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.

...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.”

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.