West Devon councillors are to debate plans for a wind farm of 390-foot turbines in the face of an objection from a national charity.

MORE applications for wind masts have been put forward across Mid Wales.

Our correspondent assesses the options available for those planning Britain’s future energy needs. Generating electricity from nuclear reactors is as effective at combating global warming as any known form of renewable energy and is likely to remain so indefinitely.

"Our recent experience, particularly with solar, has given us the expertise and confidence to develop new products and markets alongside our mainstream business," BP Chief Executive John Browne said in a statement. "We are now at a point where we have sufficient new technologies and sound commercial opportunities within our reach to build a significant and sustainable business in alternative and renewable energy," he added.

Shares in Vestas, the world's largest wind turbine manufacturer, plunged almost 14 per cent on Thursday as the Danish company downgraded its full-year forecast because of a severe shortage of key components, a sluggish output rate and budget overshoots in the US market.

..a two-year bird study showed that the wind-farm site would be under the flight route of migrating Greenland white-fronted geese and greylag geese which roost in the area. SSE decided that a wind farm would pose a significant risk of collision for the birds and dropped the proposals.

Richard Jerrard, from the Campaign Against Wind Turbines, said: "It'll absolutely devastate the whole of our heritage in north Devon.

Sources at Country Guardian claim that they have stopped or postponed up to 89 per cent of planned wind farms in some years. Ingham has been credited with personally thwarting 80 per cent of applications. His group is currently trying to crush a plan by the Duke of Beaufort to site turbines on land he owns north of Swansea.

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.

If the wind isn't blowing at peak times, the argument goes, then the wind turbines are not contributing to the power in the grid. However, if wind farms could store all the power they generate at off-peak times, during the night for example, and then control the way and time it is released, it would not only enhance the revenue streams they could receive, but also remove the intermittency claims. Now, a Canadian energy management firm claims to be able to do just that. EPOD International has secured two pilot projects with wind power developers in Canada and the US to test their proprietary energy storage system, the EMT.

Four Bristol(UK) schools are being presented with wind turbine kits to spark interest in sustainability and renewable energy.

CAMPAIGNERS fighting proposals to build a wind farm on the outskirts of Penicuik have stepped up their battle against the plans by launching a protest website.

TALLINN - Wind power has fallen out of Estonia’s favor in recent months, with the Economy Ministry deciding to limit support to wind-power producers and Parliament adopting amendments to the energy law that will give preference to other forms of renewable energy. Einari Kisel, head of the Ministry of Economy and Communications’ energy department, puts it bluntly: “We do not want to have too many wind mills,” he says. “The price of wind energy is expensive. The unstable production causes additional costs to other producers.”

TALLINN - Wind power has fallen out of Estonia’s favor in recent months, with the Economy Ministry deciding to limit support to wind-power producers and Parliament adopting amendments to the energy law that will give preference to other forms of renewable energy. Einari Kisel, head of the Ministry of Economy and Communications’ energy department, puts it bluntly: “We do not want to have too many wind mills,” he says. “The price of wind energy is expensive. The unstable production causes additional costs to other producers.”

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.

PARIS (Reuters) - France plans to boost the use of solar power with cash incentives and to hit motorists with higher taxes on the worst polluting cars as it beefs up the fight against global warming.

FRANKFURT, Nov 14 (Reuters ) - German wind power lobby BWE said on Monday support for renewable energy in the new coalition deal would unleash huge investments but conventional producers said they were disappointed the status quo was left unaltered.

Wind power supporters have received a boost from a study that shows Britain has the best wind in Europe because it blows all year round and peaks when there is greatest demand for electricity.

Offshore wind parks planned by Scandinavian, Polish and German companies in the Baltic Sea may disrupt ecologically vital currents of salty water, German scientists warned Saturday

A turn for the better Wind turbines are ugly and no one wants to live near one. Right? Wrong. Steve Rose on the new architects of spin