The chief executive officer of Suzlon Energy Ltd., the world's fifth-largest wind-turbine producer by sales, has resigned amid growing questions about the Indian company's fast-paced growth. Andre Horbach, a former senior executive for General Electric Co. in Europe, stepped down on Friday, 16 months after taking the job. ...Suzlon has benefited from a global shortfall of turbines from more-established producers like GE and Denmark's Vestas AS, the world's largest producer in terms of sales. ...But Suzlon is also facing headwinds. Blades on turbines that it has sold to power producers in the U.S. have begun cracking. The company says only 45 blades have been affected, but it plans to spend $30 million on repairs and to strengthen almost all the blades it has sold in the U.S. Suzlon's efforts to upgrade its technology have also run into problems.

Sea-based wind parks off Norway could generate large amounts of energy for export to the European Union with investments totaling up to $44 billion by 2025, a report indicated on Monday. "Norway has a very large potential to produce wind power offshore," according to a 30-page report by the country's Energy Council, comprising officials and business leaders. It said that green exports from Norway, the world's number five oil exporter, could help the European Union towards a goal of obtaining 20 percent of its electricity by 2020 from renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydro and wave power.

But, like most weather reports, the outlook for large windmill projects is anything but predictable, plagued as they are by noise complaints, endangered species and fickle commercial backers. In the United Kingdom, a giant wind farm planned for the Thames River estuary now appears to be in jeopardy after Dutch oil giant Shell announced it would pull out of the project. ...The company has said it will continue to pursue wind power projects in the United States. Yet U.S. wind power projects have run into some snags of their own.

The news source noted industry analysts saying that Spain already has an installed base of 15 000 MW in wind energy facilities, with ambitious targets of 20 000 MW by 2010 and 30 000 MW by 2020. Spanish wind power producers foresee a maximum capacity of 40 000 MW by 2030. But Red Electrica de Espana (REE), the country's grid operator, constrains the share of wind power to 30 per cent of the energy mix, to ensure that the grid does not falter on wind availability issues. Wind power producers are reportedly concerned about this set-limit and are expecting to see downtime for wind facilities once the limit is breached.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in February, Edison Mission Energy, a unit of Edison International, said the 144-foot-long windmill blades it recently bought from Suzlon have begun to split at three wind-power sites it operates in the Midwest. Suzlon has recalled 1,251 blades from its top-of-the-line turbines, which represent the majority of blades the company has sold to date in the U.S.. Its troubles don't end there. A year ago, the company bought a controlling stake in a large German turbine manufacturer, REpower Systems AG, in one of India's biggest overseas acquisitions. ...Now, Suzlon can't get its hands on the blueprints. Hamstrung by a German corporate law, Suzlon must offer to buy out minority shareholders before it can demand REpower's designs. It's unlikely that the company could make a tender offer until 2009, say people with knowledge of the companies. ...Mr. Kher blamed the cracks on the Midwest's unexpectedly violent changes in wind direction. Though Mr. Tanti says that only 45 blades have cracked, Suzlon says it will add an extra lamination layer to almost all of the blades it has shipped to the U.S. To repair cracked blades and reinforce the rest, the company expects to spend $30 million.

Spain's wind parks currently have an installed capacity of some 15,000 megawatts and the government wants to see 20,000 MW in place by 2010 and 30,000 MW by 2030. Spain's wind power manufacturers say they can expand capacity to 40,000 MW by 2020. But national grid operator REE currently limits wind parks to supplying 30 percent of Spain's energy demand, to protect power network from sudden drops in power if the wind falters. ...REE had to enforce the 30-percent limit last month when wind turbines set a production record and momentarily met some 28 percent of total demand. Wind parks have produced up to 24 percent of demand on a given day and fluctuations in output produce wide swings in prompt power prices in the over-the-counter market.

News has been breaking regarding corruption on the Canary Islands linked to the generation of wind power. Recordings made of conversations between the ex General Director for Industry of the Canary Regional Government. Celso Perdomo, and several businessmen have now come to light, following the first indications of corruption dating back to 2004 and 2005.

Europe's wind turbine makers are facing higher raw materials costs, a lack of trained workers and insufficient investments in electricity grids and new wind parks, with the record growth rates of previous years expected to level off. But the sector remains confident that EU renewable energy targets will be met. ...Given the challenges facing the sector and with growth expected to slow, there are concerns the industry will fall short of the target. In 2007, only 8.5 gigawatts were installed. Nonetheless, the wind sector is optimistic.

Babcock & Brown, the Australian infrastructure investor, is planning to sell its European wind farms in a deal that could be worth between €3.5bn ($5.5bn) and €4bn. The group will say Monday that it has appointed Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan to sell its European wind energy assets and those owned by Babcock & Brown Wind Partners, its quoted wind energy fund. These include wind farms in Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy and France. Babcock & Brown Wind Partners owns about 3,000MW of wind generation capacity worldwide, with just over 800MW of this in Europe. But the group said last month that the market had not recognised the value of its European assets, and it would look at selling them. The wind energy sector is attracting strong investor interest, and European wind businesses have been changing hands at high prices.

Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC) Friday said it increased its stake in Gamesa SA (GAM.MC) to nearly 24%, getting another 4.63% of the Spanish wind- turbine maker previously in hands of an investment vehicle it partly-owned. Iberdrola, based in Bilbao, northern Spain, is the world's biggest wind-power generator. Gamesa, also from Bilbao, is Europe's second largest wind-turbine maker after Denmark's Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWS.KO). Gamesa accounts for around 15% of all wind-turbines sold in the world.

When the decision of whether to pay more is expressed in terms of real currency, the survey found even greater reluctance to go green. The European Commission estimates that it would cost each household the equivalent of $220 per month to cut greenhouse gas emissions and use more renewable energy. When faced with that number, strong majorities of bill-paying adults in all six countries said they would be unlikely to pay the higher amount, the survey found. "Until people are forced to do so, or the price for renewable energy comes down considerably, people will not make the ‘green' choice," the Harris Interactive survey said in commentary on the findings. "This is especially true as economies around the globe tighten. When it comes to food or solar power, food will win for the consumer each time."

Once-trendy biofuels like ethanol produced from corn are now being derided by the authorities, who say the fuels have little value in the fight against global warming. Vital components for windmills and solar cells have run short over the past year, requiring expensive projects to a halt. Meanwhile, subsidies for renewable energy remain at the whim of politicians, creating a boom and bust cycle for wind farms and solar projects, particularly in the United States. Such a risky environment means some bankers are placing bets on projects that are unlikely to develop into serious, profitable alternates to fossil fuels, and could ultimately slow investment flows "Some of these green investments are going in the wrong direction," said Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. "Very well-intentioned projects can go awry, particularly where government policies on cutting emissions aren't clear." ..."The world is repricing risk, and these are risky assets," Liebreich said, referring to renewable energy investments.

As energy costs continue to soar, and an increased reliance on traditional oil and coal is questioned, alternate sources of energy are examined more closely. Many in the five largest countries in Europe and in the United States like the idea of renewable energy, but do not want to pay any more for renewable energy sources. A majority of adults who have some form of responsibility for paying household energy bills in Great Britain (54%) and Germany (50%), pluralities in Italy (44%), France (42%) and the U.S. (40%), as well as just over one-third of adults responsible for paying household energy bills in Spain (35%), all say they would be willing to pay nothing more for energy if it was from renewable sources.

Ambitious plans to erect more than 10,000 wind turbines across Britain and around the coast by 2020 are at risk of being derailed by a critical supply bottleneck. The German engineering giant Siemens, which is one of the leading wind turbine manufacturers, admitted yesterday that it had a four-year backlog of orders for its largest machines. "Supply is indeed tight, relative to demand," a spokesman said. British utility companies have been told by Siemens that new orders for turbines will not be filled until 2012 at the earliest. The delays imperil a daunting Government target that the power industry had already deemed near-impossible to complete within the proposed time frame. ...The turbines shortage is one of many bottlenecks as the wind industry tries to cope with demand that grew by 30 per cent last year.

Prospects for the solar power sector are puzzling investors juggling on the one hand a possible dot-com-style bust and on the other fresh support in Europe, home to one-third of the world's market. The solar power industry uses the same raw material as the semiconductor industry, silicon, and may share a similar boom-bust path, according to some analysts. The semiconductor industry collapsed in 2000 amid a dot-com bust that pulled demand for electronic chips. Solar companies saw their share prices skyrocket last year, but many endured a steep fall in January, halving in the case of one market leader, Renewable Energy, which is based in Oslo. Such falls reflected a view that solar power valuations had run ahead of themselves.

Nato has begun an investigation into British findings that wind farms make overflying planes invisible to radar as military chiefs fear a security threat from the rapid spread of the turbines. The US has been attending tests by Britain's Air Warfare Centre after it made the surprise discovery that the energy plants create blind spots in air defences. Renewable energy campaigners have been stung by a spate of last-minute objections from the Ministry of Defence to proposed new wind farms in northeast England and the Scottish Borders. Nato's alarm about this potential Achilles' heel against airborne terrorists or invaders is disclosed in evidence, seen by The Times, for a planning inquiry.

LISBON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Power company EDP (EDP.LS: Quote, Profile, Research) will decide on the sale of 20 to 25 percent of its renewables business in the first quarter of 2008, EDP's chief financial officer Nuno Alves was cited as saying. Alves said in an interview with weekly Expresso published on Sunday that some banks had shown interest in carrying out the sale of its renewables business, which includes NEO in Europe and recently acquired U.S. wind-farm company Horizon Energy. He said EDP's renewables business could be worth around 10 billion euros.

Iberdrola Renovables SA, the world's biggest owner of wind-driven power plants, fell on its trading debut in Madrid after the 4.1 billion-euro ($6 billion) initial public offering was completed at the low end of a price range. The stock lost as much as 33 cents, or 6.2 percent, to 4.97 euros in the first six minutes of trading. Parent company Iberdrola SA, Spain's second-largest electricity generator, sold 18.2 percent of its Renovables unit two days ago for 5.30 euros apiece, compared with a maximum suggested price of 7 euros. ..."This is the first really big renewables company that comes to market, so it's acting as a thermometer to gauge investor interest,'' Soldevila said.

Tom Murley, head of UK private equity group HgCapital's renewable energy team, has warned clean energy stocks could be about to fall. At a conference held by Financial News last week, he said: "We are at the peak of inflated expectations." ...Murley, who heads the largest team of renewable energy specialists in the UK private equity market, said long-term prospects for quality clean energy companies are bright. But he compared the soaring price of clean energy stocks with the technology bull market of the late 1990s and argued innovation leads to overexuberance in stock markets. This is followed by disillusionment as competing products develop and investors realize profits will disappoint. A steady rise out of the trough follows as quality companies start to make headway.

The initial public offering for Iberdrola's renewable energy unit is unlikely to drum up enough demand to command an ambitious top price of 7 euros per share, international investors said on Wednesday. Spain's largest utility by market capitalisation is selling 20 percent of Iberdrola Renovables via a capital increase to build up the green energy unit and tap into market appetite for the trendy renewable energy sector. ...This week Renovables set the maximum retail price for the IPO at 7 euros, which fund managers said was expensive. "I don't think they'll get it at the top, I think they'll have to adjust down a little bit, especially given market volatility," said Rupert Morrell, senior fund manager at Premier Asset Management.