Genneia wants to pay an outstanding balance in Argentine pesos, instead of euros or US dollars, as Vestas claims was agreed - a move that could leave the turbine group facing a heavy currency exchange loss on the more than $32m it says it is still owed.

Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWS), Suzlon Energy Ltd. (SUEL), Siemens AG (SIE), Acciona SA (ANA) and Fuhrlaender AG aren't getting at least 40 percent of their parts from local suppliers and are no longer eligible for BNDES financing, the country's only source of loans for turbines.

Wind-farm developers in Brazil may be forced to halt construction on some projects within 15 days because the state development bank BNDES is freezing financing for turbines purchased from suppliers it claims aren't meeting local-content requirements.

Several Chilean civil society organizations expressed their opposition to the irregular performance of the Regional Environmental Commission that unanimously approved the development of the project without conducting the Environmental Impact Assessment required under Chilean law, says Elsa Cabrera. ...In a unanimous decision, the ministers of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Regional Environmental Commission of Los Lagos.

A source involved in developing Quintanilha Machado tells Recharge that an intensive effort was made to relocate the project to another city in the state, São Francisco de Itabapoana, after a conflict with a local heliport ruled out an original site in Arraial do Cabo.

But more than a dozen organizations here oppose the $235 million wind farm project in Chiloé being built by Ecopower of Santiago. They argue that the construction and operation of the onshore turbines sited on 2,471 acres (1,000 hectares) along the coast potentially could harm not just the blue whale, but dozens of migratory birds, penguins, and several other marine species.

Oil-rich Venezuela ushered in 2010 with new measures rationing electricity use in malls, businesses and billboards, as Hugo Chavez's government aimed to save power amid a crippling drought. ...Venezuela is flush with oil -- the country's primary export -- and natural gas, but relies mainly on hydroelectric generation to meet domestic energy demand.

A 2.1MW Suzlon wind turbine at a Siif Energies project in the state of Ceará collapsed in a blaze last month, the developer has confirmed. The 21 November incident occurred 200 metres from a residential community and prompted an official inquiry by the local authorities.

In the last 21 days, the residents of Beach Zavier Camocim the interior of Ceara, were taken aback. One of the 50 turbines that make up the wind farm Praia Formosa (105 MW) exploded losing one of its blades. The wind tower hit by the incident is one of the closest to houses in the region. According to public defender Edmar Albuquerque, the equipment is located about 200 meters from the local community.

A wind power project on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southeastern Mexico has stripped massive amounts of land and natural resources from hundreds of indigenous campesinos in Oaxaca. Those affected are mostly from non-Spanish speaking indigenous communities. Members were manipulated into giving up their lands in up to 60-year tenancy contracts through misinformation.

When Rudolph Diesel unveiled his new engine at the 1900 World's Fair, he made a point of demonstrating that it could be run on peanut oil. "Such oils may become, in the course of time, as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time," he said. And so it has come to pass that US President George Bush has decreed that America must wean itself off oil with the help of biofuels made from corn, sugar cane and other suitable crops. At its simplest, the argument for biofuels is this: By growing crops to produce organic compounds that can be burnt in an engine, you are not adding to the overall levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The amount of CO2 that the fuel produces when burnt should balance the amount absorbed during the growth of the plants. However, many biofuel crops, such as corn, are grown with the help of fossil fuels in the form of fertilisers, pesticides and the petrol for farm equipment. One estimate is that corn needs 30 per cent more energy than the finished fuel it produces. Another problem is the land required to produce it. One estimate is that the grain needed to fill the petrol tank of a 4X4 with ethanol is sufficient to feed a person for a year.

Japan’s government has presented a 600MW wind power generation project for the Patagonia region to Argentina’s energy secretary Daniel Cameron, Argentine government news agency Telám reported. The prospective plant will call for the installation of 200 wind turbines with 3MW generation capacity each, covering northern Santa Cruz to southern Chubut province. The Japanese government wants a Japanese firm to construct the turbines; possible candidates include Nissan, Honda and Toyota.

Indigenous peoples from the Amazon to Asia said on Wednesday that U.N.-backed clean energy projects meant to combat global warming were aggravating threats to their livelihoods. They said hydropower projects or plantations of fast-growing trees, prompted by a billion-dollar scheme under the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol for limiting the planet’s dependence on fossil fuels, were damaging nature. “We are not only victims of climate change, we are now victims of the carbon market,” Jocelyn Therese, a spokesman for indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin, told a news conference on the fringes of U.N. talks on global warming. “Efforts that are supposed to…retard climate change are having an equally disastrous effect,” said Ana Pinto, representing indigenous peoples in India.

Brazil's renewable power incentive program Proinfa has stalled because of lack of financing and equipment, Romulo Feijão, an aide to the generation supervision department at power regulator Aneel told BNamericas.

Porto Alegre - One of the world's largest windpower parks is under construction in Osório, state of Rio Grande do Sul.

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.

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.