A WINDFARM off North Wales will not be completed for another two years, while another scheme to build more than 200 wind turbines at nearby Gwynt y M?r could be shelved, according to reports

Ontario's Natural Resources ministry is considering constraints on offshore wind farms but its not clear if the limits will appease a tidal wave of protest from those who live along Lake Huron. The ministry this week published a draft policy that could place constraints on where turbines could be placed.

Suddenly, the Great Lakes are awash in plans for offshore wind farms. The New York Power Authority wants developers to place electricity-generating turbines a few miles off the shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. In five years, officials say, the waters off Rochester or Wayne County could be home to dozens of turbines. Two similar projects are proposed on the Canadian side of the lake, a sprawling 500-turbine project in western Lake Erie has been announced, and twin wind farms are being promoted in Lake Michigan.

E.ON AG and Vattenfall Europe AG are among utilities leading a worldwide push to develop offshore wind power, overcoming a lack of work ships, stormy seas and higher costs to make almost twice the profit they would on land. ...While the benefits of stronger, more frequent breezes offshore are evident to some investors, the risks imply the need for caution, said the EBRD's Zielinski. "Offshore wind is not for the faint-hearted," he said. "And you need deep pockets."

"Ontario assassinated the company and the offshore industry by stealth through a press release," John Kourtoff, the head of Trillium Wind Power Corp., told CBC News. The financial damages the company is seeking are to cover the $5.3 million already spent and the lost potential revenue, Kourtoff said.

The company planning a wind farm in Lake Michigan off Pentwater appears to be developing a much broader plan as Scandia Offshore Wind has a series of three meetings scheduled Monday in Muskegon. It is likely the Norwegian wind developers will suggest additional offshore wind farm locations for Lake Michigan waters in the Muskegon area. Yet, Scandia's interests in West Michigan also appear to be greater than wind farms on Lake Michigan.

The construction of offshore wind farms is becoming more costly, creating further problems for the European Union in meeting its renewable energy target, reports the Financial Times. An analysis from Cambridge Energy Research Associates (Cera) has found that the capital cost of offshore turbines is likely to increase by a fifth in the next two to three years, from €2,300 ($4600) per kilowatt to €2800. Turbine prices have already risen by about 30 per cent in recent years, so the extra costs will be hard to bear. "The sector could be at risk, given ongoing increases in capital costs, especially if government subsidies do not keep pace," said Matt Brown, senior director and head of European power at Cera.

The integration of wind energy into the electric grid is another challenge for developers, utilities and regulators. The challenge includes blending the above-market cost of offshore wind energy into the retail market. National Grid has agreed to buy half of Cape Wind's power and all of the power for a demonstration project that Deepwater Wind is building off Block Island.

Several key executives of offshore wind energy development companies have agreed to participate on a new advisory committee being formed by the city of New Bedford. Mayor Jon Mitchell made the announcement about the Offshore Wind Advisory Committee in mid-January, saying the committee will advise him on industry trends relating to the global supply chain for offshore wind.

The Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University in Boston has conducted an analysis of 1,100 megawatts of offshore wind power for New Jersey. We found that these projects would produce costs of $4.793 billion to construct the windmills and connect them to regional electricity and provide backup sources of electricity for times of unfavorable winds.

NaiKun Wind Energy Group had the terms of reference for its environmental assessment approved this week by the federal environmental assessment office. The terms of reference provide the company with details on the areas it will need to study during the coming months in order to get approval for its project. "This is an important step forward for NaiKun," said Ray Castelli, CEO and president of NaiKun Wind Development Inc. "The Environmental Assessment Office has recognized we have adequately consulted and addressed issues identified by first nations, government agencies and the public regarding the project's environmental terms of reference. "The next step is to continue gathering information, move ahead with the approved studies, collect the necessary data, and prepare the final analysis for our formal application submission expected in late 2008."

Norwegian developers are in the process of cutting their proposed Lake Michigan Aegir Offshore Wind Farm in half and moving it further from the Silver Lake State Park shoreline. Officials from Scandia Wind Offshore LLC say they are reacting to overwhelming negative reaction to the location of their original plan for a 1,000-megawatt, $3 billion wind farm.

A company suing the province over the moratorium placed on offshore wind projects is appealing a judge’s decision to have that lawsuit dismissed. Trillium Wind Power Corp. is hoping to build a 120-turbine, 600-megawatt wind project 28 kilometres south of Prince Edward County, just south of the Duck Islands.

If the agencies spread the costs, it could force some of the state's largest employers to consider their own plans of action. If industrial customers embrace the wind farm, they would pay more but gain environmental bragging rights they could use in advertising. If they fight it, they could save money but risk appearing responsible for the project's demise . The recommendation comes a day after a state consultant gave a largely favorable report about the wind farm, estimating the above-market price to the average Delmarva residential customer to be $6.50 a month. That cost could be cut in half if all Delmarva ratepayers are included, and lower still if all Delaware electricity users - such as those in the Delaware Electric Cooperative - are included, the consultant wrote. The staff report noted that no one knows exactly how high fossil fuel costs will go, but the wind contract offers a stable price.

WASHINGTON - A proposed wind farm that would be the biggest offshore one in the nation won approval Thursday from Texas state officials, the latest development in the fast-growing segment of the alternative-energy industry.

President Obama, now summering on the Massachusetts island with his family, is still at least a year away from seeing turbines take root anywhere off the U.S. coast, even though his administration promised to make offshore wind a priority and developers are lining up to string wind farms up and down the Atlantic seaboard. His administration, delayed by controversy and red tape, has yet to grant a single permit for wind or solar development on public land, onshore or off.

State energy officials are gauging interest from developers who would build an offshore farm of electricity-generating, skyscraper-sized wind turbines off the Worcester coastline. "The question is, how do we tap into the wind resources that we've got?" said Maryland Energy Administration Director Malcolm D. Woolf.

An offshore wind farm development in the Hecate Strait is diving into new waters and looking for direction. The NaiKun Wind Energy Group, the company proposing a wind farm in the shallow waters northeast of the Queen Charlotte Islands, is the first company in Canada to have officially entered into the environmental assessment process for an offshore wind farm.

The former chief executive officer of Superior Renewable Energy says plans for a major offshore wind farm near Padre Island could sink before the first turbine is ever placed in the Gulf of Mexico. “The economics today don’t work,” said John Calaway, the former CEO. “It’s underwater. The numbers just don’t work right now.”

Environmentalists have warned that the creation of offshore wind farms poses a "potentially devastating threat to whales and dolphins". The report in Saturday's edition of The Independent revealed that the noise during construction, which includes pile driving into the sea bed, could be heard by marine creatures in shallow water up to 80km away and could damage their hearing at close range. It is also claimed by the group, The Conservation of British Cetaceans, the noise could lead to dramatic changes in behaviour at distances of up to 20km.