Vultures have such large blind spots in their visual field that they cannot see objects directly in front of them when they fly. This discovery explains why vultures frequently collide with conspicuous structures such as wind turbines and power lines, despite having some of the sharpest eyes of any animal.

"Japan's wealth has been draining out" due to buying carbon credits from East European countries and China, Mr. Nobutani said. METI estimates Japan has paid as much as ¥800 billion ($10.4 billion) to buy 400 million metric tons of carbon credits. The U.S. says it won't sign a new pact unless China, India and other large economies accept compulsory emissions reductions under the same standards.

Vestas, the world's largest wind turbine maker, is expected to show the strain of a stagnant U.S. market when it reports third-quarter results on Tuesday. Their biggest fear is the possibility that the Danish company could downgrade guidance for the full year 2010 for a second quarter in a row, as a hoped-for recovery in the United States fails to materialise.

Noise, too, is a form of pollution, often little recognized and regulated. Mostly man-made, it bears potential health and environmental hazards in much the same way that physical pollutants do. "Noise is one of the most complex and least understood forms of pollution." (Editor's note: this story does not address turbine noise directly.)

But this global figure masks a shifting pattern of clean energy investments around the world. Investments in European projects fell in the second quarter, while China continued its extraordinary build-out of clean energy, and the US showed evidence of a bounceback, according to the Bloomberg New Energy Finance analysis.

Merrill Lynch said it's "bearish" on prospects for wind power demand in the U.S. because many states have exceeded their renewable-energy goals and lower natural gas prices make wind less competitive. The Bank of America Corp. unit cut to "underperform" Danish turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems A/S and Spain's Iberdrola Renovables SA, the largest operator of wind parks, in a note to investors today led by analyst Matthew Yates.

A federal agency that oversees trade disputes has rejected General Electric Co.'s claim that Mitsubishi violated GE patents to build wind turbines the Japanese firm imports to the United States. The U.S. International Trade Commission decision, handed down Friday without comment, reversed an administrative law judge's earlier ruling that Mitsubishi had violated the patents.

With their blades whirling, the 55 turbines that stand beyond the gray pebble beach of Pozo Izquierdo are stark, white symbols of a growing industry and the potential for abundant clean energy — and corruption. The town of Santa Lucía Tirajana, host to the annual Grand Slam windsurfing championships, was struck this year with gale force. A yearlong investigation by the Guardia Civil — the Spanish gendarmerie — turned up irregularities in a plan to build a new wind park. Now the mayor, five town officials and two wind park developers are fighting criminal charges ... This investigation and others taking place in Europe and the United States shed light on the sometimes freewheeling approach of the fast-evolving wind energy industry.

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.

"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.

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.

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."

US engineering giant General Electric (GE) yesterday warned that rising steel prices and turmoil on the financial markets will have a negative impact on its fast expanding wind turbine business. Speaking at an event in Germany to publicise its latest turbine, GE Energy's global sales leader for wind energy, Mete Maltepe, said that the rising cost of steel would drive up the price of turbines.

More production problems and one-off charges hammered wind turbine group Clipper Windpower's first half, but the group expects full year revenue to be over $800m and to be close to break-even in the second half. Losses in the six months to June soared to $211m from $78m on revenues of $156m, up from $20m. Increased costs to repair faulty turbines, provisions for inventory obsolescence and higher operating costs caused the higher losses.

The world's fifth largest wind turbine manufacturer is in a bit of a spot. The Rs 7,985 crore Suzlon Energy will have to incur a cost of Rs 100 crore for retrofitting blades. Essentially, about 1251 blades will need to be structurally reinforced and the firm may need to spend additionally on higher warranty provisions and increased raw material costs. Moreover, there could be a slippage in volumes, later on, due to delays in execution. All this, say analysts, could shave off anywhere between 14-17 per cent from the company's earnings between FY08-10.

Greenpeace is deliberately misleading the public into thinking that wind and solar energy, both of which are inherently intermittent and unreliable, can replace baseload power that is continuous and reliable. Only three technologies can produce large amounts of baseload power: fossil fuels, hydroelectric plants and nuclear power. Given that we want to reduce fossil fuels and that potential hydroelectric sites are becoming scarce, nuclear power is the main option. But Greenpeace and its allies remain in denial despite the fact that many independent environmentalists and now the IPCC see the situation clearly. Over the past 10 years, Germany and Denmark have poured billions of taxpayers' euros into wind and solar energy in the vain hope that this would allow them to shut down fossil fuel and nuclear plants. They have not succeeded because every solar panel and every wind turbine must be backed up by reliable power when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing. ...Greenpeace and company are stuck in the 1970s when it comes to the policy on energy as it relates to climate change.

The American Wind Energy Association lists what developers need to do when evaluating a wind project.