There are much cheaper ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions than subsidizing renewable energies. CO2 abatement costs of PV are estimated to be as high as $1,050 per ton, while those of wind power are estimated at $80 per ton. By contrast, the current price of emissions certificates on the European emissions trading scheme is only 13.4 (Euro) per ton. ...Moreover, the prevailing coexistence of the EEG and emissions trading under the European Trading Scheme (ETS) means that the increased use of renewable energy technologies generally attains no additional emission reductions beyond those achieved by ETS alone.

Despite reports to the contrary, none of the $294 million in stimulus money awarded Tuesday to Spanish wind company Iberdrola Renewables will be spent in Pennsylvania, according to company officials. ...Johnson said Iberdrola applied for stimulus money using projects already completed, like Locust Ridge II, as examples. She said the federal government was looking at a company's track record of success.

The feds have awarded $502 million under a new $3 billion program that gives the cash equivalent of a 30 percent investment tax credit. The U.S. Department of Treasury has doled out $502 million under a new program to provide grants to renewable energy developers who opt for cash instead of the 30 percent investment tax credit.

It might be tempting to imagine some sort of collegiate atmosphere among the developers of renewable technologies as they lead the charge towards a low carbon economy. But don't bank on it. Professional jealousies and business rivalries simmer below the surface and are often not contained. ...But the biggest schism highlighted in the past week is between "the intermittents" (the wind industry) and the "baseload" renewables (most of the rest).

The latest generation of wind turbines needs bigger blades than the 140-foot-long, 6-ton models that Gamesa Technology Corp. Inc. has been making at its factory in Fairless Hills. So company officials announced 184 layoffs in January and said the blade work would be transferred to a larger Gamesa plant in the center of the state, near Altoona. And just that fast, manufacturing jobs that Spain-based Gamesa had delivered to this region less than three years earlier - aided by more than $10 million in financial incentives from Harrisburg - were gone

State utility regulators today authorized an auction to distribute $95 million to new power plants fueled by the wind, the sun, biomass or other renewable sources. The auction will be the fourth conducted under a standing state mandate to derive 25 percent of New York's electricity from renewable energy sources by 2013. Members of the state Public Service Commission ...noted that the time is right for new renewable energy projects.

The state renewable energy law that made it feasible for controversial new "wind parks'' will also cost New Hampshire consumers in higher electricity bills. They may pay $2 billion by the year 2025 under the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) -- an extra $5 a month, a University of New Hampshire study concludes. But these are just estimates. The state's consumer advocate and utility companies say there really is no way at this point to figure the actual cost.

An amendment to a state renewable energy law is expected to encourage wind and solar power by making it easier for projects to be paid when they produce more electricity than they use. The amendment, signed by Governor Carcieri this month, reduces restrictions on a law enacted last year that for the first time in Rhode Island allowed "net metering." The law was designed to compensate green energy producers for surplus electricity they pump back into the power grid.

The government released guidelines Thursday for allocating stimulus money to renewable energy projects, a move expected to help kick-start an industry dragged down by the recession. The guidelines from the Treasury and Energy departments detail how developers can apply for grants to finance up to 30 percent of wind farms, solar plants, biomass facilities and other renewable energy operations.

Ohio lags far behind the rest of the Midwest -- and most of the country -- in wind power use. ...So why does Ohio have one wind farm -- the four turbines at the Wood County Landfill in Bowling Green -- instead of windmills all over the northern part of the state? "In the past, other states have offered better incentives," said Joe Woods, managing director of North Coast Wind and Power LLC in Port Clinton.

A state program that subsidizes green energy projects got trimmed Friday when lawmakers gave final approval to a bill that reduces tax credits for Oregon wind farms. Gov. Ted Kulongoski hasn't decided on the bill. His aide said he doesn't want to roll back Oregon's incentives for alternative energy because they have delivered "tremendous economic returns." At the same time, he recognizes that the state needs all the money it can get in the next two years.

In the waning, let's-make-a-deal days of the 2009 Oregon Legislature, clean-energy advocates, utilities and industry trade groups have been wrangling over three bills that could significantly modify renewable energy legislation implemented just two years ago.

The success of a bill that would slow wind farm development in Oregon seems assured in Salem this week, slowed only by disagreements as to the extent of cuts to the green energy tax subsidy. ...Hunt said the changes would save the state nearly $70 million over the next six years.

The Obama administration has proposed a 25 percent cut in the research and development budget for one of the most promising renewable energy sources in the Northwest - wave and tidal power. ...Most of the attention so far has focused on developing large wind farms east of the Cascade Mountains. But because wind blows intermittently, the region also needs a more reliable source of alternative energy; tidal and wave fit that need. Also, at least with tidal, the generators would be closer to population centers than the wind turbines in eastern Washington.

Despite the speed with which the government wants to act - the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- includes a goal of spending 50% of the $787 billion allocated by the legislation within 120 days from when it is signed into law -- many hurdles and unanswered questions remain ...while one provision of the Recovery Act gives cash grants, another takes away tax benefits. The act stipulates that recipients of cash grants can only use 85% of the accelerated depreciation associated with a project.

The signers represented virtually every type of clean energy - wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, nuclear, combined heat and power, and biomass - and reflected the industry's concern that a loan guarantee program for clean energy projects approved in the stimulus package was stuck in the federal bureaucracy, as has been a similar loan program that predates the stimulus. The letter, seen by Green Inc, cited "disagreements" between the Department of Energy and the Office of Management and Budget.

Lost financing, low prices for natural gas and political uncertainty have stymied a potential boom in the U.S. wind power industry this year. Investment in new wind power capacity that exploded from $3 billion in 2005 to $17 billion in 2008 was projected to fall to $13 billion this year. The fallout for the U.S. industry, the world's largest producer of wind power at 28,000 Megawatts, could usher in a period of consolidation, analysts said.

Project delays and cancellations across the renewable energy industry mean that this year's gathering at the world's biggest annual wind energy conference and exhibition will be keen for word of stimulus funds to help get projects back on track. Investment in renewables has been delayed or even withdrawn as the credit crisis has stemmed the flow of capital.

The intent to prevent California's utilities from using out-of-state wind and solar generation to meet the new 33% RPS requirement is not obvious from the provisions of the bills. The exclusion results from a change in the requirements concerning the "delivery" of generation to California. Under California's current RPS legislation, in order to qualify as an eligible renewable energy resource such that California's utilities can count that generation against their RPS requirements, out-of-state generators are required to deliver the electricity to California simultaneous with its generation.

Energy companies have warned the government that unless they get £2 billion in "immediate" state aid several offshore wind farms will be scrapped - and this would leave Whitehall's pollution-reduction targets in tatters. Companies have put off giving the green light to several big projects, such as the £3 billion London Array in the Thames estuary and Npower's £2.2 billion Gwint y Mor farm off the coast of Wales, until the government decides whether it will stump up more cash to offset building costs that have doubled in the past three years.