However, several years ago, a utility company that owns the grids started limiting acceptance of wind electricity from the wind farm. Council officials were told that the large influxes of wind-generated power in the grids had caused "fluctuations in output and frequency," and "lowered the quality of the electricity supply." In supplying electricity nationwide, the major utility companies meticulously balance output with demand to stabilize the voltage and frequency supplied by their networks.

Residents living near wind turbines are increasingly complaining of headaches, dizziness, insomnia and other ailments, sparking fears that the new energy source could pose a risk to public health. Although the cause of the problem remains unclear, the Environment Ministry is investigating the possibility that low frequency sounds produced by the turbines are to blame.

Suzlon Energy Ltd. of India swung to net loss in its fiscal third quarter, hurt by rising costs and a provision to conduct repair work at the wind-turbine maker's overseas plants. Chairman and Managing Director Tulsi Tanti said the global credit crunch is likely to hit sales growth in the wind-energy sector, which had a compounded annual growth rate of more than 34% over the past five years.

Damaged rotor blades and forex losses caused the world's fifth-largest wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy post a consolidated net loss of Rs 34.90 crore for the quarter ended December 2008 against a Rs 142.8 crore profit in the corresponding previous quarter. ...Cracks were detected in 170 of the 1,250 blades for 400 turbines of the S88 V2 model supplied by Suzlon in 2007 to two of its major clients in the US -- Edison International and John Deere.

Operators of wind turbines are already under pressure to improve the structures' quake-resistance strength. Now, they face another problem with nature: endangered birds flying into the turbines' blades. The bird strike problem has become so serious that measures to protect the fowl are slowing the spread of wind power as a source of electricity generation. ... A total of 14 birds designated by the government as national treasures, including white-tailed sea eagles, have died at different sites by flying into completed wind turbines.

He says that by 2020, the US, Europe, China and India will want to have 20% of their power supply from renewables. The issue is about making wind power "cost competitive" with carbon sources, especially coal, which fuels 65% of India's electricity and costs at least a quarter less. "Today wind power is just 1% of supply. It can grow to 7% by 2020. That is the maximum because industry has to find resources, material and execute projects. With greater volumes the price [of wind power] will drop ... and [governments] will ask what is the cost for pollution from carbon fuels. You will need a carbon tax. "

Three Taiwanese coastal villages voted to reject a proposal by a German firm to build a wind farm Saturday, while the German firm insisted the project would not harm the environment. More than 300 people from the three villages in Xinwu, Taoyuan County, north Taiwan, voted on the wind farm plan by Germany's InfraVest GmbH "All the participants are opposed to building the wind farm, unless InfraVest offers better proposals," Yeh Si-kuai, a member of the Self Help Group, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by phone.

Villagers said the wind farms along Taiwan's coast have already destroyed vegetation and trees along the coast and create noise. Taiwan residents have held referendums on building nuclear power plants, but have not yet held a referendum on building wind turbines yet. ...Once the wind turbines start running, they will create noise and destroy the ecology by harming mangroves and crabs.

Media reports suggested that the company may defer 15 per cent of its recruitment plans till March next year. When contacted, a Suzlon spokesperson refused to comment. "We have no comment on whether the company has deferred its recruitment plans till March or not. We have no information about that. We cannot confirm this information." ...The energy experts say that the prospects of renewable-energy companies soared with oil prices moving northwards, but the fortunes have since reversed.

BP Alternative Energy has pulled out of a partnership with a subsidiary of Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Goldwind Science & Technology Co. BP Alternative Energy had originally signed a framework agreement to jointly develop three wind farms in Inner Mongolia. In a statement posted on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Goldwind said that BP was suspending its wind power business in Asia.

Suzlon Energy Ltd, India's biggest wind-turbine maker, suspended a rights offer announced a month ago to raise Rs1,800 crore to buy an additional stake in Repower Systems AG. In a separate announcement, Repower said in Frankfurt on Monday that it was in advanced negotiations with a syndicate of banks for loans to fund its growth. It said banks had demanded that Repower refrain from entering into a domination and profit transfer agreement with Suzlon, and that the two companies had decided to comply. ...Suzlon shares have dropped 88% this year.

It's a daylight butchering of Mother Earth in Attappadi. Heads of towering hills are being chopped to install windmills in this ecological hotspot and the largest tribal habitat in the state. Over 20-metre wide roads, posing threat to remaining trees in the area, are being constructed from the foothills to their top to transport windmill units weighing 80-100 tonnes each by giant Volvo trucks. The green tag attached to windmills exempt them from environmental clearance which leads to mindless destruction of nature with impunity.

China is well on its way to generating more than three times its stated target and nearly 3 percent of its power from wind by 2020 - but only if the country's creaky distribution grid can keep pace with the expansion. Amid an investment boom fueled by rising coal prices and Beijing's drive for greener economic growth, China could have 100 gigawatts of wind power capacity by 2020, ten times its current capacity, experts and industry officials say. But for the moment, production from turbine makers and investment by remote generators is moving far swifter than the grid, whose frailty was underscored by a severe icy spell in January that took down power lines.

Experts complain that the established power utilities require producers to generate an overly high quality of electricity, further hindering the expansion of wind power. Given the difficult geographic conditions, plans to build offshore wind stations are drawing more attention as such facilities increase in Europe. Although the continental shelf surrounding Japan is not wide, the potential is there, experts said. "Since Japan doesn't have much space left on land, offshore farms will be promising in the next stage," Imamura said.

The grand U.S. ambitions of Indian wind-turbine manufacturer Suzlon Energy Ltd. are facing mounting problems. The Indian company -- the world's fifth-largest wind-turbine maker by sales -- earlier this year acknowledged that 65 giant blades on turbines it had sold in the U.S. Midwest were cracking because of the extreme gusts in the region. The company is reinforcing 1,251 blades, almost the total it has sold in the U.S. Now, other problems are emerging, in part because the company quickly ramped up U.S. sales to meet burgeoning demand for alternative energy. ...

The chief executive officer of Suzlon Energy Ltd., the world's fifth-largest wind-turbine producer by sales, has resigned amid growing questions about the Indian company's fast-paced growth. Andre Horbach, a former senior executive for General Electric Co. in Europe, stepped down on Friday, 16 months after taking the job. ...Suzlon has benefited from a global shortfall of turbines from more-established producers like GE and Denmark's Vestas AS, the world's largest producer in terms of sales. ...But Suzlon is also facing headwinds. Blades on turbines that it has sold to power producers in the U.S. have begun cracking. The company says only 45 blades have been affected, but it plans to spend $30 million on repairs and to strengthen almost all the blades it has sold in the U.S. Suzlon's efforts to upgrade its technology have also run into problems.

The US$2 million wind farm on the island stopped operating in early 2006 after technicians from Spain, who had overseen the project, returned to their country. The island's source of renewable energy worked during a three month testing and over one year's guarantee period under the control of the Spanish experts. ...The wind electricity farm was established as a "base" for the island's economic and social development.

In the country that hosted the Kyoto Protocol, wind power has ground to a stunning halt. ...As alternatives to coal, the country has looked mainly to nuclear power and, to a lesser extent, solar. The case of wind in Japan is instructive, as it shows how renewable energy can stumble without proper government intervention. ...But utilities don't view wind as the perfect power. After all, the electricity that wind-power projects supply fluctuates depending on the wind's strength, setting up a risk for power surges and outages. To neutralize this problem, utility companies have asked developers to store the energy created from wind power in batteries that can be tapped when needed, rather than to channel the energy directly to the grid.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in February, Edison Mission Energy, a unit of Edison International, said the 144-foot-long windmill blades it recently bought from Suzlon have begun to split at three wind-power sites it operates in the Midwest. Suzlon has recalled 1,251 blades from its top-of-the-line turbines, which represent the majority of blades the company has sold to date in the U.S.. Its troubles don't end there. A year ago, the company bought a controlling stake in a large German turbine manufacturer, REpower Systems AG, in one of India's biggest overseas acquisitions. ...Now, Suzlon can't get its hands on the blueprints. Hamstrung by a German corporate law, Suzlon must offer to buy out minority shareholders before it can demand REpower's designs. It's unlikely that the company could make a tender offer until 2009, say people with knowledge of the companies. ...Mr. Kher blamed the cracks on the Midwest's unexpectedly violent changes in wind direction. Though Mr. Tanti says that only 45 blades have cracked, Suzlon says it will add an extra lamination layer to almost all of the blades it has shipped to the U.S. To repair cracked blades and reinforce the rest, the company expects to spend $30 million.

The strong winds that buffeted the Tokai and Kanto regions Tuesday apparently snapped the massive blades of two wind turbines ...Each windmill is 103.5 meters tall, and can generate 1,500 kilowatts. Turbines No. 4 and No. 5 each lost one of their three 37-meter-long blades.