Earlier this week, GE's head of renewables, Vic Abate, told Congress that the US turbine market "is radically different" from the "boom period of 2006-09". Several factors are conspiring to push down power purchase agreement prices. "As a result, our wind customers are finding it extremely difficult to sign power purchase agreements with utilities at levels that can support their project economics."

General Electric Co. and Vestas Wind Systems A/S, the world's two biggest wind-turbine makers, are reaping benefits from record orders by U.S. utilities racing to add generating capacity even as they face the loss of subsidies. GE, Vestas and Siemens AG stand to gain although the extension of the production tax credit, due to expire in December, is stalled in Congress. ..."Customers are giving billions of dollars of orders already because they're afraid they're going to lose their spot in line,'' John Krenicki, who runs the GE Energy division, said March 5. GE posted more than $4.5 billion in wind-turbine sales last year, the most since it bought the business in 2002 for less than $300 million from Enron Corp. GE's total revenue last year was $172.7 billion. ...Investors, and company executives, are betting the credit will be restored once a new U.S. president is in office.

Western wind turbine manufacturers are losing ground in China, the world's fastest-growing green energy market. The combined market share for companies such as General Electric Co. and its European rivals Vestas Wind Systems A/S and Siemens AG fell to 14 percent last year from 71 percent in 2005, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Sales are being eroded by local companies.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has created a collaboration with the six leading wind turbine makers to promote advanced research and development. ...The agreement builds on the recently released DOE report '20 Percent Wind Energy in 2030' that examines the technical feasibility of harnessing wind power to provide up to 20% of the nation's total electricity needs by 2030.

General Electric Co.'s effort to keep wind turbines made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. out of the U.S. may hinder Arkansas's plan to become the "Silicon Valley of wind manufacturing." The state has spent two years luring wind-related manufacturers, including Denmark's LM Glasfiber AS and Germany's Nordex AG. In October, Mitsubishi announced plans to build a $100 million wind-turbine assembly plant.

The windmills — officially called “Liberty 2.5 Megawatt wind turbines” — are the first of their kind to be used commercially. They brought national attention to Lackawanna for its creative reuse of an abandoned industrial site. The state-of-the-art turbines are so new that ClipperWind had anticipated a need for some tweaking here and there. But resolving the problem has been more difficult than expected. “This one’s a pain because you need a big crane,” acknowledged Bob Gates, ClipperWind senior vice president. The work is expected to take several months, Gates said. ...While the gear boxes are being replaced, Gates said a reinforcing bond will be applied to the fiberglass blades to prevent any major damage from tiny cracks that have developed on some.

Repair work is due to begin this week on a wind farm off the coast of Kent which has seen a third of its turbines grind to a halt since early December. Of the 36 turbines erected off Herne Bay - on the Kentish Flats - 12 have experienced gearbox problems. Four have been repaired but the others have been running at reduced efficiency pending a break in the weather. The Danish firm Vestas, which owns and maintains them, said the high failure rate was unusual.

The population of Svalbard barnacle geese stands at about 30,000 Barnacle geese have been tagged with satellite trackers amid concern planned offshore wind farms could affect their migration from Britain to the Arctic. The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) said it had tagged five male Svalbard barnacle geese, which overwinter in the Solway Firth, with GPS trackers.

Residents of a Lancashire village have expressed anger after plans to build two huge wind turbines were recommended for approval by planners. ...residents fear the devices will decimate the area's population of pink-footed geese, destroy the landscape and affect people's health because of noise and the 'shadow flicker' caused by the blades. Residents sent 632 letters of objection and Pilling Parish Council, Garstang Town Council and the RSPB also objected.

In a victory for Deepwater Wind, the General Assembly passed legislation this week that provides the wind farm developer a guaranteed market for its electricity. And as a bonus for Deepwater, the Legislature approved the bills with veto-proof margins. ...The legislation passed by the House on Tuesday and Senate on Wednesday forces National Grid, the state's largest electric distributor, to purchase electricity from renewable energy projects.

"We are very bullish on the nuclear market," said Lorraine Bolsinger, a corporate vice-president at General Electric. "Any debate on climate change and the need for zero emissions has got to include nuclear in the mix of fuel diversity," she said in Melbourne. The variability of renewable energy sources like wind and solar means they can't contribute more than 10 or 15 per cent of the total.

Beth Einsele of Shabbona doesn't have one nice thing to say about windmill farms. They're dinosaurs, the Realtor said about the rows of typically white whooshing turbines. They're offensive to home buyers. They're dangerous. They don't produce anything. ...Not surprisingly, Einsele is among those opposing a 151 turbine wind farm proposed for ...DeKalb and Lee counties. The project is proposed by Florida Power & Light Energy Illinois Wind LLC.

This is the first in a two-part series examining wind turbines in the Berkshires. The second story will be in tomorrow's paper.

A project is in the works that will dramatically change the face of Gore Mountain in the Adirondacks. A mining company that's been around since the 19th century, wants 21st century technology to make it a power producer. These days trees are tallest along the Adirondack landscape, but two years from now wind turbines could be towering over them on Gore. ...Barton has to get the approval of the state's Adirondack Park Agency, which won't be easy. It has a history of opposing tall structures, like cell phone towers. ... Another obstacle will be the Adirondack Council, a private non-profit environmental organization. While the towers aren't near any homes, the council does not like the idea of ten, 280 foot tall wind generators towering over the landscape.

A nationwide electricity savings drive will not reduce demand enough to significantly delay the need for new power generation, Trustpower says. Spokesman Graeme Purches said at the height of the 2001 power crisis, when the Government called on people to cut electricity consumption, the 10% savings target was barely managed. That was achieved with the aid of big power consumers, such as the Comalco aluminium smelter, significantly cutting production. “Businesses couldn’t sustain such production cuts like that over an extended period and remain in business,” he said. Mr Purches was responding to a call from anti-wind farm lobby group Rational Energy Debate to make conservation of energy the priority, allowing time for new technologies to develop and more serious debate. The group has called for all wind farm developments to be postponed until the pros and cons of wind power generation can be “independently and competently” assessed.

Generation Resources Holding Co. filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Monday. The Leawood-based wind-energy project developer filed to rid itself of as much dischargeable debt as possible as the company has little in the way of personal property but owes nearly $6 million to creditors holding unsecured nonpriority claims. ...According to its Web site, the company was building or had built several wind-energy projects in Pennsylvania.

Community relations manager Graeme Purches told the Otago Daily Times that if the board decides to go ahead then it would simply be a matter of how long delivery of the turbines took and how quickly contractors could get them in place. "I'd certainly like to think that by the end of the calendar year we would at least have some turbines firing power out."

Local investors are finding it hard to import windmill generators from Europe and the US to set up wind power generation projects due to unavailability of these generators, sources in the alternative energy sector said here yesterday.

Wind power may be one of the up-and-coming green energy initiatives, but Genesee County residents might want to think twice before installing their own wind turbines. According to a map on the state Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth's Web site, 50-meter-tall towers in the county would generate poor-to-marginal wind power, and that's the shortest tower mapped on the site.

Members of the Genesee County Planning Board said Thursday they want no part of a state proposal to erect commercial windmills by Exit 48 of the Thruway in Batavia. The board voted 9-0 to inform the Thruway Authority it is not in favor of the plan. The reason for the opposition is that windmills would pose a potential safety hazard for planes that use the County Airport.