A U.N. conference working to fix long-term rules to fight global warming beyond 2012 "as soon as possible" was split on Tuesday over whether that meant an accord should be struck in 2008, 2009 or even 2010. Industrial investors, weighing options ranging from coal-fired power plants to wind energy, are frustrated at the possibility of years of uncertainty about rules for fossil fuel emissions upon which carbon markets depend.

As UCTE communicated yesterday, a UCTE Investigation Committee was set up this morning and placed under the chairmanship of Gerard A. Maas (as Chairman of the UCTE Steering Committee) who will be assisted by three convenors (corresponding to the 3-fold split in the system). The task of the UCTE investigation Committee is to clarify the causes of the incident and identify possible additional measures to be taken to prevent such disturbances to occur again. Due to the fact that the disturbance had an impact on all UCTE TSOs, all UCTE members will participate in the investigation. The preliminary results of this investigation will be available by the end of November.

Wind farm developments which could power every house in Belfast are being delayed by planning application decisions which take up to three years, it emerged today. The logjam has been blamed by wind power business Airtricity on limited resources at the Environment and Heritage Service and the company believes it may be 2009 before many facilities receive the green light.

The German distributor E.ON admitted it caused the blackouts, by switching off a power cable across the River Ems to allow a cruise ship to pass. This meant areas to the west were left with a power deficit, while cables in the east were overloaded. Supplies cut out in Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Croatia and Italy. The EU's Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has called for the European Transmission System Operators (ETSO) to identify the problem urgently and ensure that such a blackout does not happen again.

A chain of power outages that swept through Belgium, France, Spain and even touched Morocco was blamed Sunday on Germany, but experts were divided about the original trigger for the blackout that affected millions of homes. The government of North Rhine Westphalia state, which was worst hit by the outage, said a load-balancing error after a surge of power from German wind-power turbines had played a role. Too much power entered the German grid and parts of it shut down.

On the occasion of the 5th World Wind Energy Conference taking place from 6-8 November 2006 in New Delhi/India, the International Association for Wind Engineering IAWE and the World Wind Energy Association WWEA signed today a Memorandum of Agreement on closer cooperation and coordination.

Foster Wheeler Italiana has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract by Voreas for a new wind farm at Pietramontecorvino, in Southern Italy. Foster Wheeler Italiana owns a 50 percent equity interest in Voreas. The terms of the contract award, which will be included in Foster Wheeler’s third-quarter 2006 bookings, were not disclosed. The new 48 megawatt (MW) wind farm will be comprised of 24 wind turbine generators. The new wind farm is expected to be completed by the end of 2007.

Parts of Europe were hit by electricity cuts late Saturday with a chain-reaction effect blamed on a surge in German demand causing power losses as far south as Spain.

German utility E.ON said reports of the cuts began to emerge not long after it shut down a high voltage line over a river in northwestern Germany to let a ship pass through in safety, and that this may have been linked to the power loss. "In the past, these operations were often performed without any problems arising," the firm said, adding that the precise cause behind the loss in supply was still being investigated........In Spain, the fall in tension caused 2,800 megawatts of wind energy and one gas-fired power station to be cut off and interrupted the flow of electricity to Morocco, it added.

The German energy company RWE said the blackouts were caused by surging electricity demand Saturday evening due to a plunge in temperatures to the freezing point. Insufficient electricity supply first triggered blackouts in parts of western Germany, particularly in Cologne, and then across France as the French electricity company EDF tried to fulfill the surging demand but could not.

Power cuts have struck several countries in Western Europe, leaving millions of people without electricity. Power companies said the outage started in Germany with a surge in demand prompted by cold weather, and then spread to other parts of Europe. Some five million people in France lost power, mainly in the east of the country and including parts of Paris. "We weren't very far from a European blackout," a senior director with French power company RTE said.

FINANCIAL TIMES: There has been some recent legislation on Co2 reduction. I wonder if you see that as one of the big developments of late, and what its significance is.

JEFFREY IMMELT: Yes. I think if you look at what some of the states are doing, California for instance, or even what's happening around the world, what's talked about in the UK, I think that's going to change the way people look at technology and it's going to change the way people look at energy policy in the future. It tends to be the way change starts. I would say in many ways some of the things that have happened in Europe over time have tended to drive technology. For instance, when Europe said it was going to have 10 per cent renewables that's what really opened up the world of wind energy and solar and things like that, so I think it's very meaningful.

The battle to protect rural areas in South Tipperary from a proliferation of wind turbines is intensifying with communities uniting to combat the threat. The South Tipperary communities of Ahenny and Hollyford are embroiled in a campaign to prevent their unique rural areas from being invaded by wind turbines. Campaigners in Hollyford have warned of residents being locked into “an open air prison” if planning permission is given for up to forty wind turbines at different locations on their beloved hills surrounding the village.

E.ON AG plans to build wind farms with a total power generating capacity of 700 MW by 2010, chief executive Wulf Bernotat told Die Welt. As a result, Germany 'will take the lead in the field of offshore wind power generation,' he said. E.ON will set up the wind farms in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, he added.

Iberdrola SA will invest 400 mln eur to expand its wind farm business to eastern Europe through the acquisition of the rights to build parks in Hungary, Poland and Estonia, Cinco Dias reported, without citing a source.

Irish renewable energy company Airtricity said on Tuesday it had secured $85 million in equity funding to help develop its Sand Bluff wind farm project near Big Spring, Texas. “We are pleased to have entered into this equity financing with investors led by JPMorgan Capital Corporation,” Airtricity Chief Executive Eddie O’Connor said in a statement. Airtricity said its 90 megawatt Sand Bluff wind farm, which is under construction, was expected to start commercial operation during the second quarter of 2007. The deal is the latest in a series of agreements to secure funding for a number of wind farms planned by privately owned Airtricity, in the United States, Ireland and the UK.

Portugal launched a €1.6 billion (US$2 billion) windfarms project Tuesday, part of the country’s effort to reduce its heavy reliance on imported energy. Economy and Innovation Minister Manuel Pinho laid the foundation stone of the project which will include seven factories to build wind turbines and the creation of 48 windfarms.

A recent landmark ruling by the Swiss Federal Court recognising wind farms as being in the public interest could have wider implications across the country. Judges at Switzerland’s highest legal authority said the fact that wind power does not currently contribute significantly to the country’s energy supply should not be allowed to hinder its development.

A sharp increase in wind-power capacity in Europe is challenging utilities to stabilize their electric grids in the face of sometimes wildly fluctuating wind-energy levels, while calling into question some of the greenhouse-gas reducing claims of windmills, according to a recent study.

Intensifying its efforts to curb the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, the United Nations today launched a new mechanism to generate significant reductions in such emissions in central and eastern European transition economies through a system of "carbon credits" acquired by developed countries.