Schemes to monitor the bat population will be carried out all over Ireland this summer amid concerns the population of the endangered species has dropped dramatically. Despite being protected by law, the nocturnal flying mammals are being affected by hedgerow removals, the renovation of old buildings, bridge work and pesticides.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil majors love to boast about their renewable energy activities but the glossy advertisements showing windmills and solar panels often mask modest investments and even skepticism. The companies say their investments show they are doing their part to help fight climate change. Environmentalists counter that the spending is inadequate and aimed solely at deflecting criticism away from the role that burning oil and gas plays in global warming.

Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs more than doubled its money by selling Horizon Wind Energy, a developer and operator of wind power generation, for at least $2.15 billion to Energias de Portugal. Goldman had bought Horizon in 2005 for less than $1 billion. The deal will help diversify the renewables portfolio of state-controlled EDP, which transmits electricity to around 5.9 million customers in Portugal and 3 million in Brazil, and it will bring the company's wind operations up to 3,800 megawatts of power.

In about four hours, Forbes changed its headline thrice for a story, thus: ‘Europeans Go Wild For Wind', ‘Europe Embraces Winds Of Change', and ‘Europe Is Gone With The Wind'. Parmy Olson scans the ‘windy' market for clues. The report begins by narrating how Goldman Sachs recently ‘more than doubled its money by selling Horizon Wind Energy, a developer and operator of wind power generation, for at least $2.15 billion to Energias de Portugal'. Another happening deal attracting a lot of attention in Europe, which is ‘the world's biggest wind market, according to the Global Wind Energy Council', is the one about German wind turbine manufacturer REpower Systems. Its market valuation more than tripled last year, to 150 euros ($200) a share, mentions Olson. REpower has received ‘takeover bids of around $1.7 billion from French nuclear power company Areva and India's Suzlon Energy'.

THESE should be heady times for Vestas, a Danish firm that makes more than a quarter of the world's wind turbines. The wind business is booming, and the company said last week that it had swung into profit in 2006, thanks to an 8% rise in revenue. But there is "significant unexploited production capacity", Vestas says, due to shortages of high-quality turbine components. Other companies grumble about a lack of gearboxes and bearings. Wind firms' worries echo those in the solar-power business, which is also booming but where a shortage of polysilicon has hampered growth. Silicon is made from sand, which is abundant, but there are not enough refineries to turn it into solar-grade polysilicon. As a result, prices for silicon contracts have more than doubled, to $70 or $80 per kilogram, in the past three years, says Jesse Pichel, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. In both industries demand has rocketed and supply cannot keep up. The wind business is growing by more than 30% a year worldwide, with America leading the way. (This week Energias de Portugal became the latest European utility to invest in American wind farms, with the $2.2 billion purchase of Horizon Wind Energy.) And when a solar incentive scheme took hold in Germany in 2004-05, demand in Europe roughly doubled, says Ron Kenedi of Sharp, the biggest solar-cell maker.

Energias de Portugal (EDP) said it has agreed to buy U.S. wind-park company Horizon Wind Energy from Goldman Sachs to enter the U.S. market and strengthen its position in renewable energy. EDP did not give a value for the deal, but said the equity of Horizon totaled about $2.15 billion and it has debt of around $180 million. The acquisition would be adjusted for investments, which are estimated at $600 million, EDP said.

A proposed Eclipse Energy wind farm off the shores of England's Walney Island will be delayed due to shortages of wind turbines. Many of the large wind turbine manufacturers in Europe, particularly Denmark and Germany, have been sending parts to the growing number of developers in the United States, the North-West Evening Mail reported. According to Ian Hattan, managing director of Eclipse Energy, the project, involving a natural gas field and wind farm hybrid, will be delayed at least a year. Eclipse wanted to contract the labor and the turbines by the end of the year but incentives in the United States, like the extended production tax credit, have tied up supplies. Hattan said that kits for the 30 turbines are supposed to be available next after October 2010. In the meantime, the company will begin work on the two gas fields, which are expected to be operational by 2009. Once the project is complete, it's expected to deliver consistent supplies of electricity, both wind and gas powered, to an offshore platform that would send electricity through a cable to the national grid.

Councillor Jimmy Harte has called for a more structured plan to encourage the development of wind farms in the county following a recent decision by County Council to refuse planning permission to two potential wind-farm developers. "I don't quite think we've grasped the idea of wind energy here in Donegal yet. We need to designate certain zones or areas where we either do or do not allow the development of wind farms," stated Councillor Harte at this week's Letterkenny Electoral Area meeting. "As it is at the moment, farmers and investors; potential developers of these wind farms do not know where they stand."

VALLETTA, Malta (di-ve news) -- March 21, 2007 -- 1115CET -- 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. When considering such impacts, and in view of the fact that such a wind farm would only generate 1.06 per cent of electricity consumption in 2010, the Government concluded that the construction of large scale wind farms on land would not be justified.

Officials said that the Commission was still unsure about how it will share the burden among member states, after EU leaders agreed earlier in March to have 20% of their overall energy needs covered by renewables by 2020. The European Commission is currently working on a methodology to calculate precisely how much each member state will take up of the 20% overall renewable "burden", EU officials said on 16 March 2007.

RESIDENTS of the village of Ayios Theodoros in Larnaca yesterday carried out a protest against plans for wind farms in the area. After a community meeting on Wednesday night, the village council decided to hold a demonstration at the ‘Kalatrikas' area 1.3 kilometres outside the residential area of the village. Inhabitants of the Ayios Theodoros village were at the scene by 4am yesterday, planning to disrupt the work of the construction company. After a heated debate between residents and construction workers, also involving a police presence, the workers from the construction company abandoned the site.

A third of electricity used in Ireland will come from renewable sources by 2020, the government said on Monday as it unveiled plans to reduce dependence on imported fuels and protect itself against supply disruptions. "By 2020 one third of electricity consumed in this economy will come from renewable sources," natural resources minister Noel Dempsey said in a speech following publication of a policy document on sustainable energy. Official figures for 2006 are not yet available but a ministry spokesman said about 8 percent of electricity consumed last year came from green sources, versus 6.8 percent in 2005. With nuclear power generation banned in Ireland and limited potential for hydroelectricity, the country would have to rely on natural gas for 70 percent of fuel needs in 13 years time if steps were not taken to encourage more diverse energy supplies. "Wind energy will provide the pivotal contribution to achieving this target," the government said in its policy paper.

Along with specials to Luxor and Sidney, French tour operator Voyageurs du Monde is pitching a more unusual offer: For an extra $40, clients can help offset their share of Earth-warming carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere by airliners jetting them to holiday getaways.

In a sop to France and the Czech Republic, a country's nuclear power capability will be taken into account when calculating national commitments to renewable energy. France produces 80 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power stations and insisted that this "noncarbon" source of fuel should be taken into consideration. French diplomats believe this will lessen the EU demand for more renewable sources such as wave, wind and solar power.

A draft final statement at a European Union summit on Friday set a binding target of 20 percent of renewable sources in EU energy consumption by 2020 in an ambitious strategy to fight climate change. The compromise circulated by EU president Germany offered flexibility on how the 27 member states contribute to the common pan-European goal for renewables such as solar, wind and hydro-electric power. The wording appeared aimed to win over states reliant on nuclear energy, led by France, or coal, such as Poland, or small countries with few energy resources, such as Cyprus and Malta, by adding references to the national energy mix.

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.

Approval has now been granted for the construction of Thanet Offshore Wind Farm for which LDA Design undertook the Seascape, Visual and Cumulative Impact Assessment that was a core part of the Environmental Statement. Thanet Offshore Wind Farm will be sited 11km off North Foreland, Kent and will consist of 100 x 3MW turbines. The scheme is anticipated to be the first, and largest to date, of the Government's Round 2 Offshore Wind Farm developments and is due to come on line in 2008.

With energy and climate change stealing the headlines at this year’’s Spring European Council, environmental NGOs and industry groups ranging from large power utilities to the international margarine association are all trying to grab media attention. European leaders will gather in Brussels on 8-9 March for their Spring Summit. The focus this year is on energy and climate change with the hottest discussion focusing on whether to make future EU renewable-energy targets binding or not. The electricity sector is in particular focus this year as EU leaders discuss plans to further liberalise markets and agree on new renewable energy targets.

Policymakers have settled on 'emissions trading' as their favorite global-warming fix. But it isn't working.

March 12, 2007 issue - Global warming isn't the only debate that may be over. Governments and policymakers around the world also seem to have settled on a solution. "A responsible approach to solving this crisis," Al Gore said recently at New York University's Law School, would be "to authorize the trading of emissions ... globally." Emissions trading, also called carbon trading, is being expanded in the European Union and Japan. And in many places where it's yet to take hold, like Sacramento, Sydney and Beijing, politicians are embracing it. Nicholas Stern, former chief economist of the World Bank and Europe's foremost political expert on global warming, predicts that the value of carbon credits in circulation, now about $28 billion, will climb to $40 billion by 2010.

This should be great news for the environment, but many experts have their doubts. The notion that emissions trading is going to make a significant dent in global warming is deeply flawed, they say. Current emissions-trading schemes have proved to be little more than a shell game, allowing polluters in the developed world to shift the burden of making cuts onto factories in the developing world.

The United States has pushed Spain out of the top spot as the number one country worldwide to invest in renewable energy, according to the latest “Ernst & Young Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices ” for the third quarter of 2006. India, the UK and Germany remain 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively. The US scored 71 in the ‘all renewables index’, with individual scores per renewable technology of 72 for wind, 75 for solar and 64 for investment in biomass energy. Spain scored 68 for investment in ‘all renewables’, coming in just below the US which moves up from second place.