Hundreds of workers at one of the south's flagship companies have today been told they will lose their jobs. Workers at Vestas, which has plants in Southampton and the Isle of Wight were this morning called into hear the shock news that the company is closing down its operations in the UK.

The economic crisis has slowed the market for wind turbines and has resulted in Vestas expecting to cut jobs. According to Vestas CEO Ditlev Engel in an initial Q1 report, the company is expected to lay off some 1,900 employees, primarily in Denmark and the United Kingdom.

New figures show the country is lagging behind other European countries when it comes to wind power capacity Denmark risks losing its position as the leading European wind energy nation ...Seventeen percent of Danish electricity is produced by wind power, which is still the highest level in Europe, but Germany is catching up with 10 percent. ...Wind power currently accounts for six percent of the total national energy usage.

Current and former executives at the wind turbine producer's Spanish subsidiary are accused of fraud Wind turbine maker Vestas has been defrauded for around 90 million kroner by employees of its Spanish subsidiary Vestas Eólica, according to a company press release.

Vestas Wind Systems A/S, the world's biggest wind-turbine maker, said it uncovered a 90 million kroner ($16 million) fraud at its Spanish unit. Vestas has notified the authorities in Barcelona of the case, which involves current and former employees who made false invoices for nonexistent services, the Randers, Denmark-based company said today in a stock-exchange statement.

LM Glasfiber announces mass lay-offs in Denmark as a result of the on-going financial crisis. Wind turbine blade producer LM Glasfiber has announced that it is to fire one fifth of its Danish workforce in what is being called the biggest domestic firing-round of recent times. ...‘We believe 2009 will be a year with stagnant growth in the windmill market and LM Glasfiber has a clear case of over capacity,' said Rothausen.

Parliament approved the construction of Denmark's largest offshore wind turbine park on Tuesday. The wind farm will be placed in the Kattegat strait of the North Sea between Jutland and the island of Anholt by 2012. The turbines will be capable of producing 400 megawatts of energy ...Denmark has 5267 turbines, of which nearly 70 percent are located on Jutland.

An emergency meeting was held at Argyll and Bute Council's headquarters in Lochgilphead yesterday to discuss Friday's shock announcement that the Vestas wind-turbine factory at Machrihanish, near Campbeltown, is to close its manufacturing plant in Kintyre with the loss of 92 jobs. ...A council statement said no representative from Vestas attended the meeting, insisting that any talks had to take place at the company's head office in Denmark.

Vestas has landed a deal with energy giant E.ON worth over one billion kroner, although the company's wind turbines continue to experience construction and maintenance problems. ...Vestas has been the focus of less positive news recently, as several of its wind turbine owners have reported serious malfunctions, with a few of the structures having collapsed over the past two weeks.

Canadian investors looking for exposure to the booming alternative energy sector have a handful of domestic players to choose from, but the local pickings are pretty slim and most of the companies are small. So why not look overseas, to one of the green behemoths that has sprung up on the international scene? ...The fast-growing U.S. wind power industry, driven by favourable government tax policy, is Vestas' largest current market. ...Some analysts are also urging caution over Vestas' high price. "We find the shares are fundamentally overvalued," said analyst Christian Nagstrup of Jyske Bank, a Danish financial institution. The biggest risk he sees at Vestas is a bottleneck in getting parts to build the turbines. Subcontractors have been slow in delivering key components, and that could slow delivery of complete turbines, Mr. Nagstrup said in a recent report.

After the industry's recent boom years, wind power providers and experts are now concerned. The facilities may not be as reliable and durable as producers claim. Indeed, with thousands of mishaps, breakdowns and accidents having been reported in recent years, the difficulties seem to be mounting. Gearboxes hiding inside the casings perched on top of the towering masts have short shelf lives, often crapping out before even five years is up. In some cases, fractures form along the rotors, or even in the foundation, after only limited operation. Short circuits or overheated propellers have been known to cause fires. All this despite manufacturers' promises that the turbines would last at least 20 years.

Denmark still leads the world in wind power per capita but experts are worried that its position is starting to weaken. Statistics continue to support Denmark's claim to being one of the world leaders when it comes to wind energy, but experts are concerned over failure to erect new wind turbines, reports financial daily Børsen.

Stalled plans to build new high-efficiency wind turbines could get a jump start thanks to a new proposal to pay residents compensation if wind turbines placed near their homes depreciate for decreased property values

The world's leading wind turbine manufacturer, Vestas, is puffing up the global wind power figures overnight, receiving an order Monday from BP Alternative Energy North America. The order from the oil giant's subsidiary is worth over DKK 2 billion, according to financial daily Børsen. Figures indicated that the order had significant affect on the world wind energy market and demonstrated the might of the industry's largest players. Analysts also say the order represents a breakthrough for Vestas and the turbine industry as a whole, showing that global companies with deep pockets are now banking on wind energy.

The US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Denmark's Risø National Laboratory, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), signed an agreement to cooperate closely on improving wind energy technologies.

The world's largest offshore wind station, in the south Baltic Sea off the Danish coast Nysted, is offline, perhaps for several months, following a serious transformer failure on June 9. The transformer feeds the production of the four-year-old 165.6MV Rodsand plant of 72 Siemens 2.3 MV turbines into the Danish grid network. Located ten kilometers south of the large island of Lolland, the 140 ton transformer is being brought ashore for repair, probably in Germany or Sweden. It was supplied by Italian company Tironi. The reason for the failure is not yet known, but a short circuit is probably to blame.

Denmark, a world leader in wind energy production and consumption, has built the world's largest offshore wind park in the North Sea as it aims to generate 75 percent of its electricity needs with wind power by 2025.

Danish utility Dong Energy has announced that it is to proceed with the development of the Horns Rev II offshore wind farm in the North Sea off Esbjerg. The new site will be situated to the north of the existing Horns Rev facility, and will require an investment of approximately DKK3.5 billion.

Since the oil shocks of the 1970s, governments around the world have paid plenty of lip service to renewable energies such as wind and solar power. But only a few governments have been able to engineer policies that have begun to bring alternative energies into wider use. Renewable fuels provided 18% of the world’s total electricity supply in 2004, according to figures from the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based intergovernmental organization. Almost all of that, though, came from hydropower, a source with limited growth potential because of geographic constraints. The use of wind and solar power is growing, but they still generated only 1% of global electricity production in 2004, the latest year for which figures are available.

Wind power lessons in the North Sea paved some of the road to a proposed 200-turbine wind farm off Delaware’s shoreline. One of the most important findings recently shared from offshore projects in Denmark: Big wind farms can operate with few environmental risks to birds, fish and other aquatic creatures “under the right conditions.” “Appropriate siting of offshore wind farms is an essential precondition for ensuring limited impact on nature and the environment,” the Danish Energy Authority reported in November. Denmark released its report after plugging in what is now the world’s largest offshore wind operation: Two sites with 152 turbines located up to 12.4 miles offshore. “Appropriate” is the key word to Susan Nickerson, a Massachusetts environmentalist who attended a conference in Denmark to mark release of the report last year. “The big discussion that’s unfolding here is: How much data do you need preconstruction, and how much should this concept of ‘adaptive management’ be relied upon,” Nickerson said.