• Windfarm warning voiced at meeting

    Updated: 2023-09-30 14:35:11
    Windfarms were a hot topic once again at this month’s meeting of Moffat and District Community Council (MDCC). Community group Save Our Hills Moffat (SOHM) delivered a presentation on Tuesday night detailing their objections to the proposed windfarms at Scoop Hill and Rivox. The presentation was the second of its kind following a similar presentation by Dr Ashley Lloyd, of the University of Edinburgh at an informal community meeting in August. SOHM described the town as a ‘threatened community’ and . . .

  • California state government makes energy more expensive with clean energy bill

    Updated: 2023-09-30 14:25:05
    Assembly Bill 1373, the latest clean energy legislation out of Sacramento, is likely to raise electricity bills so much that even the legislative staff reviewing the bill for the Senate Appropriations Committee expressed concerns about it. “The State of California is an electricity customer, purchasing roughly one percent of the state’s electricity. As such, the state incurs costs when rates increase. To the extent this bill results in increased electricity rates, there could be additional costs on the state as . . .

  • Wind farm project generates contention

    Updated: 2023-09-30 14:17:58
    Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles the Abilene Reflector-Chronicle will publish over the next several weeks that will address the pros and cons, the opposition and support for the wind turbine project. Anyone who would like to contribute their thoughts are invited to send them to writtenontheplains@gmail.com. The prospect of a 95-square mile wind farm going up in the southeast portion of Dickinson County has caused a rift among neighbors and families. Some see the . . .

  • Eye-opening report by NOAA on fisheries and offshore wind

    Updated: 2023-09-30 14:10:48
    Offshore wind-energy installations—“wind farms”—are expanding along the East Coast of the United States as a way to increase the use of renewable energy, but these installations are not without their own significant impacts on marine resources and their associated fisheries. They have innocuous-sounding names such as Revolution Wind, Sunrise Wind, Mayflower Wind Phase 1 and Park City Wind. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is the federal agency responsible for offshore-energy exploration and development in the US. To date, BOEM . . .

  • Jersey Shore mobilises against offshore wind power

    Updated: 2023-09-30 13:57:54
    oaring costs, high interest rates and clogged supply chains have buffeted the offshore wind power industry as it tries to expand from Europe to the US east coast. Add to these another obstacle: increasingly vocal and organised opponents who live or work along the beachfront. Their campaign threatens to slow down the Biden administration’s push to reach 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030, up from a minimal amount today. They are nowhere more active than in New Jersey, . . .

  • El Tribunal de Cuentas de la UE cuestiona el impacto de la eólica marina

    Updated: 2023-09-26 21:05:47
    [EU Court of Auditors warns about cost of offshore wind to biodiversity and fishing] Pese a sus beneficios en términos de reducción de emisiones, la energía eólica marina puede tener un indeseado coste social y medioambiental para la biodiversidad. Así lo sostiene el Tribunal de Cuentas de la Unión Europea en un informe publicado esta semana, titulado Offshore Energy Renewable in the EU. “El despliegue de la energía renovable marina plantea una serie de problemas prácticos, sociales y medioambientales que . . .

  • “Road toward extinction” – Nantucket group appeals Vineyard Wind decision

    Updated: 2023-09-25 14:11:02
    A group of Nantucket residents has appealed the dismissal of a lawsuit aimed at stopping the Vineyard Wind offshore wind energy project, which is currently under construction in the waters southwest of the island. The group ACK For Whales – formerly known as Nantucket Residents Against Turbines – filed the appeal Saturday with the First Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals and is seeking to overturn the May 2023 decision of U.S. District Court judge Indira Talwani, who dismissed . . .

  • Europees rapport kritisch voor productie hernieuwbare energie op zee

    Updated: 2023-09-24 18:36:32
    [Offshore wind energy can be harmful to the environment. Moreover, current EU policy is unrealistically ambitious.] Een kritisch Europees rapport geeft munitie aan de critici van windenergie op zee. Met het oog op de beoogde klimaatneutraliteit tegen 2050 zet de EU al enkele jaren zwaar in op de productie van offshore hernieuwbare energie. Paradoxaal genoeg kan deze blauwe energie zelf ook schadelijk zijn voor het milieu, zo blijkt. Bovendien is het huidige EU-beleid ook onrealistisch ambitieus. Twee jaar geleden stelde . . .

  • ‘No let-up in fight’ against Powys wind farm developments

    Updated: 2023-09-24 18:09:41
    There must be no let-up in the fight against the development of industrial scale wind farms – this was the message at a fundraising launch for a campaign group battling against proposals for large-scale Powys projects. Scores of people filled the Alexandra Hall in Llangammarch Wells on Friday, September 15, for the launch of RE-think’s fundraising campaign – which collected more than £2,000. In total, over £2,600 was raised to support the group’s fight against industrial scale wind farms and . . .

  • How not to go green: The Shetland wind farms

    Updated: 2023-09-24 17:57:02
    In the midst of a rapidly escalating ecological crisis, the sourcing of renewable energy has taken centre stage in the debate around tackling climate change. Scotland has taken a leading role in creating cleaner energy infrastructure, to the point that according to Renewable Scotland, just shy of 80 per cent of the country’s green energy is sourced from wind generated power. The Scottish Government has set their sights on the location for their next big green energy project. Located in . . .

  • Rotterdam approves moratoriums on wind, battery storage systems

    Updated: 2023-09-24 17:54:57
    Town lawmakers on Wednesday approved a pair of moratoriums prohibiting the construction of battery storage and wind energy systems for the next six months. The moratoriums are intended to give the town’s Energy Advisory Committee time to draft new regulations for the renewable energy systems that some residents have argued could have long-term consequences for the town and negatively impact the quality of life for residents if not properly sited and managed. The town last updated its code on wind . . .

  • Global Dockworker Unions join ILA to stop Ørsted US from stripping ILA work jurisdiction handling off-shore wind components

    Updated: 2023-09-24 17:52:09
    Dockworkers from around the world will be joining the International Longshoremen’s Association this Wednesday, September 20th, hosting rallies at waterfront ports and terminals at countless global locations to draw attention to the orchestrated attack on the ILA’s core work jurisdiction by Ørsted US, a developer of wind farms for the production of electricity. The ILA, and its affiliated Local 1411, in New London, Connecticut, are spearheading this Global Day of Action against Ørsted US to fight to retain ILA jobs. . . .

  • Illawarra environmental groups back offshore wind plans

    Updated: 2023-09-24 13:55:45
    Reading opposition to offshore wind turbines commonly referring to environmental impacts left lifelong environmentalist Rowan Huxtable scratching his head. The member of the Wollongong Climate Action Network notes there may be some local environmental impacts from offshore wind turbines off the Illawarra coast, but says there is a much bigger issue that outweighs many of those concerns. “There are possibly unknown environmental impacts of this, but we’ve got a really big, internationally agreed environmental catastrophe coming up, unless we get . . .

  • Wind farm accused of using loophole to pull in £647m

    Updated: 2023-09-24 13:40:08
    An offshore wind farm in Scotland has netted £647 million through a net zero loophole and by receiving payments when not producing electricity, a think tank has claimed. The Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) alleged that consumers had effectively overpaid hundreds of millions of pounds for the Moray East wind farm in north-east Scotland as a result. Moray East comprises 100 9.5MW turbines in the Moray Firth and is majority-owned by Ocean Winds. According to analysis by the REF, between June 2021 . . .

  • Proteste gegen riesige Windräder im Wald

    Updated: 2023-09-23 14:23:22
    [Protests against huge wind turbines in the Waldviertels forest] Das haben sich die Windkraft-Unternehmen W.E.B & Co vielleicht doch etwas einfacher vorgestellt. Ziemlich leise und an den Gemeindeabstimmungen vorbei haben sie die größte optische Veränderung des Waldviertels in Angriff genommen, die man jemals gesehen haben wird – wie mittlerweile mehrere Waldwindkraftgegner das bezeichnen. Aus dem touristisch interessanten Waldviertel im nordwestlichen Niederösterreich „wird eine Wind-Industriezone“, wie Michael Moser von der IG Waldviertel formuliert. Das will man nicht einfach so hinnehmen. Die . . .

  • Wind energy public hearing approaches, opinion poll circulates

    Updated: 2023-09-23 13:59:20
    On Monday, Oct. 2 at 10 a.m. in the Lincoln County district courtroom on the third floor of the courthouse, the county commissioners will hold a public hearing to take testimony in support or opposition of proposed changes to zoning regulations of large-scale, commercial and utility-grade wind and solar energy developments. At least two major developers have taken steps to build wind generators in Lincoln County. In 2020, the company, Invenergy, negotiated a contract with NCORPE to build generators about . . .

  • Bird pooped Walkaway wind turbines turned away with no quarantine facility at Mid West Ports Authority

    Updated: 2023-09-22 00:52:12
    Bird poo–contaminated wind turbines from China have been turned away from Geraldton Port due to a biosecurity risk, fuelling concerns over a lack of quarantine facilities for big imports. A vessel transporting large wind turbines was due to dock in Geraldton on Friday, September 8, but was rejected after it was found the shipment had been tainted with bird faeces while at sea. The wind turbines were redirected to Fremantle to be washed at a quarantine facility and will be . . .

  • Vestas Tara wind farm project rejected by several landholders

    Updated: 2023-09-21 14:08:01
    A confidential proposal to build one of Australia’s biggest wind farms on the Western Downs has been knocked back by several landholders due to concerns over decommissioning. Danish company Vestas is proposing to develop a 1200MW, 167-turbine wind farm south of Tara, with the aim to start construction by 2027. For comparison, Acciona Energia’s 1026MW, 180-turbine MacIntyre Wind Farm near Warwick will be the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere when finished in 2024. The Vestas Tara Wind Farm Project brochure . . .

  • State governors seeking federal help for offshore wind industry

    Updated: 2023-09-20 13:42:47
    A group of U.S. governors is calling on the Biden administration to help ease the “extraordinary economic challenges” that have combined to threaten not only future offshore wind development, but also the number of projects that are already under way. In a letter submitted to the White House, the governors of Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island say “inflationary pressures, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the lingering supply-chain disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic” have resulted . . .

  • Brazil’s big cats under threat from wind farms

    Updated: 2023-09-17 22:40:21
    Weighing more than 100 pounds, big cats have long reigned over this hot and semi-arid region of Brazil, developing tougher paws for the scorched earth and reaching speeds of 50 miles an hour to bring down wild boar and deer. But nothing could have prepared them for the 150-foot blades now slicing up the deep blue sky above them. Jaguars and pumas are facing extinction in the Caatinga, Brazil’s northeastern shrublands, as Europe and China pour investment into wind farms, . . .

  • The Biden Administration misleads the public on the vast expanses of land needed for ‘net zero’

    Updated: 2023-09-17 22:28:12
    The Biden administration is misleading the country about the amount of land that will be required to meet its ambitious renewable energy goals, RealClearInvestigations has found. The Department of Energy’s official line – echoed by many environmental activists and academics – is that the vast array of solar panels and wind turbines required to meet Biden’s goal of “100% clean electricity” by 2035 will require “less than one-half of one percent of the contiguous U.S. land area.” This topline number . . .

  • Why won’t Greenpeace admit that wind turbines may be killing whales?

    Updated: 2023-09-14 15:59:10
    Who cares about whales? Whales might be dying because of sonar surveying, but Greenpeace simply ignores the science that doesn’t suit it. So far last year, 71 whales have washed up dead on the shores of New England and neighbouring states. The rate seems to have risen in recent years along with a growth in the number of offshore wind turbines. A small group of concerned citizens have started to campaign against the turbines on behalf of the whales, and . . .

  • 6 arrested in Ocean City wind protest that blocked roadwork

    Updated: 2023-09-13 13:57:07
    Ocean City – Protesters on Tuesday morning blocked the start of work on 35th Street, a project laying the groundwork for power lines traversing the barrier island as part of an offshore wind energy project. Six people were arrested. City officials said they were given several warnings before they were charged with disorderly conduct – failure to disperse and obstruction of public pathways, a petty disorderly persons offense. At its height, the protest had about 60 people in the street preventing a . . .

  • 6 protesters arrested as onshore testing for NJ wind farm begins

    Updated: 2023-09-13 13:39:24
    Police in Ocean City, which has become the hub of resistance to offshore wind projects in New Jersey and elsewhere along the U.S. East Coast, arrested demonstrators after the city said they failed to heed four warnings to get out of the roadway. “There were three people lying in the street,” said Robin Shaffer, a spokesman for Protect Our Coast NJ, a residents’ group opposed to the local project and to offshore wind in general. Each of the protesters, none . . .

  • Financial hit from faulty wind farm turbines expected to deepen in P.E.I.

    Updated: 2023-09-13 13:21:12
    Profits at the P.E.I. Energy Corporation were slashed by more than half last year, with auditors warning revenues will drop even further as the Crown enterprise tries to fix one of the province’s biggest wind farms. In its annual report released last week, the P.E.I. Energy Corporation recorded a profit of $3.5 million. That’s less than half of what the utility has posted in any fiscal year since 2014-15, the first full year the Hermanville wind farm in eastern P.E.I. . . .

  • Biden wants to shrink proposed marine sanctuary to accommodate wind energy factory owned by Dem donor

    Updated: 2023-09-12 14:26:23
    President Joe Biden wants to shrink a Pacific Ocean marine sanctuary meant to protect endangered whales in order to accommodate offshore wind energy factories—one of them owned by a major Democratic donor. The Biden administration late last month proposed cutting about 1,400 square miles of ocean and coastline from an Indian tribe’s proposed national marine sanctuary to make room for wind turbine infrastructure. One of these factories would belong to Invenergy, whose founder and CEO Michael Polsky has given more . . .

  • Willmar wind turbine stands idle while awaiting a $95 part

    Updated: 2023-09-12 14:19:30
    As has been the trend since February, the August wind turbine report presented Monday during the Willmar Municipal Utilities Commission meeting was less than stellar – again foreshadowing the potential demise of wind power in Willmar. Wind turbine number three, which has been causing the most trouble for Willmar Municipal Utilities this year, was available 35.5% of the time in August, according to Facilities and Maintenance Supervisor Kevin Marti. Wind turbine number four was available 61.4% of the time. The total . . .

  • Robbins Island wind farm developer seeks to remove shutdown clause designed to protect orange-bellied parrot

    Updated: 2023-09-12 14:16:04
    A company planning to build a wind farm on Robbins Island in Tasmania’s north-west has argued that the collision death of an orange-bellied parrot would not have a “statistical effect” on the birds’ long-term survival. ACEN Australia’s 100-turbine 720-megawatt proposal on the island sits in the middle of the parrot’s believed path for its annual return migration between Tasmania and Victoria. But due to its low numbers and high death rate for juveniles – four out of five released from . . .

  • Energy plan would “desecrate Montgomeryshire”

    Updated: 2023-09-12 14:13:14
    Montgomeryshire is being urged to “stand up” against the shock news that an energy giant wants to carve through the old county with a pylon corridor linking a proposed windfarm near Cefn Coch with the National Grid in Shropshire. The group that successfully fought a similar plan 12 years ago – Montgomeryshire Against Pylons (MAP) – is readying itself for another fight after Bute Energy’s shock announcement last week. MAP said that the current proposals “will affect our area forever . . .

  • Sami activists set up camp outside Norway parliament to protest wind turbines

    Updated: 2023-09-12 13:24:40
    An Indigenous Sami activist set up camp outside the Norwegian parliament on Monday to protest against wind turbines built on land traditionally used by Sami reindeer herders, saying he will stay there as long as the turbines remain in place. Norway’s supreme court in October 2021 ruled that two wind farms built at Fosen in central Norway, part of Europe’s largest onshore wind farm, violated Sami rights under international conventions. But the turbines remain in operation today. The Fosen case . . .

  • As US East Coast ramps up offshore wind power projects, much remains unknown

    Updated: 2023-09-12 13:15:26
    A joint study in March by two federal scientific agencies and the commercial fishing industry documents numerous impacts that offshore wind power projects could have on fish and marine mammals, including noise, vibration, electromagnetic fields and heat transfer that could alter the environment.

  • Defunct wind turbine blades give industry a waste problem

    Updated: 2023-09-11 00:55:33
    Almost 100 giant turbine blades from Scotland’s first wind farm are being sent into storage while the industry battles to solve major problems over their recycling. Hagshaw Hill, near Douglas in South Lanarkshire, which opened 28 years ago, is being “repowered” as the first generation of turbines is dismantled, throwing more than 80 blades on to the scrapheap. ScottishPower Renewables plans to replace them with larger turbines after government permission was granted for a 14-turbine wind farm. The new turbines . . .

  • Electricity from wind isn’t cheap and it never will be

    Updated: 2023-09-10 15:28:53
    Politicians should stop endorsing an energy source that isn’t particularly clean or secure, and won’t bring down prices. The MPs who have forced Rishi Sunak into a U-turn on onshore wind power love to repeat the favourite slogan of the wind industry: “wind is cheap”. “Cheap, clean, secure,” says Sir Alok Sharma. “Cheap,” cheeps Ed Miliband. It conceals the truth. Electricity from wind is not cheap and never will be. The latest auction of rights to build offshore wind farms . . .

  • Wind farms ‘gaming system to inflate millions earned when asked to halt production’

    Updated: 2023-09-10 15:27:02
    Wind farm owners appear to be “gaming the system” to inflate the tens of millions of pounds that they are paid not to produce electricity, a study has found. A paper published in the International Journal of Industrial Organisation concluded that companies were “exaggerating” claims about the amount of energy they expected to produce at times when the transmission network risked being overloaded. The behaviour increases the likelihood that wind farms will be paid to shut down, as well as . . .

  • “No al parco eolico per combattere l’inquinamento luminoso”, il caso di Manciano

    Updated: 2023-09-09 15:10:25
    [Astrophysicists and stargazers appeal to protect location least affected by light pollution in Italy.] L’appello di astrofisici e appassionati: “Siamo a favore delle rinnovabili, ma non nell’unico posto in Italia dove poter ancora osservare il cielo stellato”. Un caso spinoso, dove è davvero difficile capire quale sia la soluzione migliore. È quello di Manciano, in provincia di Grosseto, il Comune con il cielo più stellato d’Italia. Qui, infatti, negli anni sono state prese una serie di misure che hanno fatto . . .

  • Locals at war with plan to blight Welsh hills with giant wind turbines and pylons

    Updated: 2023-09-09 15:02:27
    High above a sweeping valley that cuts through a majestic stretch of Welsh countryside, a buzzard’s wings caress the warm, thermal breeze. On the ground below, other feathers have been ruffled – by plans to build ‘monstrous’ 700ft hillside wind turbines that could tower as high as The Shard near locals’ homes. The proposed wind power development, which is set to include a zig-zagging 60-mile line of pylons carrying the energy generated by the turbines, is tearing communities apart and . . .

  • Another grenade lobbed at Alberta wind and solar

    Updated: 2023-09-08 00:41:22
    New information requirements for Alberta power generators including wind and solar projects will create further problems for a booming renewables industry that government policy has already slowed, said an industry advocate. “They introduced more questions than answers,” said Jorden Dye of the Business Renewables Centre, a group that links generators and purchasers of renewable power. On Wednesday, the Alberta Utilities Commission released a series of interim information requests that those proposing new projects will be required to answer. The requests . . .

  • RI fishermen’s board resigns en masse over Biden admin–backed offshore wind farm: ‘Wholesale ocean destruction’

    Updated: 2023-09-06 13:18:10
    A plan backed by the Biden administration to OK a string of wind farms off Rhode Island has prompted every member of a fishing regulatory board in the state to resign. The entire Rhode Island Fisherman’s Advisory Board quit en masse Friday to protest the 84-turbine Sunrise Wind project after the state’s Coastal Resources Management Council approved the third offshore wind farm in two years off the Ocean State’s waters. The project falls under President Biden‘s executive order authorizing his . . .

  • CRMC Fisherman’s Advisory Board resigns in protest

    Updated: 2023-09-06 13:16:48
    Rhode Island fishermen are sounding the alarm about offshore wind farms. Last week, the nine-member Fisherman’s Advisory Board to the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) resigned in protest of the council’s offshore wind approval process. Members of the now-defunct board claim the CRMC has abandoned the state’s Ocean Special Area Management Plan and sidelined the fishing industry in its race to meet renewable energy procurement goals with rapid and massive industrial-scale offshore wind development. Lanney Dellinger, a crab . . .

  • New Jersey state Senate candidate highly critical of offshore wind recently did work for the industry

    Updated: 2023-09-06 13:10:59
    A New Jersey state Senate candidate who has made criticism of offshore wind energy a top plank of his campaign represented a company that sought to build the power lines to bring that wind power ashore. “Whales and dolphins are dying up and down the Jersey shore,” Steve Dnistrian, a Republican challenging Democratic state Sen. Vin Gopal in the 11th District, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, from an anti-offshore wind demonstration in March. “Gov. Murphy, listen to the . . .

  • Planning rules changed to allow wind if local councils approve

    Updated: 2023-09-06 13:04:16
    Residents have been promised lower energy bills if they consent to wind farms near by, after a ban on turbines was relaxed in a deal with Tory rebels. Planning rules were changed last night to make it clear that a single local objection cannot block onshore wind, as Rishi Sunak moved to head off a Commons defeat. However, wind turbines will remain harder to build than other projects, leading to accusations that Sunak had “bottled it” and predictions of only . . .

  • Outright ban lifted for onshore wind farms

    Updated: 2023-09-06 13:01:36
    The Government streamlined planning rules and broadened the ways that suitable locations can be identified yesterday after pressure from backbench Tory MPs. Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, said: “To increase our energy security and develop a cleaner, greener economy, we are introducing new measures to allow local communities to back onshore wind power projects.” It will only apply in areas where developments have community support but will build on our “enormous success” as . . .

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