UK Energy Minister Ed Miliband urged world leaders to acknowledge that coal would remain part of the world's energy mix. "We must try every energy option to shift to a low-carbon world," Miliband wrote in The Times newspaper yesterday (27 April). He defended the UK government's recent about-turn in policy after last week's announcement of a ban on new coal plants without carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities.

LONDON (AFX) - A major UK government-funded study has warned that the political spinning of energy-efficient technologies such as wind turbines has created 'a substantial gap between rhetoric and reality', which could damage future development. Scientists from the Universities of Sussex, Southampton and Imperial College London said that despite the growth in the profile of micro-generation technologies such as wind turbines -- enthusiastically championed by David Cameron and Sir Menzies Campbell -- the barriers towards implementation on a national scale are still huge. The research, led by Dr Jim Watson at the Sussex Energy Group and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, found that policy makers were still not doing enough to promote micro-generation- technologies that allow households to generate their own electricity.

It also wants a large increase in power from sources such as wind and solar.

The grid operator had to shut down 750 megawatts (MW) of wind power capacity on Saturday night and 300 MW on Sunday night as the network was congested.

The review will include a commitment to increase supplies from renewable energy sources, such as wind farms, Mr Darling said. But he warned: “The problem with renewables, on the present technology, is that it’s never going to be enough to supply us with energy we need.”

Britain needs to create a market in which electricity storage can make money rather than adding costs to consumers if it is to successfully integrate renewables into the power grid, S&C Electric said on Wednesday.

Last week Britain committed itself to cutting greenhouse gases by 80 per cent. This week Gordon Brown will claim the UK is now a world leader in wind power. An Observer investigation reveals his hopes could be blown wildly off course. No country has tried to switch so fast to renewable energy - but rising costs and technical problems mean that, without urgent action and cash, the targets cannot be met.

"It will become increasingly necessary to restrict the output from wind generation onto the system to ensure sufficient thermal capacity is synchronized," National Grid said in a 2020 transmission system report ...Based on historic data, wind turbines will have to be switched off for 38 days every year.

LONDON (AFX) - Prime Minister Tony Blair has taken a firm decision to back the building of a new generation of nuclear power plants as part of the review of the country's energy needs that will be published this summer, the Financial Times reported.

The MOD is working with the DTI, the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) with support from National Air Traffic Services (NATS) and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), to test two technologies from BAE Systems and Selex S.I. to see if they resolve problems posed by wind turbines.

Sea users, industries, and conservation groups now have a chance to influence proposals for new laws that will improve the management of the marine environment.

The £1million wind turbine next to Whitemoor Prison is to be switched off at certain times of the year because 'shadow flicker' is upsetting inmates.

A wind turbine came crashing down as high winds and burst of torrential rain swept across Huddersfield. The turbine was one of two that had been put up on fields off Halifax Road at Scapegoat Hill earlier this year. It fell down on Tuesday when squalls are thought to have reached 80mph on the top of hills and moors.

A University of Maine researcher told members of Congress on Tuesday that offshore wind power offers enormous potential for helping wean the U.S. off its fossil fuel dependence and that Maine is ready to lead the charge in developing the technology. ...These turbines would be located about 20 miles out to sea, making them invisible from land and therefore less likely to encounter opposition from coastal landowners, Dagher said. And unlike the Pickens plan, which focuses on wind power development in the Midwest, offshore wind energy could be located closer to the nation's primary population centers.

The U.S. Senate has approved $5 million for a University of Maine research program seeking to develop wind turbine technology capable of operating in the harsh conditions in the Gulf of Maine. A state task force, meanwhile, continued on Thursday to discuss the enormous opportunities but daunting technological, financial and regulatory challenges of developing ocean-based renewable energy projects off the coast of Maine.

The suit was filed last month in Knox County Superior Court by Ronald Huber, a conservation activist in Rockland. It asks the court to suspend the state's approval of the test site until conservation rules for Maine's new energy laws are finalized and detailed impact studies are done.

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth will hold a public meeting next week to discuss its plans to construct a wind turbine on campus that would rival the height of its signature campanile tower.

The turbine would be built in the middle of a clearing between Cedar Dell Pond and the center of campus — a vista that architect Paul Rudolph envisioned as “a visual anchor” for the campus, according to a book chronicling the university’s history. The proposed location — which appeared to be definite — caused the most reaction at the public meeting. That vista “should not be violated.”

Amherst - The federal government has awarded $100,000 to the Renewable Energy Research Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts to explore a partially wind-powered desalination plant that could turn seawater into fresh drinking water.

Six months after contractors erected it, UMass Dartmouth's new 600-kilowatt wind turbine has yet to become fully operational and engineers are still trying to figure out why.