A crane operator was killed while installing Vestas turbines at a site in Germany, the Danish wind equipment company says. The accident happened yesterday morning when a blade dropped onto the crane cabin during installation by the subcontractor.

As eco-friendly energy becomes more cost-efficient, convenient, and feasible, the time may be right for a growth spurt

The world's first floating wind turbine could be generating electricity in the North Sea in 2009 under a research pact between Norwegian energy group Norsk Hydro and German engineering firm Siemens. Floating wind turbines would represent a technological breakthrough for offshore power generation, which has had to rely on shallow sites for turbines installed on the seabed.

Fuhrlaender AG, a German maker of wind turbines, filed for insolvency at a Rhineland court, citing delayed projects and postponed payments from customers.

Germany's nuclear phase-out is creating a new divide within the economy. On the one side are the energy-intensive businesses in the aluminum, cement and paper industries, which will see their electricity bills go up as a result of the nuclear phase-out. And on the other side is the growing renewable energy sector, which is starting to fill its order books as Chancellor Angela Merkel's nuclear turnaround becomes a reality.

As UCTE communicated yesterday, a UCTE Investigation Committee was set up this morning and placed under the chairmanship of Gerard A. Maas (as Chairman of the UCTE Steering Committee) who will be assisted by three convenors (corresponding to the 3-fold split in the system). The task of the UCTE investigation Committee is to clarify the causes of the incident and identify possible additional measures to be taken to prevent such disturbances to occur again. Due to the fact that the disturbance had an impact on all UCTE TSOs, all UCTE members will participate in the investigation. The preliminary results of this investigation will be available by the end of November.