-04-23T11:28:00Z

.7634 2006-12-11T13:14:12Z 2006-12-11T13:14:12Z

.98 2002-06-01T04:00:00Z 2002-06-01T04:00:00Z

NFO System Three's report prepared in 2002 for VisitScotland on the potential impact of industrial wind turbines on Scotland's critically important tourist industry. It includes extensive surveys with diverse stakeholders as well as brief overviews of conditions in other european countries.

.21201 2009-05-01T02:01:43Z 2009-05-01T02:01:43Z

President Barack Obama has praised Spain as a global leader in renewable electricity generation and has lauded its success at creating so-called "green jobs." However, a recent Spanish university study concluded that Spain's mad rush to meet overly aggressive renewable standards has destroyed jobs and driven up the real cost of electricity, without cutting carbon emissions.

.20660 2009-04-07T02:25:39Z 2009-04-07T02:25:39Z

President Obama in a speech at the Southern California Edison Electric Vehicle Technical Center last month favorably cited Spain as an example of how to boost an economy by creating green jobs. ...A new study by researchers at Spain's King Juan Carlos University suggests that the president may want to rethink Spain as a model for stimulating the economy with green jobs.

.18760 2008-11-13T09:09:34Z 2008-11-13T09:09:34Z

Once a booming industry thanks to sky-high oil prices, the feel-good trend, carbon reduction and subsidies, the financial crisis has pushed investors to give up on green energies, and like the dot-com bubble of 2000, some analysts say it's about to burst. ..."I think economic reality will kill the green industry," said Mr. Buckee, who now lives in Britain and lectures on climate change. Solar energy isn't alone in its woes. Wind, biomass, biofuel and other "clean-tech" companies are getting pasted too as the financial crisis sends investors fleeing from technology names, dries up credit and freezes the IPO market.