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.