PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain: Spain will cut subsidies to wind-power plants following an overhaul of the way it calculates aid for renewable power sources, hurting earnings at utilities including Iberdrola, the world's largest producer of wind power.

A group of four European energy companies on Friday revealed plans for a subsea electricity cable to bring more power from Germany to Norway from 2011. The 700 megawatt (MW) cable which would boost power flows between continental Europe and the hydropower reliant Nordic region would cost 500 million euros (USD 659.8 million), the consortium said in a statement issued in Germany. The cost would be shared equally by Agder Energi and Lyse of Norway, EGL of Switzerland, and northern German utility EWE, a spokeswoman for EWE said.

Spain’s Industry Ministry plans to cut the premium on investment in wind energy installations by over 50 pct, Bolsacinco reported, citing unnamed sector sources. According to the website, Energy Secretary General Ignasi Nieto has now submitted the definitive regulations on the wind energy investment, proposing a premium of 17.4 eur per Mwh during the first five years of investment in a wind farm, which will then fall to 10 eur during the following 10 years.

"It's about an icon, and one of the major buildings in Paris," Thom Mayne, the winning architect said. He added that the tower would be "a prototype for a green building" with a wind farm generating its own heating.

Irish wind energy company Airtricity said today the Dutch government had given it permission to build a 284 mega-watt wind farm 40 kilometres off the country’s North Sea coast. The company, which operates wind farms in Britain and Ireland and is developing further sites there and in the United States, did not say what the cost would be. However, a source familiar with the deal said Airtricity would be investing about €700 million in the project “over the next number of years”.

The Industry Ministry said the new regulatory framework for the renewable energy sector guarantees an average 7 pct return on investment in wind energy and hydro-electric installations under the regulated tariff system. In a statement, the ministry said the average return on investment will be 5-9 pct if the installations participate in the electricity generation market.

SNET, a subsidiary of ENDESA, has begun construction of the 10 megawatt (MW) capacity Ambon wind farm, situated in the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany. Six wind turbines, each with capacity of 1.67 MW, will cost Euro 13.4 million [US$17.6 million].

PARIS - Developers have selected a design by an award-winning American architect for a bold new building nearly as tall as the Eiffel Tower - and powered partly by the wind. Dubbed the Lighthouse, the 984-foot-high skyscraper will be designed by Pritzker Prize winner Thom Mayne and erected at La Defense, a complex of office towers in a business district west of Paris where many of France's major corporations are headquartered.

Spanish utility Endesa SA said Monday a subsidiary is building a 10 megawatt wind farm in France. The company is investing 13.4 million euro ($17.6 million) in the wind farm in Brittany, a region in the Northwest of France. Endesa said revenue from the wind farm is guaranteed, a result of a 2001 French decree that utility Electricite de France must buy all energy produced by wind farms.

The last few years has thrown up all the different combinations of problems arising from the rush to meet energy needs and the emergence onto the scene of windfarms and their subsequent connection to the National Grid has created conflict between landowners and ESB. This conflict is between landowners and ESB networks over their method of connection when developers demand connections in accordance with the rules laid down by the regulator namely: the least costly and technically feasible option available to ESB Networks the service provider.

Ministers agreed to pursue efforts on renewable energies but countries like France refuse new binding targets until priority is placed on low-carbon sources, including nuclear, to achieve overarching climate goals.

The regulator has approved an additional 1,300mw of renewables, mostly wind, for the system. A further 620mw is at the planning stage and is contracted for connection. This will bring the total for renewables to around 3,000mw by 2010, when the total capacity will be 7,800mw.

“There's legitimate debate about a couple of segments,” says Keith Raab, boss of Cleantech Venture Network. In some instances, valuations accorded to firms with no profits—and little chance of making any soon—were reminiscent of the excesses of the dotcom bubble. As Douglas Lloyd, of Venture Business Research, puts it, “There's too much money chasing too few opportunities. How is it possible that this many solar companies are going to succeed? They're not.”

Irish minister for communications, marine and natural resources Noel Dempsey has set a target to treble the contribution made by renewable energy from 5percent to 15percent of electricity produced by 2010. His announcement came at the launch of a new publication called Renewable Energy Development 2006. The report provides a broad overview of current policies in the field of renewable energy and serves as a concise introduction to the topical issues and challenges in the area.

The Councillor for Industry, Trade and New Technologies on the Canary Islands, Marisa Tejador, has revealed that her department is looking at placing generating windmills off shore.

Wind turbines that can operate through cyclones and earthquakes are increasingly being installed on small, isolated islands that seek improved energy independence, a wind power producer said on Friday. France's fifth largest wind power producer Aerowatt this week launched a 3.85 megawatt-wind farm on the small cyclone-prone French Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, enough to provide power to 12,000 inhabitants out of a total of 700,000. "This is the first wind farm installed on Reunion," Jerome Billerey, head of the company, told Reuters. But installing wind turbines on remote islands can often be complex due to poor logistics, limited port infrastructure and the hurdle of regular cyclones.

Apart from general bottleneck problems in times of high demand -- like during periods of extremely high or low temperature -- observers have questioned the grid's ability to cope with the addition of renewable energy sources, such as wind energy, into the mix and the network. Often, large wind parks that produce hundreds of megawatts of power in remote areas put a massive strain on local grids, which were designed to bring electricity from the center to the peripheries, and not the other way around. Due to the wind's variable strength, the amount of electricity injected into the grid is fluctuating constantly, further straining the grid.

The recent deaths of nine vultures in the Torremiro park near Morella is at the centre of a storm of controversy. Members of the ‘Eolicas-No’ collective stated that the birds were “sliced to death” by the blades of the giant wind collectors that can reach speeds of up to 290km an hour. However, a representative from the Renomar company that runs the installations, stated that the reason the birds died was that they had consumed the carcasses of other animals that had been dead for a considerable time.

Renewable energy company Airtricity has said it has waited three years for a planning decision on a proposed wind farm in Tyrone. The revelation comes after the Government was urged to take immediate action by social partnership Concordia to tackle lengthy planning delays for wind farms in Northern Ireland. Airtricity operates wind farms in the province, but it is being frustrated by planners as it attempts to expand its network.

The argument between price and reliability continues because dwindling European gas reserves are creating new pressures. In Britain, wind power is fashionable but very expensive and causes network problems. Scotland, being windy, is a good place for wind turbines, but the power is needed in southern England and National Grid worries about the cost of transmission. How much should it build? Because wind is intermittent, each turbine is only 30 per cent efficient, but transmission lines must be able to cope with maximum output....... 100 per cent reliable, clean energy. It’s not feasible and, faced with an expensive dilemma, the British Government has exposed its intellectual failure by threatening consumers with tax increases. Europe has opted, more or less, for market-based solutions that produce cheap rather than secure energy, but suppliers of fuel, such as Gazprom, are becoming more monopolistic. A collision between the two is not far away. Mr Piebalgs needs to get thinking.