Children at an island primary were sent home after a newly-installed wind turbine next to their school collapsed, it emerged yesterday. Parents of youngsters at the 18-pupil Raasay Primary School were asked to collect their children following the incident on November 13. The 50ft turbine will "remain out of commission" until an investigation has been carried out.

Italian finance police have arrested two prominent businessmen - including one with ties to a former investor in the Cape Wind project in Nantucket - in the wind energy sector on charges of fraud, reports the Financial Times. Arrested were Oreste Vigorito, head of the IVPC energy company and president of Italy's National Association of Wind Energy, and Vito Nicastri, a Sicilian business associate, according to the article. According to the European Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, Oreste Vigorito has ties to Brian Caffyn, a former investor in the Cape Wind project, which has been criticized as a poor investment for taxpayers, reports Dakota Voice.

Italian finance police, mounting an operation code named "Gone with the wind", yesterday said they had arrested two of the country's most prominent businessmen in the wind energy sector. Police said the charges related to fraud involved in obtaining public subsidies to construct wind farms. They are also investigating the sale of wind farms to foreign companies.

Wind turbine blades rip loose near Esbjerg and southwestern Sweden, one landing on a hiking path A malfunction on a Vestas wind turbine in the town of Falkenberg on Sweden's southwest coast could have resulted in tragedy, as one of the structure's large blades flew off and landed on a track used by hikers.

Blades the length of almost two school buses from a wind turbine owned by Akron-Westfield School District rest on the ground while repairs are underway. The turbine's gearbox was also brought down using a tall crane to reach the top of the 11-year-old structure's 165-foot-tall tower, which is much higher than people realize, said Dwain Wilmot, A-W technology coordinator. "You can see Vermillion (S.D.) on a good day," Wilmot said, if you stand on the top of the wind turbine tower. "I've only seen it once or twice."

An entire fleet of around 100 'urban' wind turbines has been remotely shut down by manufacturer Quiet Revolution after the discovery of a design fault. The fleet of QR5 turbines was disabled after continual wind speeds of between 14 and 24 metres per second caused a turbine located on a sea wall in Blackpool to develop a mechanical error, the company said in a statement on Friday. The QR5s have been installed on 55 sites for clients including Network Rail, Sainsbury's and self-storage firm Big Yellow.

The State Government will investigate the health concerns of Victorians who live near wind farms. Last month, the Democratic Labor Party Member for Western Victorian, Peter Kavanagh, asked the Government to investigate whether workers near wind farms faced health hazards. Some landholders near the Waubra wind farm, west of Ballarat, say a low frequency hum from the turbines is making them sick.

A transformer at the Maple Ridge Wind Farm's substation off Rector Road was destroyed by fire late Monday afternoon. Martinsburg firefighters were dispatched to the substation about 5 p.m. but had to wait until the facility was shut down before extinguishing the blaze, said Lewis County Fire Coordinator James M. Martin. ...The Columbus Day fire was the second transformer fire at the site, with a similar incident occurring July 4, 2007. In that case, 491 gallons of mineral oil leaked from the damaged transformer

Manufacturers of the 190ft high turbine, one of three owned by Sheffield University, are now investigating the damage at the site close to the city's Parkway link road to the M1. A blade on the same turbine was broken 15 months ago and residents who live close to the site at Catcliffe, near Rotherham, have expressed fears that they could pose a danger to local people.

Shares in Spain's Gamesa (GAM.MC) drop 5.8 percent on uncertainty after its chairman resigned late on Thursday, with concerns over regulation for the Spanish renewable energy sector also weighing on sentiment.

Today, the WHO Regional Office for Europe launches its Night noise guidelines for Europe. (1) The book provides ground-breaking evidence on how exposure to night noise can damage people's health, and recommends guideline levels to protect health. The new limit is an annual average night exposure not exceeding 40 decibels (dB), corresponding to the sound from a quiet street in a residential area. Sleepers that are exposed to higher levels over the year can suffer mild health effects, such as sleep disturbance and insomnia. Long-term average exposure to levels above 55 dB, similar to the noise from a busy street, can trigger elevated blood pressure and heart attacks. One in five Europeans is regularly exposed to such noise levels.

The European Commission is expected to introduce a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that directs the largest slices of €50 billion available for research and development to solar power and capturing and burying emissions from coal plants. ...Christian Kjaer, the chief executive of the European Wind Energy Association, ...questioned the decision to give nuclear power and carbon-capture technologies significantly more than wind, which would receive €6 billion.

"Given the outrageous manipulation orchestrated by those who, since 2004, are seeking to site eight turbines, I decided to officially launch this hunger strike September 29th at noon in solidarity with citizens." In these terms, Tuesday, Fabienne Chovet publicly explained her decision to begin a hunger strike.

Between 500 and 1,000 protesters gathered last weekend at Mont-Saint-Michel in France to demonstrate against plans to build a wind farm along the Normandy coast. They say it would be a useless eyesore disfiguring the bay area. The European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW), along with four other environmental groups, organized the event "to denounce the massacre of our national and cultural heritage by the wind farm scourge." Though protestors hailed from France, Britain, Belgium, Holland, and Italy, the event received very little media coverage.

The first major UK hydro project to be completed in 50 years, Glendoe was closed less than two months after the Queen officially opened the 100-megawatt station at the end of June. Yesterday, Perth-based SSE said investigations showed that the rock fall, in a tunnel carrying water between the reservoir and the power station, was "very substantial". ...SSE also confirmed the Greater Gabbard wind farm in the Thames Estuary had been hit after faulty welding was discovered on the turbines.

Faulty wind turbines could remain at a Northumberland beauty spot for another year if a new planning application is approved. The three giant structures at Kirkheaton, north of Hexham, were put up almost 10 years ago by EDF Energy. But technical issues meant that two of the turbines had to have their blades removed, and only one of the three has been operating since last autumn.

Work will get under way this week to repair a wind turbine damaged by a fire last month at the Kent Hills wind farm in Albert County, roughly 30 km southwest of Moncton. One of the 32 wind turbines at the site caught fire on the morning of Aug. 8, and it's been offline since.

Blade repairs are tricky, Moya said, because the weight and thickness of the repair materials have to be perfectly matched to the blade. Otherwise, a blade ends up lighter or heavier than the others on the windmill, causing the entire apparatus to wobble like an unbalanced tire and ultimately fall apart. "We send images of the damage to our engineers in Houston. They send detailed blueprints back about what needs to be replaced," Moya said.

With their organic gardens and ample land, Andy and Jessie Welsh had the perfect plan. Living in rural Stearns County, the young couple had hoped to be energy self-sufficient and green. ...From the start, the installation was delayed and marked by setbacks. Electricians had a hard time getting the turbine wired to run properly. When it finally did, the turbine ran for just a few days before they received a call from the company instructing them to shut it down.

Lobbyist pressure will not weigh on a U.N. panel's decision whether to award carbon finance worth about 100 million euros ($144 million) to Chinese wind power projects, said the chair of the panel on Tuesday. ...The issue has caused long-running tension between the panel and project developers and brokers about the speed of approvals in the $6.5 billion global carbon offset market. Under the U.N.-led Kyoto Protocol's clean development mechanism, rich countries can buy rights to pollute by funding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in developing nations.