Translation first paragraph (courtesy of Marc Duchamp): "The Superior Court of Justice of Galicia, Spain, has annulled the declaration of public utility approved by the Government of Manuel Fraga to expropiate the Argozón hills, in Chantada, and to allow the construction of a wind farm. The decision, which may be appealed to the Supreme Court, orders that the 23 wind turbines be removed. The magistrates question that the electrical operation on the part of the Enerfín company has more social interest than "the secular" advantage that the neighbours get from pasturing and the exploitation of wood resources." Further down: "The sentence says that there are other similar sources [of energy] that do not harm landscape and wildlife values of the hills".

Since the oil shocks of the 1970s, governments around the world have paid plenty of lip service to renewable energies such as wind and solar power. But only a few governments have been able to engineer policies that have begun to bring alternative energies into wider use. Renewable fuels provided 18% of the world’s total electricity supply in 2004, according to figures from the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based intergovernmental organization. Almost all of that, though, came from hydropower, a source with limited growth potential because of geographic constraints. The use of wind and solar power is growing, but they still generated only 1% of global electricity production in 2004, the latest year for which figures are available.

Global warming is a false myth and every serious person and scientist says so. It is not fair to refer to the U.N. panel. IPCC is not a scientific institution: it's a political body, a sort of non-government organization of green flavor. It's neither a forum of neutral scientists nor a balanced group of scientists. These people are politicized scientists who arrive there with a one-sided opinion and a one-sided assignment. Also, it's an undignified slapstick that people don't wait for the full report in May 2007 but instead respond, in such a serious way, to the summary for policymakers where all the "but's" are scratched, removed, and replaced by oversimplified theses. This is clearly such an incredible failure of so many people, from journalists to politicians. If the European Commission is instantly going to buy such a trick, we have another very good reason to think that the countries themselves, not the Commission, should be deciding about similar issues.

The Environment and Public Works Ministry is in favor of developing wind farms on Greek islands but wants to place strict restrictions on such development. The Greek islands, buffeted by winds for most of the year, have great potential as wind park locations. Ministry officials estimate that as many as 7,000 turbines could be installed, producing about 14,000 megawatts of energy annually. Private investors are fighting over prime locations. The islands also happen to be among Greece’s major tourist attractions. An overdevelopment of wind farms would create both aesthetic conflicts and great noise pollution, as anyone who has visited a wind park can confirm. Thus, the new land use plan for renewable energy sources being prepared by the Environment and Public Works Ministry would limit wind parks to 4 percent of a municipality’s area (versus 8 percent on the mainland and on the island of Evia), which should limit the number of wind turbines to 2,000, producing some 4,000 MW of energy.

FEW subjects seem less suited to the intoxicating air of the World Economic Forum’s annual conference than nuclear energy. Aging, expensive, unpopular, and still vulnerable to catastrophic accidents, it is the antithesis of the kinds of cutting-edge solutions that beguile the wealthy and well intentioned, who gather each winter in this Alpine ski resort. And yet nuclear energy is suddenly back on the agenda — and not just here. Spurred on by politicians interested in energy independence and scientists who specialize in the field of climate change, Germany is reconsidering a commitment to shut down its nuclear power plants. France, Europe’s leading nuclear power producer, is increasing its investment, as is Finland. At a time when industrialized countries are wrestling with how to curb carbon dioxide emissions, nuclear energy has one indisputable advantage: unlike coal, oil, natural gas, or even biological fuels, it emits no carbon dioxide. That virtue, in the view of advocates, is enough to offset its well-documented shortcomings.

Energias de Portugal SA said it expects its installed wind farm capacity in Europe to jump to 4,200 megawatts in 2010 from 1,568 mw last year. It will focus on ‘attractive’ markets in terms of ’stability, profitability and potential growth, the company said in a strategy presentation, adding that priority markets outside the Iberian peninsular are France, Italy and possibly UK and Poland.

A windfarm is in the pipelines for Ballina. A planning application was submitted to the Council at the end of last year to construct a 29.9mw farm consisting of 13 turbines with a 64 metre hub height at Carrowleagh, Ballina. Permission is also sought for access roads to each turbine in addition to upgrade of existing roads, substation building and temporary contractors compound. Applicants Joseph, Martin and Michael Loftus, with an address in Charlestown, can expect a decision from planners on the project at the end of February.

Making solar panels on the cloudy Welsh coast may seem an odd choice for a politician turned investor like Robert Hertzberg, who hails from a sunny and environmentally aware state, California, and hobnobs with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. But a commitment by European governments to budding clean-energy entrepreneurs is creating a more welcoming environment than in America, where erratic support and onerous financial rules have given pause to some start-ups and investors.

The European Commission has set out a comprehensive package of measures to establish a new Energy Policy for Europe to combat climate change and boost energy security. A ten-point action plan sets out a series of ambitious targets on greenhouse gas emissions and renewable energy, along with proposals to create a more competitive energy market across the economic bloc, and includes a report on the implementation by the Member States of the internal market for gas and electricity as well as the results of an enquiry of the state of competition; a plan of for priority interconnections to create a European grid; proposals to promote sustainable power generation from fossil fuels; a roadmap and other initiatives to promote renewables, and; an analysis of the situation of nuclear energy in Europe. Based on the three central pillars of: a true internal energy market; accelerating the shift to low carbon energy; and energy efficiency, the mainstay of the new policy is a core objective for Europe to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020 with the aim to increase this target to a 30% reduction by 2020 and 60-80% by 2050.

The European Commission on Wednesday called for a “new industrial revolution” via increased investment in renewable energy and nuclear power to combat climate change and curb Europe’s energy dependency. The proposals come as concerns over Europe’s energy security are making headlines as a bitter dispute between Russia and Belarus has disrupted the transit of oil supplies to Europe. The commission’s proposals are based on a forecast that the region’s energy imports will jump to 65% of consumption by 2030, when 84% of gas and 93% of oil will come from overseas, and sets out ways to reduce the block’s dependence on Russia and other suppliers. As its main measure, the paper proposes a 20% reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions from the European Union’s energy consumption by 2020 and calls for a sharp increase in the use of renewable and biofuels.

The European Union should cut its emissions of greenhouse gases by at least 20 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels as part of a new energy policy to fight climate change, the EU’s executive Commission said on Wednesday. The Commission called on developed nations around the world to cut emissions of gases blamed for global warming by 30 percent by 2020, saying the EU would go beyond its unilateral target if others followed suit.

Enel SpA, Italy’s largest utility, said Friday it will build two wind farms in the United States and Canada with a combined capacity of 277 megawatts as part of a €4 billion (US$5.2 billion) investment in renewable energy. Enel said a 250 megawatt capacity wind farm will be built in Smoky Hills, Kansas, and a 27 megawatt plant in Newfoundland....

The Italian wind-power sector could come to a standstill in the next two years unless urgent action is taken, the National Association for Wind Energy (ANEV) has warned. ANEV Director Oreste Vigorito urged the government to intervene, stressing that the current system was unworkable. “The wind energy sector is at risk of paralysis within a couple of years,” said Vigorito. “The problem is that projects that are authorized are not always feasible, while feasible projects are frequently not authorized. “At the moment, just 30% of wind-power projects are carried through to completion”.

Two companies are fighting for the right to build wind turbines at Blaikfjället in northern Sweden. Skelleftekraft and Svevind each want to built around 120 turbines. “Blaikfjället is very well suited to wind turbines. There is already a connection to the national electricity grid from Juktan power station, and the wind conditions are also favourable,” Mikael Kyrk from Svevind told Västerbottens-Kuriren. “But there is not enough room for two projects at the same time.

A sweeping plan to dramatically increase the European Union’s use of renewable energy sources by 2020 has Danish politicians and exporters looking towards a greener future. Renewable energy use in the EU currently sits at 6 percent, but, according to Børsen financial daily, the European Commission’s forthcoming proposal for a common energy policy would increase that level to 20 percent within two decades. Much of the increase will rely on sources such as wind and bio-ethanol, areas where the nation is already strongly represented on the world market. Exporters are seeing the proposal as an opportunity to increase their share of European sales.

Spain plans to cut subsidies for wind power generation, while increasing support for other renewables. Under the proposals, wind generators would see their feed-in tariffs reduced from about €97 ($129) per megawatt hour to between €67 and €87/MWh. However, the government proposes boosting the level of support for other technologies, such as solar. “Wind power subsidies were exaggeratedly high,” said Spanish energy minister, Ignasi Nieto, “especially since the technology has developed in the last year and costs have fallen.”

One of the biggest turnouts at a public meeting in the village was present in the parish centre last Tuesday week at a forum concerning the proposed windfarm to be located off shore from the village and lasted for over two and a half hours. The forum was part of an information day in the parish centre organised by the developers Oriel Windfarm and among the overflowing attendance in the new meeting room was leading environmentalist and RTE television personality Duncan Stewart and leader of the Green Party Trevor Sargent.

Nearly nine out of ten wind power projects have been shelved. The critics say this is the beginning of the end of wind power in Norway.

Residents who oppose the installation of a wind farm in Ahenny, Carrick-on-Suir, have called on the minister for the environment to protect their area against what they call “the blatant vandalism of one of the country’s most ancient landscapes.” The call comes less than a fortnight before councilliors are due to vote on the issue. The Ahenny Action Group insists that it should not be left up to local people to protect designated heritage regions from industrial development. They have written to Minister Dick Roche to demand a guarantee that no wind farm be erected in the area.

The Renewable Energy Foundation is claiming that uncontrolled renewable energy in the form of wind power was a key factor in the grid disturbance and blackout that affected millions in Europe. They write: ‘ Europe’s principal grid authority the “Union for the Co-ordination of Transmission of Electricity” (UCTE) has published a detailed interim report into the grid disturbance that left 15 million households without power, and came close to resulting in a pan-European blackout. The report reveals that the causes of the event were multi-factorial, but that the key trigger was an unexpected rise in the load on the Landesbergen-Wehrendorf grid link, which joins the grid control areas of E.ON Netz and RWE. The precise causes of this increase are at present not clear, or have not yet been published, but the role of an unpredicted rise in wind generation (documented by E.ON Netz) appears to be a potentially important feature.