Fresh concerns have emerged over the future of BP's alternative energy business after a fire broke out at one of the company's largest solar power installations in Germany. The incident on June 21 destroyed nearly 200 sq m of one of the world's largest roof-mounted solar panel arrays on a warehouse complex in Bürstadt, near Mannheim.

Half-a-billion dollars worth of wind farm projects in south-west Victoria have been shelved because of a delay in the introduction of a renewable energy target. Pacific Hydro says the Federal Government must introduce the target before it can build 100 new turbines near Portland and Ararat.

Shares in Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC) plunged Wednesday as its announcement to increase its capital by EUR1.325 billion raises questions about the viability of its divestment program. Iberdrola Wednesday said it will issue 250 million new ordinary shares, at a price of EUR5.30 each. That increases the company's capital by 4.9977%.

Plans to build an ecologically friendly wind farm in northern Poland are being scrapped, after environmentalists pointed out that it would break EU laws on bird protection. The Debki beaches, on the Baltic coast, were set to see the construction of wind turbines but the project will not be realized as it would pose a serious risk to the region's birds.

The downgrades reflect Fitch's opinion that the energy production achievable by the wind farm portfolio is materially lower than that originally forecasted and that operating expenditures were significantly underestimated in the original budget. Energy output during 2008 at 540.9 GWh was some 12.5% and 19.6% lower than the 10 year-P90 and P50 forecasts respectively. This was partly due to below-average wind conditions as well as lower-than-expected technical availability.

Spain's Iberdrola said on Tuesday its brokers successfully placed 10 percent of wind turbine maker Gamesa at 16.10 euros per share, but traders said the price was at the bottom of the price range.

Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the International Energy Agency, says it is "inevitable" that the manufacturing of renewable energy components - mainly solar modules and wind turbines - will move to China and, to a lesser extent, India. "The PV cells made there are not of as high a quality yet [as those made in Europe] but they will get there." This view is echoed by George Frampton, former chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and a member of the Obama campaign's transition team. He says: "There is a very strong momentum. And it's not just because of the cost, it's also that I'm not that optimistic that this market is going to boom in the US."

Europe should scrap its support for wind energy as soon as possible to focus on far more efficient emerging forms of clean power generation including solar thermal energy, one of the world’s most distinguished scientists said yesterday. ...He said that intermittent energy sources, such as wind, required back-up power generation, which undermined their contribution to emissions reductions. In contrast, solar thermal power could generate heat energy that could reliably generate 24-hour electricity. Britain has made wind energy a priority in reducing carbon emissions by 34 per cent by 2020.

Europe should halt the construction of any more wind farms until it has further examined their impact on wildlife, landscapes and the value of nearby houses, a new anti-wind farm group said on Tuesday. "Wind farms represent the worst-case scenario," the European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW) said in a letter to European Union commissioners and parliamentarians, in which it called for a moratorium on all wind projects.

Wind parks in Spain, a world leader in the renewable energy source, are increasingly being disconnected due to a fall in power demand caused by the economic slowdown, a report said Monday. "Due to the fall in demand, it has become necessary to disconnect the wind parks which already produce more electricity than the system can absorb," business daily Expansion reported without citing sources.

The Lal Lal Wind Farm in the Moorabool Shire has been given the go-ahead by Planning Minister Justin Madden. ...Moorabool Shire Council mayor Cr Michael Tudball said he hoped the minister had considered concerns held by local residents, including the effect on local flora and fauna, the ability for the turbines to link into existing power grids, flickering, noise and proximity to residential areas.

Spain plans to change rules on state aid for renewable energy generators, an industry ministry spokesman said on Friday, arousing fears in the sector that its lucrative subsidies may shrink. Under a new regulatory framework that has not yet been finally decided, the government could also change its targets for installed wind capacity, which are now at 20 gigawatts by 2012, rising to 40 GW in 2020, the spokesman said.

Officials at ReDriven Power Inc. are confident of their young company's continued success, but concede they've recently issued a recall on the blades of 10 turbines installed in the U.S. ..."We did have a blade problem," said president and CEO Joseph Ianni, when The AgriNews paid a visit to the firm's headquarters inside a former textile mill recently.

Wind power developers say they need a greater commitment to renewable energy policy and more money from the federal government, as the country leans on alternative energy producers to bolster the sagging economy. Industry leaders stressed the need for renewable energy standards at this week's American Wind Energy Association's WINDPOWER 2009 conference in Chicago.

Several mob-linked wind projects later were found to be poorly built, and some are now off-line. "This is the amazing thing, that developers got public money to build wind farms which did not produce electricity," Roberto Scarpinato, a veteran anti-Mafia prosecutor in Sicily, told the Financial Times newspaper.

Multinationals are starting to find out something that is well known to Italian investors: that concealed beneath Europe's most generous system of incentives - supported by "green credits" that industrial polluters have to purchase - there exists a web of corruption and shady deals.

The 56-year-old politician, who unabashedly courts controversy, is taking court action against the wind farms built near his historic hilltop fiefdom in western Sicily, some of which he alleges were built by Mafia-linked companies after corrupt deals with local politicians. Mr Sgarbi's strident campaign has exposed deep divisions within the environmental movement.

According to a report produced at the Lappeenranta University of Technology, wind energy still requires substantial financial backing, for the investments are still too expensive when set against the benefits. ...Furthermore, compared with wind power, the use of biomass is better suited for producing heat for industrial and residential needs.

The Times has learnt that the European Investment Bank (EIB) is in talks with developers about a financial rescue package for the £3 billion London Array scheme, which is located in the Thames Estuary. Planned to be the world's largest offshore wind farm, it is a project that has strong personal backing from the Prime Minister. Gordon Brown wants part of the renewable energy scheme finished before the 2012 Olympics.

Operation "Aeolus," named after the ancient Greek god of winds, netted eight suspects, arrested in the Trapani area of western Sicily, as well as in Salerno on the Italian mainland and in the northern city of Trento. Police in Trapani said the local Mafia bribed city officials in nearby Mazara del Vallo so the town would invest in wind farms to produce energy. The project, worth hundreds of millions of euros (dollars), was first devised in 2003 and later uncovered by an investigation that included wiretaps, police said in a statement.