The German distributor E.ON admitted it caused the blackouts, by switching off a power cable across the River Ems to allow a cruise ship to pass. This meant areas to the west were left with a power deficit, while cables in the east were overloaded. Supplies cut out in Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Croatia and Italy. The EU's Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has called for the European Transmission System Operators (ETSO) to identify the problem urgently and ensure that such a blackout does not happen again.

The next meeting of the citizens’ group that has formed to combat the location of 79 massive turbines in northern Potter County will make its strongest case yet against the proposed industrial wind plant. That’s the word from Herb Miller, spokesman for Save God’s Country who calls the debate a “quality of life” issue. His organization will share its findings during a public meeting.

China is well on its way to generating more than three times its stated target and nearly 3 percent of its power from wind by 2020 - but only if the country's creaky distribution grid can keep pace with the expansion. Amid an investment boom fueled by rising coal prices and Beijing's drive for greener economic growth, China could have 100 gigawatts of wind power capacity by 2020, ten times its current capacity, experts and industry officials say. But for the moment, production from turbine makers and investment by remote generators is moving far swifter than the grid, whose frailty was underscored by a severe icy spell in January that took down power lines.

Hugh Barr, spokesman for the Quartz Hill Reserve Charitable Trust, announced today that the Trust has appealed the decision of the Commissioners of the Wellington City and Regional Councils, on Meridian Energy’s 70 turbine “West Wind” windfarm at Makara.

QUEBEC - The nationalization of Quebec's hydroelectric power in the 1960s was the crowning achievement of Rene Levesque, then a Liberal energy minister, who later became the first Parti Quebecois premier. More than 40 years later, some suggest the province should follow in his footstep and nationalize a booming new industry - wind power. Government-owned Hydro-Quebec has become a symbol of Quebec's pride and know-how and developed into the largest single electricity producer in North America. The utility has a virtual monopoly on the distribution of electricity in the province, most of it produced by its own dams. Quebec has been called the "Saudi Arabia of wind energy" and experts say it gives the province a bright future.

Premier Jean Charest has asked Prime Minister Stephen Harper to make a case for hydroelectricity when he meets with U.S. President Barack Obama Thursday. Mr. Charest talked with Mr. Harper on the phone Saturday ahead of Obama's visit to Ottawa and pressed him to raise the issue. "We have been working very hard for the past five years to develop the American market," Mr. Charest said Monday.

Ontario's recently implemented Green Energy Act is taking some of the wind out of Quebec's claim that it is the leading promoter of wind energy in Canada, a seminar on supply-chain opportunities in the sector heard yesterday. Last month, Ontario became the first jurisdiction in North America to have a so-called feed-in tariff, which pays producers of green energy - including solar and wind - a guaranteed premium for the power they produce.

McCarrel feels this project is moving way too fast, adding the density is severely dangerous for the public.

The appointment of Mr Cawley, who has led attempts to build a series of controversial wind farms across Britain, comes weeks after the authority announced it would formally object to plans for 80 turbines in the area around the park.

The estimated 40 individuals who turned out to hear a presentation on wind energy and its impact on property owners and residents, sat scattered throughout the Cassadaga Valley High School auditorium Saturday morning. They were treated to coffee and donuts provided by Horizon Wind Energy, one of two companies which has expressed interest in establishing a commercial wind farm in the Town of Arkwright. The forum, sponsored by the Southern Tier West Regional Planning and Development Board and the Town of Arkwright, featured speakers who covered potential impacts of wind turbines on agriculture, birds and bats, noise problems and the legal aspects of wind energy.

Winona County's proposal to build a commercial wind turbine is on hold at least another week after commissioners on Tuesday postponed a vote on a revamped version of the project. The county has worked on the project for three years. ...Ward has acknowledged the revenue projections for the new turbine proposal appear promising but has questioned some of its financial assumptions and said the project doesn't fulfill a "core function" of county government. "We're delving into an area that the county is not familiar with," Ward said.

EUREKA -- Questions about which roads will be used during the construction phase of a wind farm has delayed the approval process by a month.

Nancy Bowen and Eric Romich, specialists with the Ohio State University Extension, spoke for about an hour about wind energy in Ohio and the Blue Creek Wind Farm in Van Wert County. While Bowen said wind projects will not work everywhere, several residents who attended the lecture raised concerns.

The Assynt Foundation's claim that it has a mandate from the community to proceed to the next stage of its small-scale wind farm proposal has been challenged by local businesspeople. Three Lochinver shopkeepers this week accused the Foundation of failing to ensure that all local people were adequately informed about the proposal and also criticised the way a public meeting in Lochinver Village Hall last week to discuss the issue was conducted. Foundation chairman Claire Belshaw said after the meeting that the majority of those present were in favour of pressing on with the scheme, although one or two spoke against it on the grounds of its impact on the landscape. This week she wrote to the NT to "clarify" her remarks.

The decision to scrap the project apparently came as a surprise to enXco. Its parent company, EDF Energies Nouvelles of France, issued a statement Tuesday that disputed Xcel's reasons. It said that enXco would continue to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to mitigate threats to endangered species.

The meeting had been to discuss the feasibility of Brookston owning some power-generating windmills or purchasing electricity directly from Horizon's proposed White County wind farm. ...Butz said that if Brookston pursues supplemental wind power to help keep electrical costs down, management could be the biggest factor aside from the cost of purchasing and installing equipment; overall, there are still many questions regarding whether the project could be feasible. "Basically, it's a really early stage, and Ken (Smith of Municipal Civil Corporation) is seeing what's out there and what the options are," said Butz.

Black Fork Wind Farm turbines may start popping up next year across Richland and Crawford counties, raising uncertainties about taxes and effects on property values. Gary Energetics, an alternative energy company (Denver, Colo.), plans to install 112 Vestas 1.8 megawatt wind turbines, starting in the second half of 2010. The turbines would be at various sites encompassing about 46,000 acres crossing the border of the two counties.

Last spring, a university study from Spain roiled Capitol Hill. The study, funded by a free-market think tank with links to the fossil fuel industry, calculated that government subsidies for the wind-power industry killed more jobs than they created, because the subsidies drained money from the (more efficient) private sector. ...On May 12, 2009, more than a month after the study was released, a group of climate activists scheduled a conference call to discuss how to refute the Spanish researcher's claims. The group included officials from the American Wind Energy Association ...[and] researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a division of the Energy Department.

A group of "concerned residents" has outlined 35 points of concern. Among those are zoning issues that could be answered by the council or by the Ontario Municipal Board if the residents choose to take that route as several did in Amaranth. But the Provincial Policy Statement is clear on the point that wind turbines "shall be permitted on prime agricultural land." The group raises the issue of whether industrial or residential assessment is better for the township, although they don't couch it in those words but suggest that "the land-use for turbines (be limited to" 5% of the total land within (the municipality)." The group raises issues of freezing rain and of tornadoes.

It was a true public hearing in Howard Wednesday night. The Steuben County Industrial Development Agency conducted the hearing - during which no questions were answered - at the Howard Fire Hall for the purpose of obtaining public comment on the draft Environmental Impact Statement for a wind project in the town. Though many of the speakers posed questions for the record, none were answered, as is the purpose of the meeting, cited SCIDA Executive Director James Sherron. About 70 people attended the session. "It's not going to be a discussion," he said in his opening remarks. "We're not here for a question-and-answer period."