German wind turbine maker Nordex (NDXG.DE) fell further into the red in January-September, it said on Wednesday, while its negative free cash flow nearly doubled due to increased investments in rotor blade production in Mexico and Spain.

General Germany

A wind farm developer has scaled back plans for a turbine extension in Moray following community feedback.

General UK

A billion-pound wind farm has been closed for more than two weeks after a technical fault brought it to a standstill. Rampion Wind Farm, which is 13km off the Sussex coast, is still out of commission after an electrical problem on October 26.

Offshore Wind UK

The wind farm was regarded as one of the largest in the EU when a landslide occurred during its construction in October 2003 by an ESB subsidiary, Hibernian Wind Power. At the time, large areas of forest and peat up to a depth of 5.5 metres on the top of the Cashlaundrumlahan mountain had been removed, causing the 2km-long “environmentally devastating” slide. Fish were killed and waterways polluted when half a million tonnes of peat and debris was displaced.

Erosion Pollution Legal Ireland

People are just looking at the map and saying, ‘oh my god, this is where I fish,’ so there’s a sense of panic. “We only heard about this when the applications were lodged,” Ms McIntyre said. “You must understand how huge this was: it was a complete and utter shock. It’s only in the last few weeks that people are realising how big these are going to be. The biggest wind turbines in the world.”

Offshore Wind Ireland

The energy minister is to launch a review into the impact wind farms have onshore amid claims the countryside is being “concreted over” with substations and cable corridors built as supporting infrastructure. The move has been welcomed by campaigners who have been fighting proposals in the East of England to build substations and cable trenches “the size of Wembley stadium” to get electricity from wind farms to the National Grid.

Offshore Wind UK

But the days when Germany was the largest market for wind turbines in Europe are over. Now there is a slowdown in the industry. In the first half of 2019, the expansion of wind power on land almost came to a standstill. Only about 150 wind turbines were newly built, about 80 percent less than last year.

Energy Policy Germany

It’s good to know that wind turbine blades are a bird’s best friend, or something like that. I’m citing “fun facts” on the website of Synergy, Western Australia’s state-owned electricity generator. Synergy operations include half a dozen WA wind farms, mostly coastal. Synergy claims, correctly, that its fun facts “may blow your mind.” Fun Fact No. 9 is illustrated with a pic of Sesame Street’s Big Bird, pop-eyed with delight about wind turbines’  blade-and-splatter prospects. The caption reads (author’s emphasis)

General Australia Germany

The NVE stopped approving new wind power projects in April after a raft of protests to give the government time to work on a new framework for developments. The now-discarded scheme proposed new wind farms in 13 designated areas, but faced fierce opposition from some utilities and the municipalities affected as well as the general public.

General Europe

The manufacturer had already in September announced 600 job losses in Denmark as it discontinued some legacy turbine production. CEO Markus Tacke said while those reductions were the result of shifting global demand patterns, and would be offset by growth in production elsewhere, the latest cuts are “structural” adjustments geared to help keep the company in competitive shape for the future.

General Germany

he Welsh landscape could be destroyed if more wind farms are built, campaigners have warned. They accept the need for renewable energy but are concerned about the impact on tourism in some areas.

Impact on Landscape UK

More than 27,000 onshore wind turbines (WTG) are currently in Germany. At the end of 2020, facilities earning the 20-year subsidy under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) will no longer be covered for the first time. Depending on local conditions, older plants may be replaced by more powerful and more efficient new plants to allow for a higher yield at the site (so-called repowering). Also the continued operation of plants could come into question. A study by the German Federal Environment Agency examined the costs and risks of wind power decommissioning.

General Germany

This nasty political and regulatory climate creates too much uncertainty for investors, just as the German government prepares to phase out wind-energy subsidies. That a vicious circle will ensue, understandably, worries the renewables industry. A recent study carried out for the engineering lobby group VDMA predicted that, if the current obstacles persist, employment in the onshore wind industry, which stands at 64,200 people today, will drop by 27% by 2030.

Energy Policy Germany

Large swathes of Offaly countryside are part of a 30-year plan for wind energy production coming before Offaly County Council in the next few weeks. 

Impact on Landscape Ireland

The number of porpoises washed ashore has increased enormously in recent decades. Where fewer than a hundred dead porpoises were reported each year in the 20th century, this number increased steadily. Peak stranding years were 2011 and 2013 when almost 900 stranded dead porpoises were found every year on the Dutch coast alone!

Impact on Wildlife Offshore Wind Europe

While Taggen Vindpark AB obtained a permit for the project from Sweden’s Land and Environmental Court back in 2012, the partners applied to change the original 83-turbine application to include higher and more powerful machines ...The Armed Forces, however, did not greenlight the change and also denied the project as a whole, 

Offshore Wind Safety Europe

A thousand truckloads of shaft masses were unlawfully dumped in the forest in connection with the construction of the future wind farm in Viksjö, northwest of Härnösand. The company has previously been reported to the police and is now at risk of new police reports.

Pollution Europe

The founder of the American think tank Environmental Progress is perhaps the world's largest advocate of nuclear energy. Ten years ago he fell from his belief in wind and sun as an energy source. "The problem of the unreliable energy supply is unsolvable," he says while visiting the Netherlands. Friends from the past are now his greatest opponents. Because the dark greens , as he calls orthodox green thinkers like Greta Thunberg, reject nuclear energy the most.

Energy Policy Europe

The most common grounds for complaint in Germany is the protection of birds and bats, which can be endangered by wind turbines. Procedural mistakes, monument protection, noise pollution, health effects and the effects on the local landscape are other common reasons why wind farms are objected to in the EU's largest country. "It is worrying when you think how urgent the need to expand renewable energy is," says Canning. Yet there are many people around Europe who passionately disagree with him.

Energy Policy Europe Germany Ireland

The most common grounds for complaint in Germany is the protection of birds and bats, which can be endangered by wind turbines. Procedural mistakes, monument protection, noise pollution, health effects and the effects on the local landscape are other common reasons why wind farms are objected to in the EU's largest country. "It is worrying when you think how urgent the need to expand renewable energy is," says Canning. Yet there are many people around Europe who passionately disagree with him.

Energy Policy Germany Ireland Europe