* Busted windmill photos from The Netherlands

March 17, 2008

* Regulating wind turbines and solar panels

March 15, 2008

* Commercial wind energy project by Wisconsin schools

March 12, 2008

* Florida - St Lucie wind farm idea criticized

March 10, 2008

"We as a culture are doomed to never understand anyone's point but our own, if we even understand that."

"Our guess is that if coal was killed and turbines started dotting our region's ridgelines, those 50 students and other green warriors would be marching again, with posters that asked 'How Many Migratory Birds Did You Kill Today?' and big posters of windmills inside a circle and covered with a big red slash. The environmentally concerned, as we've seen in the case of some of the Kennedy clan, become the environmentally challenged when windmill builders begin to tilt near their backyards... And don't even mention nuclear. To anyone. Ever. At times, with no satisfactory energy replacement, it seems that the opposition is there mainly to oppose ... [W]e as a culture are doomed to never understand anyone's point but our own, if we even understand that."

[Source: Wytheville Enterprise (Virginia), editorial, "Power to the people?", March 10, 2008]

February 6, 2008

Wind energy biz - Eolia Renovables de Inversiones

Eolia Renovables de Inversiones is an ambitious, independent, wind and solar power company that's scheduled to go public on the Madrid exchange this year with a $1 billion (EU680 million) valuation. Spanish entrepreneur Miguel Salis co-founded the company with Spanish investment bank N+1 in 2003, is pursuing a novel business model. Over the past two years, it has gobbled up more than 20 small wind and solar companies around Spain, creating in the process a kind of renewable energy mini-major. It has also bought two companies in Mexico and recently added wind farms in France and Germany. The next step for the holding company -- which was originally code-named "David," as in David and Goliath -- is to kick up international expansion. Eolia aims to snap up medium-size independent wind companies elsewhere in Europe, the US, Mexico, and Latin America.

Eolia is taking part in what William Young, a wind analyst at London-based consultancy New Energy Finance, calls an "enormous global buying spree." Today wind represents less than 1 percent of energy generation capacity in big markets like the US. But the sector grew by 44 percent in 2007 and is expected to grow by at least another 28 percent this year, Young says. Capital expenditures for wind farms are expected to top $37 billion this year, jumping to more than $46 billion by 2009.

Eolia also brings a twist to the portfolio model. Rather than taking over companies outright -- and potentially losing their entrepreneurial leaders in the process -- Eolia swaps its own stock for shares in its takeover targets and then gives the businesses as much autonomy as they want. As a result, some 130 of its 180 shareholders are entrepreneurs whose wind projects are now part of a larger vehicle preparing to go public. (The remaining 50 are institutional investors, wealthy families, and individuals such as serial tech entrepreneur and Jazztel co-founder Martin Varsavsky.) It's a formula that appeals to entrepreneurs, says Salis, a trained nuclear engineer who worked as an investment banker before starting Jazztel. While Eolia is still tiny compared to big utilities, by putting wind pioneers -- the people who grabbed the best land and industrial permits early on -- on the same team it can attain the scale needed to negotiate for scarce turbine equipment and win contracts to generate clean energy in countries under pressure to meet green targets, he says. In addition to giving entrepreneurs a piece of his growing business, Salis says one of the advantages he can offer them is access to capital and turbines, which are in tight supply. Eolia has signed contracts for turbines through the end of 2010 -- an advantage that analysts say could give it additional market power.

[Source: Jennifer L. Schenker, "Spanish Eco-Darling Eolia Sets IPO", Spiegel Online, February 6, 2008]

January 29, 2008

* Maryland - mountaintop wind farm plan -- 40-story turbines on 400 acres -- opposed by local citizens

January 18, 2008

Wind turbine siting pitfall - interference with Air Force radar (Nellis AFB example)

The U.S. Air Force has advised [Nye County, Nevada] which areas would be acceptable for wind power projects that don't interfere with radar at Nellis Air Force Base, Christensen said. That will hopefully avoid a situation like happened back in 2002 with M & N Wind Power when the air force shot down their wind and solar project on the Nevada Test Site at the 11th hour. [Eileen Christensen is president of Las Vegas-based consulting firm BEC Environmental Inc., which Nye County government has contracted to help bring renewable energy projects to the county]

[Source: Mark Waite, "Nye solar options look bright", Pahrump Valley Times (NV), January 18, 2008]

March 26, 2007

* LaSalle County, home to n-plants, is also best site in Illinois for wind energy, sez Invenergy; not only is it the windiest, but possibility of using the nuclear plant's transmission lines is economically attractive

Wind energy - $10,000-20,000 per turbine per year in local taxes, sez Invenergy

Wind farms don't just produce energy. They create additional income for landowners and add an additional tax base to the township and the county. "A wind farm can produce anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 annual tax base per turbine."

[Source: Michael Arndt (Invenergy Wind North American), statement to La Salle County, Illinois, Zoning Board of Appeals, quoted by Kate Reynolds, " Zoning board backs 2 temporary wind towers", MyWebTimes.com (IL), March 26, 2007]

December 27, 2005

* RFK Jr's NIMBYism decried by Greenpeace activist (re: proposed wind farm off Cape Cod)

Wind turbine neighbors - a 'silent and contented majority'

Surveys in 2003 show that most folks living near wind turbines are supportive of them, and that the support is stronger amongst those closer to the site. The research team led by Dr Charles Warren of St Andrews University have published a paper in Journal of Environmental Planning and Management. The findings back up an earlier poll, commissioned by the Scottish Executive, which found that three times as many people said a windfarm had had positive impact on their area as those who said the impact had been negative. However, campaigners who oppose plans for a windfarm near Montreathmont Moor and Forest, Angus, questioned the findings. A spokeswoman for Friends of the Forest said: "The results of the study are not in line with what we have found."

The Warren et al. team surveyed a total of 300 people living within six miles of a windfarm in the Borders and four sites in south-west Ireland. In south-west Ireland, the team surveyed people living up to 13 miles from turbine sites.

[Source: James Morgan, "Windfarm approval from the silent majority", The Herald (Glasgow), December 27, 2005, p. 8]

February 5, 2005

2 100-ft-tall wind turbines now at Shoreham

The Long Island Power Authority's construction of two wind turbines on the site of the defunct Shoreham Nuclear Plant is a historic moment ["Windmills on the world," Editorial, Jan. 27]. The juxtaposition of the new wind turbines with the dead nuclear plant as a backdrop is a powerful image. What's represented here is the end of one energy era and the beginning of another.

The long battle over the Shoreham nuclear power station may be understood as a teaching story. In the great stories of Western literature, places where monsters are overcome become world centers...

[Source: Peter Maniscalco (former coordinator of the Stop Shoreham Campaign),"Wind turbines at Shoreham", letter to Newsday (New York), February 5, 2005, p. A17]

October 2, 2004

Wind energy - a con job, sez Bellamy

...[W]ind farms are a con. Even if you think global warming is real, these monsters do nothing -- zip -- to stop it. They are as fickle as the wind, cranking out unreliable power at twice the price, while killing birds and ruining views.

[Source: David Bellamy (British botany professor), cited by Andrew Bolt, "Greenies see red; Bellamy stifled over global warming 'myth'", Sunday Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia), October 3, 2004, p. 23]

September 18, 2004

* Wind power - 12% of global electricity supply by 2020

August 21, 2004

* UK - nuclear industry counting on 2006 boost from failure of wind industry

July 14, 2004

Wind - cost-competitive by 2020 in Australia

The wind power industry in Australia is saying it could produce power at the same cost as coal-fired power stations by the year 2020.

[Source: Senator Kerry O'Brien (Australia's Labor Party - tourism, regional services and territories spokesman), cited by Danny Mortison, "Global warming seen as key issue: Threat to tourism", Townsville Bulletin/Townsville Sun (Australia), July 14, 2004, p. 9]

June 5, 2004

Wind - Four nations accounted for 86% of installed capacity in 2001 (Denmark, Germany, Spain and US)

...[W]hile some countries, notably Denmark and Germany, have made big strides in wind energy, the progress has not spread widely. In 2001, about 86 percent of the world's capacity for wind generation was in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States, the report [an International Energy Agency study] said.

[Source: Mark Landler (NYT Business/Financial Desk), "China Pledges to Increase Use Of Alternative Energy Sources", The New York Times, June 5, 2004, p. C3]

April 4, 2004

Wind - "The dream of environmentally friendly energy has turned into highly subsidised destruction of the countryside"

... some of Europe's "greenest" countries are under pressure to backtrack on wind farms in the face of public anger over their impact on the countryside. Voters are outraged by the unsightly turbines, the loud, low-frequency humming noise that they create and the stroboscopic effects of blades rotating in sunshine. Opponents are dismayed at the proliferation of the turbines in some of the most beautiful areas of the continent. Conservationists complain that hundreds of birds are killed each month by the rotating blades. "The dream of environmentally friendly energy has turned into highly subsidised destruction of the countryside," Germany's influential magazine Der Spiegel pronounced last week.

[Source: Renee Mickelburgh et al., "Huge protests by voters force the continent's governments to rethink so-called green energy", Sunday Telegraph (London), April 4, 2004, p. 28]

* Holland - public hostility to wind farm expansion

* Denmark - wind power - public opposition

* Denmark - wind power - nearby homes become impossible to sell

* Germany - wind power - "the worst desecration of our countryside since war 400 years ago"

* UK - wind power - public resistance growing

* France - wind power - public hostility prompts shift to offshore sites

February 22, 2004

Wisconsin court nixes gas plant, because wind wasn't considered seriously enough

Earlier this month, Dane County Circuit Judge Moria Krueger told the state Public Service Commission to start over and re-evaluate the environmental impact of two 545-megawatt power plants under construction in downtown Port Washington by Wisconsin Energy Corp. State law calls for the Public Service Commission to give preference to environmentally friendly forms of power generation when debating whether to approve power plant projects. The judge's ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Bob Owen of Middleton against the $650-million project because he believes the PSC has ignored this statute and given short shrift to recommendations of a state study on climate change issued more than five years ago. "It appears that the people that are appointed to the Public Service Commission have no interest whatsoever about whether there is a habitable planet for their children or their grandchildren. They never have taken global warming seriously. I consider it a severe threat, which is growing more and becoming more severe."

[Source: Thomas Content, "Wind-energy proponent proves he's a force to be reckoned with", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 22, 2004, p. 1D]

January 23, 2004

UK - wind farm noise drives neighbors crazy, but that's no crime

Three couples who live near Askam windfarm in Cumbria lost their legal fight to silence the wind turbines. They claim their lives have been blighted by the noise from wind turbines, and sought to get the turbines declared a statutory nuisance under the Environmental Health Act. During the trial, district judge Peter Wallis heard that those living around the turbines suffered from anxiety and lack of sleep brought about by noise from the 30m-high machines. Ireleth resident Les Nichols, 64, said he and his wife Betty had made numerous complaints about the noise. Eddie Albion, of Ireleth told the judge the sound of the turbines "drives you crazy". In its defense, the owner of the turbines, Powergen, said it had spent £50,000 fitting noise reduction equipment to the turbines which had cut the frequency of complaints. The judge ruled: "The proceedings were criminal and the residents had to prove an alleged statutory noise nuisance exists or is likely to recur. Audibility and annoyance are not to be equated with nuisance." After the hearing, Powergen spokesman Matthew Britton said: "I can't say we won't get any more complaints as no windfarm operates silently, but we will continue to work to minimise its effect." Outside the court, Mr Nichols said: "All we can hope is that Powergen honour their pledge to reduce the noise we suffer from." One of the couples, Stephen and Julie Lainson, of Marton, remortgaged their home to pay their legal fees. Mr Lainson, 34, said: "I feel like an insect that has just been crushed under the Powergen heel."

[Source: Western Morning News (Plymouth), "Couples suffering health effects lose court fight over turbines", January 23, 2004, p. 12]

January 17, 2004

California - Zoning officials delay action on condor cuisanart permits

The East Alameda County Board of Zoning Adjustments voted Thursday to delay action on 15 permits for wind turbines at the Altamont Pass until Jan. 29. The delay is intended to allow county planning staff to review a lawsuit filed Monday by the Center for Biological Diversity. The lawsuit contends that wind turbines in the Pass are killing thousands of protected birds. The county wants to understand the implications of approving permits when the permit holders face pending litigation, said Darryl Gray, assistant county planning director.

[Source: Los Angeles Times, "Alameda County Delays OK of Wind Turbines", January 17, 2004, p. B8]

January 4, 2004

* Wind power generation in US - equivalent of supplying power to 1.5 million average American homes

Canada - 1,000-MW wind energy target by 2006 in Victoria

The Bracks Government has a target of 1000 megawatts of wind energy capacity by 2006, which we expect will be provided by about 600 turbines. Up to 10 per cent of electricity generated in Victoria could come from wind power.

In meeting this target, we will reduce greenhouse pollution by the equivalent of about four million tonnes a year. This would be like taking 920,000 cars off our roads.

[Source: Sunday Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia), January 4, 2004, p. 76]

January 2, 2004

France - The dirty business of wind

...[T]he 22-minute film..., "L'Argent du Vent" (The Money in Wind)... showed how pushy promoters in the Aude region, eager for a quick euro, had dwarfed tiny villages with their looming wind turbines, which led to deep resentment among locals and even murder threats against dissidents. It was not a pretty picture.

[Ref: Julian More, "Tilting at windmills in sunny Provence", International Herald Tribune, January 2, 2004]

France - EDF obligated to pay 3X more for wind power

... ElectricitŽ de France [is] obligat[ed] to pay three times more for wind-turbine energy than nuclear energy ...

[Ref: Alain Bruguier (president of the Federation Vent de Col�re [Angry Wind Federation]), cited by Julian More, "Tilting at windmills in sunny Provence", International Herald Tribune, January 2, 2004]

Wind - air pollution from back-up power

... Denmark, the most wind-conscious [nation on the continent], is the bad boy... of Europe as regards air pollution ..., needing traditional fossil fuels, which add to greenhouse-gas emissions, to supplement its wind farms when the wind doesn't blow.

[Ref: Julian More, "Tilting at windmills in sunny Provence", International Herald Tribune, January 2, 2004]

Wind turbines - noisy omnipresent giants

[W]ind turbines ... these inhuman white giants ... a noisy, omnipresent, expensive and inefficient renewable energy source.

[Ref: Julian More, "Tilting at windmills in sunny Provence", International Herald Tribune, January 2, 2004]

Wales - wind farms

[In] Wales, ... sheep farms have sadly been replaced by wind farms...

[Ref: Julian More, "Tilting at windmills in sunny Provence", International Herald Tribune, January 2, 2004]

August 13, 2003

More Wind Energy Capacity wouldn't have helped Europe during current heat wave

Roselyne Bachelot, France's Environment Minister, yesterday agreed to suspend regulations that limit the temperature of water that power plants can release into rivers, allowing Electricite de France (EdF) to resume production at six nuclear and three conventional thermal stations.

Thus are the mighty fallen. EdF, the monopolistic juggernaut of the European power market, typically exports 10,000MW to neighbouring countries, including Britain. But the giant has been brought low, not by regulators in Brussels nor even rebellious French unions, but by the weather.

For the anti-nuclear movement, EdF's plight offers, at first glance, a huge propaganda victory. We knew that nuclear power stations were expensive and produced poisonous waste, but we did not expect them to die of thirst. French environmentalists condemned the suspension of waste-water temperature regulations and issued dark warnings of a public health risk from microbes breeding in the fetid waters of the Seine.

Unfortunately, the fug across the Continent has stifled the few green alternatives currently available. There is not a breath of wind to turn a mill, and empty Alpine reservoirs cannot spin hydro-electric turbines. In previous years, the Nordic power pool exported surplus hydropower to the Benelux countries and Germany, but precipitation has been weak in recent years and the Nordic hydro surplus is disappearing.

EdF's difficulties expose a wider problem with electricity. Power is a local market and security depends on a local solution. In June, EdF's supply problems caused blackouts in Italy, a wake-up call to a complacent Italian Government that had never questioned its dependence on French power.

[Source: Carl Mortished, "French power giant feels heat", The Times (London), August 13, 2003, p. 25

In Germany, a lack of wind has reportedly led to a loss of around 12 000 megawatts (MW) of expected wind power for the national grid.

[Source: John Shepherd (NucNet Central Office), "EuropeÕs Heatwave: Nuclear Shows Staying Power As Wind Fails", NucNet, August 13, 2003]

April 25, 2003

Wind energy growth in Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania, 100 megawatts of wind-generated electricity is online, mainly in the Somerset area, and another 150 megawatts is expected to be online by the end of the year, Hanger said [John Hanger, president of the public policy group Penn Future in Harrisburg]. That will be enough to provide all the electricity needed by 80,000 households for a year. All of it has come online since 1999. "That's beginning to be important," Hanger said of the total. "Within five years, I expect there will be 2,000 megawatts of wind energy in PJM connected to the grid." A U.S. Department of Energy study found that Pennsylvania has suitable locations for windmills that could generate 5,000 megawatts of electricity. Hanger said most windmills in the state are built on mountain ridges at least 2,000 feet above sea level. Modern windmills, many of them built in Denmark, the world leader in wind energy technology, can produce power with an average wind speed of 16 mph. Hanger said the requisite wind speed is continually dropping as the technology improves. [Source: David DeKok, "Rule Change Gives Lift to Windmill-Generated Power in Harrisburg, Pa. Area", Harrisburg Patriot-News, April 25, 2003]

Wind advantage during very cold weather

Some in the industry opposed granting capacity credits to wind turbines, Hanger said [John Hanger, president of the public policy group Penn Future in Harrisburg], claiming the power was "intermittent." He argued that all power plants are intermittent to a degree, and wind generation provides an additional source of backup power and stability for the electric transmission grid. PJM had its last rolling blackouts on Jan. 19, 1994, Hanger said, when severe cold froze coal piles in the region and natural gas supplies dried up. Then, PPL's 1,000-megawatt Susquehanna nuclear plant unexpectedly went down. Hanger said wind turbines are unaffected by severe cold weather and argued that if the PJM had 2,000 megawatts of wind power in 1994, the rolling blackouts could have been averted. [Source: David DeKok, "Rule Change Gives Lift to Windmill-Generated Power in Harrisburg, Pa. Area", Harrisburg Patriot-News, April 25, 2003]