French oil company Total believes wind energy must prove it is competitive by 2020 and solar power must do the same by 2050 if they are to avoid being sidelined, it said on Tuesday. In France, Total aims to spend 500 million euros ($627 million) by 2010 on renewable energy sources, including 100 million euros in research and development partnerships. “For renewable energies to become viable we need to see significant technological progress over this period,” Gilles Cochevelou, head of renewable energy at Total, told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference. “But we will need all existing energy resources by 2050,” he said adding it was wrong at present to eliminate any single energy resource or push any single one forward.

Farmers and landowners who are willing to lease or sell their land for the erection of wind turbines are being sought by a Cork company. Energy Services is launching a nationwide campaign in a bid to erect wind turbines across the country. Farmers with ten acres could lease their property, earning €250,000 for a 25-year lease. Fund managers, business owners and energy producers are just some of the investors providing money for the project. Energy Services has already worked for high-profile clients such Dell, Pfizer and Musgraves, and has constructed a wind turbine on the Old Head of Kinsale in west Co Cork.

Maud Olofsson, Centre Party leader and new industry and trade minister, wants to construct more wind turbines in the wilds of Sweden, according to Dagens Nyheter. "We have a lot of wilderness areas where there are relatively few people but plenty of wind. Why should we not be able to use these areas to produce electricity?" said Olofsson, whose ministerial portfolio includes energy matters.

The Platform for Sustainable Development (PMA) have criticised that the Junta has “not even informed the residents of their rights, nor specified the land which is to be expropriated”. The group has also stated that the information supplied and the rulings made in favour of the wind farm by Tarifa Town Hall are “questionable”.

Some 55 metal wind turbines visible from the local coastline could be in place by 2008 if Oriel Windfarm’s proposal to develop an energy generating facility get the go-ahead. The turbines will be visible from 45 separate locations along the coastline. The tubular wind turbines will be 86m, made of steel and generally painted light grey. Their finish is matt, to reduce reflected light, and the developers claim they ‘they will only appear as small pins on a corner of the horizon on a clear day’.

Spain’s second-biggest power company Iberdrola said on Wednesday that it had bought two small U.S. wind power companies and foresaw spending $2 billion to develop their 1,600 megawatt project portfolio.

A failure in one of the wind turbines owned by the Iberdrola company in the Pedregal Mountains, Esteiro (Muros), resulted in a forest fire that razed a hectare of the mountain.

The ESB is planning to build a new €45m wind farm in Co Cavan that will supply power to some 28,000 homes.

A campaign group representing more than 20 rural communities opposed to the siting of wind turbines in their areas has this week written to Minister for Natural Resources Noel Dempsey and Minister for the Environment Dick Roche seeking a meeting to discuss their concerns. Peter Crossan, spokesman for the Irish Wind Energy Truth Alliance (IWETA) also confirmed that it was considering running general election candidates in counties such as Tipperary and Cork, to take votes from members of the Coalition Government.

Farmers who pocket large sums for allowing giant wind turbines near their homes may “live to regret it”, the head of An Bord Pleanala said yesterday writes Treacy Hogan. Some landowners were prepared to tolerate the wind farm turbines within 200 metres of their homes. But the board, in adjudicating on appeals of planning permission, was demanding “significant distance” between the turbines and homes, said John O’Connor. “I hope they (the farmers) don’t live to regret it”, said the board chairman. “I wonder are they going to stay in their homes”, he added.

It has been decided that over 30 huge windmills are to be installed at Choczewo, a village not far from Puck, a popular Baltic summer resort. Some 100 million euros are to be spent on the new windmill electric power plant. The windmills are to be installed on the area of one thousand hectares. Two thirds of the inhabitants of Choczewo accepted the project to build the windmill power plant. But all of them want the windmills to be installed as far as possible from their houses.

Nine companies have submitted an expression of interest for Offshore Windfarm Development in Malta.

But while the problems faced on either side of the Atlantic are much the same, America and Europe have taken different paths toward finding solutions. Neither side can claim victory. Despite a host of initiatives, new technologies and regulations, alternative energy remains a patchwork affair that has done little to offset needs. Increasingly, both sides are looking to the other to see what can be learned. The guiding principal in Europe has been government mandates. European Union member states are led by ambitious long-term targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Rules also require they develop increased energy capacity from renewable sources. By comparison, Washington, D.C. still prefers to let technology be the driving force in the quest for low cost alternatives to fossil fuels. While some tax incentives do exist (for ethanol and wind energy), there are no federal energy mandates besides a meager Renewable Fuel Standard passed last year by Congress to boost production of ethanol and biodiesel. Mostly it’s left up to the individual states.

Carbon offset schemes are designed to neutralise the effects of the carbon dioxide our activities produce by investing in projects that cut emissions elsewhere. They work through the rapidly growing trade in carbon credits, each worth the equivalent of a tonne of carbon. Offset companies typically buy carbon credits from projects that plant trees or encourage a switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy. They sell credits to individuals and companies who want to go "carbon neutral". Some climate experts say offsets are dangerous because they dissuade people from changing their behaviour.

Green consumers and businesses who want to neutralise their carbon emissions face being ripped off by unscrupulous operators who exploit the growing market in carbon offset schemes, a Guardian investigation has revealed. The surge in interest in such schemes, which invest millions of pounds in forestry and clean energy projects in the developing world, has created a lucrative market in carbon, which is unregulated and subject to little scrutiny. Campaigners and analysts say independent standards are urgently needed to protect consumers and to ensure the promised carbon savings are delivered. Francis Sullivan, a carbon offset expert who led attempts by banking group HSBC to neutralise its emissions, said: “There will be individuals and companies out there who think they’re doing the right thing but they’re not. I am sure that people are buying offsets in this unregulated market that are not credible. I am sure there are people buying nothing more than hot air.”

Large swathes of scenic countryside are being ruined by massive wind turbines which damage people’s lives and the environment. That was the blunt message yesterday at the launch of a new nationwide alliance of communities fighting wind farms. Believing the answer to Ireland’s energy needs is not blowing in the wind, the Irish Wind Energy Truth Alliance (IWETA) insisted that the turbines damage the environment and, because of their inefficiency, do nothing to tackle the energy crisis.

The Norwegian government is to subsidize energy produced from renewable sources from 2008, the energy ministry said Thursday. Under the new system, producers of wind power will receive NOK80/MWh ($12.08/MWh), while producers of power from biomass will receive NOK100/MWh. In addition, hydro power producers will receive NOK40/MWh for the production representing the first 3 MW of the capacity in the plants.

Farmers in Kerry and Cork have learned that the contentious Bantry power line standoff had been brought to a successful conclusion. The farmers concerned voted unanimously to accept a package put to them by ICSA president Malcolm Thompson, who was approached by developer Bob Murnane of Ballybane Wind Farms to mediate in the dispute, which had halted the progress of the electricity supply to the national grid. The package includes the under-grounding of cable, the avoidance of key environmentally sensitive areas and lands with development potential and an adequate compensatory package for the affected landowners.

MADRID, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Spanish wind power company Gamesa (GAM.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it has sold wind power assets to Spanish utility Iberdrola (IBE.MC: Quote, Profile, Research), including wind parks in the United States, for a maximum of 3.3 billion euros ($4.19 billion).

Ireland must install 936 MW of green power capacity by 2010, including 867 MW of wind turbines. To reach the target of 13.2% from renewables by the end of 2009, it must install 1,433 MW of renewables, of which 1,100 MW should be wind, 240 MW hydro, 92 MW of bioenergy and 1 MW of tidal energy, says Sustainable Energy Ireland in its report, ‘Renewable Energy Development 2006.’ By late 2004, generating capacity was 497 MW, of which 233 MW was wind, 240 MW hydro, 26 MW bioenergy and 0 MW from tidal.