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A new analysis from the Association of Danish Industry (DI) among its member companies in the energy sector shows that green energy producers are planning further lay offs this autumn.
Green energy producers said they expected a large reduction in employee numbers over the next few months, more so than in other industries.
Big machines have been rolling up to Allegheny Mountain for days. Site development work on Virginia's first industrial wind energy plant is expected to start this week.
Passersby report heavy equipment has been parked near the entrance to Red Oak Knob, and blasting heard over the last couple of days. A skidder moved in after dark a few days ago, and trees are being cut near one of the turbine sites; one truck full of logs has already headed out with its load.
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West Virginia]
D300 approves 'wind power' and demolition of old deLacey building
August 11, 2009 by Erin Calandriello in The Courier News
August 11, 2009 by Erin Calandriello in The Courier News
District 300 would shoulder 80 percent of the costs - as well as potential benefits and decision-making - associated with the consortium that would build wind turbines to generate the electricity.
Dave Ulm, the district's energy coordinator, said the entire project is estimated to cost between $46 million and $50 million.
Recent report ties wind turbine noise to potential health problems
July 22, 2009 by Lynda Barry in Betterplan.com
July 22, 2009 by Lynda Barry in Betterplan.com
"There can be no doubt that groups of industrial wind turbines ("wind farms") generate sufficient noise to disturb the sleep and impair the health of those living nearby," states Dr. Christopher Hanning in a recent report titled "Sleep Disturbance and Wind Turbine Noise."
Founder of the Leicester Sleep Disorders Service, which is the longest standing and largest service of its kind in Great Britain, Dr. Christopher Hanning's work in the area of sleep disorders has spanned thirty years.
Spanish electricity company Iberdrola SA said Wednesday its second-quarter net profit fell 5.5% as the consolidation of its Energy East purchase wasn't enough to compensate for falling electricity prices and output.
Darrel and Jean Gogel's Trochu acreage is a piece of calm in a hectic world--where Darrel can retreat after working days away as a truck driver, and Jean can unwind from her job as a hospital housekeeper.
That could change, the couple says, if a plan for a 54-turbine wind farm near their house goes ahead.
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Canada]
Wind-turbine orders fell 50% in first half of 2009, MAKE says
July 3, 2009 by Christian Wienberg in Bloomberg
July 3, 2009 by Christian Wienberg in Bloomberg
Wind turbine makers around the world reported 50 percent fewer orders in the first half of 2009 than a year earlier and the market won’t improve until the last three months of the year, an industry consultant said.
Manufacturers have made “widespread” job cuts and prices for turbines in Europe and the U.S. have fallen 5 to 25 percent in the same period.
Efforts should be focused on stopping output of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas which helps heat the planet, rather than moving to a source that can be regenerated, said Craig Mundie, the man who replaced Bill Gates as the world's largest software maker's futurist.
Conservation and radical technologies, including new nuclear, could be key, he said.
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USA]
The police in Nandurbar are verifying a complaint by one Anand Thakare alleging that Aishwarya, Suzlon Energy Ltd, the company that makes wind energy turbines and maintains and operates the turbines on behalf of the investors, and several others had duped him into "selling" his land cheap for a planned 1,000 MW wind energy farm.
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Asia]
The New York State Common Retirement Fund invested $15 million in Invenergy's High Sheldon Wind Farm, located in Wyoming County, through Credit Suisse Customized Fund Investment Group, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced Monday.
A company plans to build a $420 million wind farm with 133 turbines in southwest Campbell County.
San Ramon, Calif.-based Third Planet Windpower is eyeing 14,000 acres for the project on both sides of Wyoming Highway 50 near the Johnson County line.
The company has begun talking to local landowners about leasing land.
Tide runs in favour of new £500m Solway renewable power project
June 20, 2009 by Steven Vass in Sunday Herald
June 20, 2009 by Steven Vass in Sunday Herald
The Solway Firth is at the centre of £500 million proposals to build a mile-long dam between England and Scotland fitted with energy-generating turbines, the Sunday Herald can reveal.
The proposed tidal barrage, subject of a £60,000-£100,000 feasibility study commissioned by Scottish Enterprise, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and Northwest Regional Development Agency (NRDA), would stretch over the River Solway from Annan in Dumfries & Galloway to Bowness-on-Solway in Cumbria.
A green challenge: Make renewables reliable
April 27, 2009 by Christopher Joyce in All things considered - NPR
April 27, 2009 by Christopher Joyce in All things considered - NPR
The Obama administration wants to rebuild the national electric grid that delivers power to everyone's toasters and televisions. One reason is that the grid can't handle all the new solar and wind power the president wants to build to create a greener energy economy.
Here's the problem: Solar and wind power are intermittent. Sometimes it's sunny, sometimes it's not, and it's the same for wind. But the grid needs constant and reliable sources of power.
Vermont Public Power Supply Authority based in Waterbury wants to build three turbines on an old Air Force radar base in East Haven. The project would provide renewable power for approximately 4,000 homes.
Electricity distributor NorthWestern Energy is seeking approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to conduct "open-season" bidding from developers to gain access to two proposed electric transmission lines costing at least $1 billion.
The power lines, if approved, could kick start wind farm development in Montana and deliver the renewable electricity produced by wind farms to markets across the West, according to NorthWestern officials.
"We want to be the highway," NorthWestern spokeswoman Claudia Rapkoch said.
To make use of this clean [renewable] energy, we'll need more transmission lines that can transport power from one region to another and connect energy-hungry cities with the remote areas where much of our renewable power is likely to be generated. We'll also need far smarter controls throughout the distribution system--technologies that can store extra electricity from wind farms in the batteries of plug-in hybrid cars, for example, or remotely turn power-hungry appliances on and off as the energy supply rises and falls.
If these grid upgrades don't happen, new renewable-power projects could be stalled, because they would place unacceptable stresses on existing electrical systems.
Hurdles trip up efforts to build deep-water wind farms
December 13, 2008 by Clarke Canfield in Alaska Journal of Commerce
December 13, 2008 by Clarke Canfield in Alaska Journal of Commerce
Behind the scenes in the U.S. and in Europe, the race is on to build the world's first deep-water wind farms, ones that would operate on floating platforms in waters hundreds of feet deep, like oil rigs found in the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.
There are gargantuan technical hurdles ...
UN defends carbon-trading scheme from US criticism
December 4, 2008 by Eoin O'Carroll in Christian Science Monitor
December 4, 2008 by Eoin O'Carroll in Christian Science Monitor
The GAO found that the cap-and-trade scheme sucessfuly created a working carbon market, "but its effects on emissions, the European economy, and technology investment are less certain." The report noted that the use of carbon offsets can "undermine the system's integrity" because there is no way to ensure that the projects invested in would not have been built anyway, or that they will last long enough to reduce the amount of emissions that they are expected to reduce. Carbon offsets, the report concluded "involve fundamental tradeoffs and may not be a reliable long-term approach to climate change mitigation."
Opposition continues to grow against a high-powered transmission line proposed to run through parts of Gillespie and Kerr counties.
A steering committee in Harper and other concerned citizens opposing the private transmission lines have met several times in the past few months and are encouraging landowners to resist leasing utility easements. ...Hilliard Energy is attempting to acquire a series of contiguous 180-foot utility easements for Florida Power and Light Energy to build a private 345 kilovolt line from Taylor County to Comfort.
The next stage of the Tuki wind farm will be unknown until the end of the year.
Wind Power met with Hepburn Shire Council last week, after mounting community concern about the proposal.
There has been community speculation over whether the proposal will go ahead at Tuki and how many turbines it would involve.
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Australia / New Zealand]