The macro-economic planning bureau CPB said in its report there should be a halt in the wind turbine programme because the economic crisis has depressed demand for electricity. ‘There is also talk of overcapacity, and every expansion would be loss-making,' the CPB said.

The costs of start-up financing for green energy and the compensation for expansion of the power grid are added to customers' electricity bills in the form of a special tax. The entire subsidy system is supposed to come to an end when green energy becomes competitive. That, at least, is the theory. But the reality is different. No longer can one simply describe the tax as a way to get renewable energies off the ground. Indeed, following Berlin's decision two years ago to shelve nuclear energy and accelerate the expansion of renewables, the EEG has become a giant redistribution machine.

Shortly after a blade came loose at the Ocotillo Express Wind facility in Imperial County earlier this month, facility operator Pattern Energy deftly handed the matter off to turbine builder Siemens Energy. With a muted press statement issued Friday, it looks as though Siemens is now trying to pass the buck as well.

Germany must shield its consumers from paying too much of the cost of its ambitious switch from nuclear power and fossil fuels towards renewable energy, the International Energy Agency said on Friday. The IEA also said that Germany, with Europe's biggest economy, should make greater use of natural gas to smoothe the transition.

The success of the turnaround is not only to be evaluated after the volume of the installed solar and wind capacity but also if the energy supply remains safe and affordable, he added.

Most green electricity sources cannot compete with coal and natural gas on their own and require subsidies that are passed on to industry and consumers. The more power they generate, the higher those costs. Direct charges for renewables add about 18 percent to German household electric bills, with indirect costs putting on more.

After the vote, the European Parliament's Environment Committee said that some members felt that "a rise in the carbon price would erode the competitiveness of European industry and be passed on in household energy bills." Slack demand for electricity because of the recession and an abundance of permits helped push the price of emitting a ton of carbon below €5 ($6.60) earlier this year, from nearly €30 in 2008.

Coal is cheap not only because U.S. supplies are sold at bargain prices but because the penalty for emitting too much carbon has become almost insignificant. Europe's cap-and-trade program is meant to make it expensive for industry to pollute. In practice, the economic recession has led to an industrial slowdown, less emissions and an overabundance of permits for sale. Thus, the price of carbon has collapsed to less than €5 per ton.

European countries must do more if they are to succeed in meeting their targets to increase the use of renewable energy by 2020, the European Union's executive body said Wednesday, warning that failure to meet the targets would have "major consequences." ...but many voices, including the EU, are starting to call for phasing out incentives, to leave the sector operating more freely according to market dynamics.

Bulgaria's grid is suffering from power overloads caused by a rapid increase in wind and solar capacity coupled with decreasing domestic consumption in the face of a weak economy. Protests against high electricity bills and poverty toppled the government of Boyko Borissov on Feb. 20.

Generous subsidies for renewable energy in Europe widespread. Europe's debt crisis has many nations focused on costs, not climate change. Rocketing prices, infrastructure challenges, budget cutbacks paring renewables push.

That the German government is facing a massive budget shortfall for projects aimed at transforming the country into a model of alternative energy and environmental friendliness is hardly new. The European cap-and-trade system has for months been sliding into inconsequence as prices for CO2 emissions have stubbornly remained below €5 ($6.47) per ton.

The Aland archipelago is part of Finland, but its electric generation company Alands Vindkraft has a wind farm named Oskar and a grid connection to Sweden, not to Finland. Sweden refused to award Oskar's green energy the subsidies it hands out as an incentive to domestic renewables claiming it would be unfair to Swedish customers if they were effectively paying to help Finland meet its renewable energy targets.

Europe's plans for offshore wind power up to 2020 could be as much as 50 billion euros ($65.55 billion) short of funding, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said in a study released on Thursday.

The European Union carbon emissions trading scheme­-the biggest in the world and the heart of Europe's climate-change program-is in dire straits. The scheme's carbon price has collapsed. The primary reason: The economic recession has suppressed manufacturing, thereby reducing emissions and creating a huge oversupply of carbon emissions allowances.

One big part of the problem, experts and officials say, is Europe's cap-and-trade system, which aims to reduce European Union-wide industrial greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020. The system is the centerpiece of Europe's green policies. But the program, which charges industries for permits to emit greenhouse gases, no longer serves as a major disincentive to pollute.

"We embarked on a big transition to a low-carbon economy without taking into account the cost and without factoring in the competitive impact," says Fabien Roques, head of European power and carbon at the energy consulting firm IHS CERA in Paris. "I think there will be a critical review of some of these policies in the next few years." Both consumers and the industry are upset about high energy costs.

Ministers, NGOs, unions, industries, parliamentarians and consumers will converge for conference to agree on how to conduct a six-month national debate that will reshape the way energy is produced, consumed and taxed in France. Its new Socialist government is expected to announce immediate measures to help the crisis-hit renewable energy sector.

"They destroyed the Spanish market overnight with the moratorium," European Wind Energy Association Chief Executive Officer Christian Kjaer said in an interview. "The wider implication of this is that if Spanish politicians can do that, probably most European politicians can do that."

Europe's manufacturers are rapidly losing ground to US rivals because of soaring energy costs and the failure of the continent's governments to be "rational" about nuclear power and shale gas, the head of one of the world's biggest chemicals groups has warned.