DEPUTY Michael Ring attended a packed meeting recently in Tonragee in relation to a planning application in the name of Curraun Community Windfarm Limited.

This has led some to question whether the country's focus on nuclear power has been a strategic mistake.... Wind farms are creating their own political storm. There's one near Beaumont-Hague with five gray turbines about 250 feet tall. On a recent afternoon, the blades weren't moving amid a still wind. Germaine DuPont, who lives with her husband and children about 380 yards away, said she wishes that were always the case. When the blades whirl, "the noise is crazy," she said, adding that she takes sleeping pills to get some rest. "It's intolerable."

A company is planning to develop an €85m windfarm off the coast of County Louth, it emerged today.

European and Asian companies are paying more attention to global warming than their American counterparts. And chemical companies are more focused on the issue than oil companies.

IRISH wind farm operators Airtricity and Swiss engineering giant ABB have completed a study into creating a European 'supergrid' linking national grids to be powered from offshore wind farms. Such a grid - which would cost billions - would carry power to where it is needed.

WIND turbines on a mountainous area along the Cork/Kerry border are interfering with reception of RTÉ in parts of south Kerry, the State broadcaster confirmed yesterday.

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The global wind energy industry is expected to enjoy continued strong growth in coming years with total installed capacity seen more than tripling from current levels by 2014, an industry survey showed on Tuesday.

With the news of the arrest of seven people linked to a government promoted renewable energy project, the regional administration has found itself embroiled in a corruption scandal the like of which it has not experienced since the revelations, several years ago, regarding a scheme to excavate a hill in Fuerteventura in the name of art.

LISBON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Portugal will carry out one of Europe's biggest tenders for wind power on Wednesday in a bid to cut its heavy fuel bill and clean up its record as a top greenhouse gas polluter.

OSLO - A Norwegian firm has applied for a concession for the world's biggest wind power development off western Norway with total capacity of 1,500 megawatts produced by hundreds of turbines, it said on Monday.

THE Irish electricity market was thrown into turmoil yesterday after Airtricity confirmed its decision to withdraw from the market because of higher costs.

Landowners in Bantry say they will go to jail before they will let an overhead power supply through their land.

The 14km power line is scheduled to run from a windfarm planned by Ballybane Windfarms Ltd, at Glantia Commons near Caheragh, Drimoleague, via Colomane to a sub-station at Ballylickey near Bantry.

"The original battle took two hours and thousands of people died. The second battle took two years and no blood was spilt. And it was all the better because the French and the British worked together to achieve this victory."

The village’s ambition to become a tourist centre was given a boost last month when the French state electricity generator, Eléctricité de France (EDF), withdrew a planning application to place four 459ft (140m) wind turbines half a mile from the battlefield. The plan had been fought by campaigners on both sides of the Channel, including the actor, Robert Hardy, who said that it would desecrate the battlefield.

THE UK took its fight for a liberal energy market to Europe yesterday as Malcolm Wicks, the Energy Minister, chided his European colleagues for allowing vested interests to keep markets closed.

Until recently, Europe's small market in biofuels was dominated by home-grown rapeseed (canola) oil. But surging demand from the food market has raised the price of rapeseed oil too. This has led fuel manufacturers to opt for palm and soya oil instead. Palm oil prices jumped 10 per cent in September alone, and are predicted to rise 20 per cent next year, while global demand for biofuels is now rising at 25 per cent a year.

TALLINN - Wind power has fallen out of Estonia’s favor in recent months, with the Economy Ministry deciding to limit support to wind-power producers and Parliament adopting amendments to the energy law that will give preference to other forms of renewable energy. Einari Kisel, head of the Ministry of Economy and Communications’ energy department, puts it bluntly: “We do not want to have too many wind mills,” he says. “The price of wind energy is expensive. The unstable production causes additional costs to other producers.”

But world energy resources are adequate to meet this sustained growth trend because global oil reserves today exceed the cumulative projected production to 2030, IEA said. This optimistic outlook, however, is based on a reference scenario that IEA describes as "unsustainable." Under that reference scenario, primary world energy demand increases by an average rate of 1.6%/year, with fossil fuels accounting for 83% of the projected increase. By 2030, the world consumes 16.3 billion tonnes of oil equivalent (toe)/year—5.5 billion toe more than it does today—with more than two thirds of energy use coming from developing countries.

They introduced the world to "environmentally friendly" energy, but now some of Europe's "greenest" countries are under pressure to backtrack on wind farms as public anger grows over their impact on the countryside.