July 5, 2007

Note:  These story titles and lead paragraphs are culled from Refocus Weekly's posting of the world's renewable energy stories. You can go to their website(http://www.re-focus.net/) to read the full stories, though the News-in-Brief will not have a full story associated with it.   You can often paste the headline into Google and find the original source of the story. You are welcome to share this with others. This is a free service from Wind Harvest.   Thank you. Kevin
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WIND FARM DEVELOPER SUBMITS 366 MW OF PROJECTS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada, May 30, 2007 (Refocus Weekly).
A wind farm developer on Canada's west coast has entered four projects into the British Columbia Environmental Assessment (EA) process.

News in Brief: May 30, 2007

- Acciona Windpower will develop its first U.S. turbine production plant in Iowa. The new facility will provide 100 new jobs and produce 250 turbines next year. Construction will begin soon and will be completed by the end of this year. The 18,100 m2 building will be Acciona's fourth turbine assembly plant.

- CPS Energy of Texas has completed installation of an additional 240 MW of wind capacity to its Cottonwood Creek windfarm in Nolan County. The municipally-owned supplier of natural gas and electricity added 181 turbines to the facility, which was completed in 2005, to boost total capacity to 340 MW. CPS Energy wants to source 15% of its peak electrical demand from renewables by 2020. Wind, solar and landfill gas currently provide 11%.
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GLOBAL WIND INDUSTRY TO EXPAND 19% YEARLY UNTIL 2010
BRUSSELS, Belgium, June 6, 2007 (Refocus Weekly).
Average annual cumulative growth in the international wind energy industry will be 19.1% from 2006 until 2010, compared with 24.3% during the 2002-2006 period.

News in Brief: June 6, 2007

- Clal Industries of Israel is negotiating with Merhav M.N.F Holding on a potential joint venture for alternative energy projects in Greece. The two companies are assessing wind energy and have closed basic agreements with two engineering companies to investigate the wind resource in several areas in Greece.

- Santee Cooper of South Carolina will partner with Clemson University and Coastal Carolina University to assess the wind resource on a barrier island in that state. The South Carolina Institute for Energy Studies will install three anemometers on Waties Island near Little River and transmit data over a one-year period to Clemson and uploaded on the Internet.

- Wisconsin Public Service is exploring the purchase or development of a 100 MW windfarm in the U.S. midwest. The utility is considering green power from a new or existing windfarm, but it wants to own part of the facility for control reasons. It says wind is the most viable option, but will also consider solar, biofuel and other green power projects.

- Wind Energy America will work with Boreal Energy of Minnesota on a number of windfarm projects. Under the agreement, WEA will fund half of the costs to upgrade a Buffalo Ridge substation and, in return, will be involved in selected Boreal projects at a preferential rate. Boreal has 1,200 MW of wind capacity under development.

- Fairfax County in Virginia will purchase 24 million kWh of wind energy through the Virginia Energy Purchasing Governmental Association. At the end of a three-year contract with 3 Phases Energy, wind will supply 10% of the county's annual power consumption, up from the current 5%. The county says the purchase will displace the emission of 12.5 million pounds of CO2.

- The government of Spain will lend Euro 100 million to Morocco to construct the Tanger windfarm. Funding from the Development Assistance Fund is repayable over 20 years and has an annual interest rate of 0.5%. The 140 MW facility will be constructed south of Rabat, with 165 turbines generating 526 GWh a year of green power.
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STATE AGENCY WOULD FINANCE WIND, WAVE AND HYDRO PROJECTS
PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, USA, June 13, 2007 (Refocus Weekly).
The state of Rhode Island has been asked to create a power authority that would spearhead development of renewable energy sources.


News in Brief: June 13, 2007

- The Indian government in Gujarat has unveiled a policy to generate 4,000 MW of electricity from wind turbines by 2010. Companies in the wind sector have been exempt from paying electricity duty and the government has increased the purchase price from Rs 2.60 per kWh to Rs 3.37 to attract investment. The Energy & Resources Institute has been asked to prepare a roadmap to increase use of solar energy in the stat

- The State Supreme Court in West Virginia has ruled against a US$300 million windfarm in the eastern panhandle. The Court ruled that there was no legal basis for decision by the lower Circuit Court in April 2006 that dismissed a lawsuit challenging the windfarm. The high court has sent the case back to Grant County for further proceedings. The decision was welcomed by homeowners near the proposed facility, who claim their property values will decline if NedPower Mount Storm and Shell WindEnergy build the ten-mile string of turbines in the Grassy Ridge area. The Supreme Court rejected the companies' argument that homeowners could sue if property loses value after the turbines go up.

- Union Fenosa will invest US$600 million to build the 500 MW Rumorosa windfarm in Mexico¹s Baja California and sell the power to the U.S. state of California. The company is working on a 250 MW windfarm in Oaxaca, Mexico.

- Florida Power & Light and officials of St. Lucie County in Florida will explore installing wind turbines on land that the utility owns next to its St. Lucie nuclear reactor. The project will have at least two 2.5 MW turbines, and officials say the wind resources in the state of Florida are not sufficient to justify a large windfarm.
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WIND INDUSTRY REJECTS CALL FOR QUOTA-BASED CERTIFICATES IN GERMANY
BERLIN, Germany, June 20, 2007 (Refocus Weekly).
The wind industry has rejected a proposal that Germany change from feed-in tariffs to a quota-based certificate scheme.

News in Brief: June 20, 2007

- Urban planners in the United Arab Emirates are planning a district in the capital city of Abu Dhabi that will be surrounded by windfarms and PV panels. The vision will cost US$5 billion and when finished will be a zero-carbon, zero-waste city. The 6 km2 facility, called Masdar, will house an energy, science and technology community and is being developed by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, a private company owned by Mubadala Development. The city will provide 1,500 companies with incentives.

- A proposed offshore wind farm would not interfere with U.S. missile defence radar systems, according to a report from the Missile Defense Agency. Cape Wind Associates wants to install 130 turbines across 25 miles of federal waters in Nantucket Sound, but 27.3 km from the closest ŒPave Paws¹ radar on Cape Cod. That distance is beyond the 25 km buffer zone proposed by the Department of Defense to ensure that turbines do not interfere with missile defence and early warning radars.

- The North Carolina town of Blowing Rock has become the second local government in the state to ban wind turbines. Council said the local economy depends on tourism and unanimously voted to prohibit wind systems, including residential-scale turbines. The ban comes less than a year after Watauga County became the first in the state to adopt an ordinance to regulate wind systems.

- Colorado governor Bill Ritter has broken ground for a plant to manufacture wind turbine blades. The 200,000 ft2 facility is being built by Vestas for US$62 million and will produce four blades a day, enough for 1,200 turbines a year. The 120-foot blades weigh 8 tons.

- Elecon Engineering of India will invest at least Rs 100 crore each year for the next five years to meet demand for wind turbines and other commodies. It will invest Rs 60 crore in its upcoming windmill gear box project, complementing its current Rs 80 crore gear box projects that will be operational by November.
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STATE REGULATOR CLAMPS DOWN ON 'DEFICIENT' WINDFARM APPLICATIONS
CHARLESTON, West Virginia, USA, June 27, 2007 (Refocus Weekly).
Regulators in the state of West Virginia have rejected an application to install 50 wind turbines.

EUROPE CELEBRATIONS MARK POWER OF WIND
BRUSSELS, Belgium, June 27, 2007 (Refocus Weekly).
A 25 m wind turbine has been installed in downtown Brussels as part of a continent-wide celebration of wind power.

U.S. COULD ADD 38GW OF ADDITIONAL WIND WITH A PERMANENT TAX CREDIT
WASHINGTON, DC, USA, June 27, 2007 (Refocus Weekly). Most of the additions to wind power in the United States will occur in northwestern regions under a five-year extension of the production tax credit for green power.
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News in Brief: June 27, 2007

- Vietnam and Germany will work on wind energy following a seminar held in Hanoi for technical experts from both countries. The Energy Institute says alternative energy projects are limited in Vietnam although the country has vast potential for solar, wind and biomass energy. The Ministry of Industry is developing a master plan to develop renewables from 2015 to 2025, and the country has the highest wind resource in southeast Asia with the central provinces of Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan, the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong and the Mekong delta provinces of Ben Tre, Tra Vinh and Soc Trang identified as high potential for wind energy.

- Most wind turbines in India¹s Coimbatore state were knocked off the grid during the peak windy season, according to the Indian Wind Power Association, because the frequency of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board grid was exceeding 50 cycles. The state has installed 3,400 MW of wind capacity at an investment of Rs. 17,500 crore and the disconnect during the windy season would lead to a severe loss for investors, the association notes.

- AeroVironment has introduced a small wind turbine that is designed to be installed on buildings in urban areas. By eliminating the support tower, reducing noise and vibration, and creating an aesthetically pleasing shape that installs quickly onto buildings without penetrating the roof, AV says the turbine will add value to buildings while offering a low cost per kW of installed capacity. AeroVironment designed and built the GM Sunraycer, which set a record for solar powered automobiles, as well as Helios, a solar powered unmanned aircraft built for NASA that set the world altitude record at 97,000 feet.
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U.S. GOVERNMENT FUNDS TWO TEST FACILITIES FOR WIND TURBINE BLADES
WASHINGTON, DC, USA, July 4, 2007 (Refocus Weekly). The U.S. Department of Energy will invest US$4 million to develop large-scale wind blade test facilities in two states.
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News in Brief: July 4, 2007

- The U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Risø National Laboratory, Technical University of Denmark have signed an agreement to cooperate on improving wind energy technologies. The two national research institutions will explore ways to design efficient turbines and wind energy systems under a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Dan Arvizu of NREL and Jorgen Kjems of Risø, which calls on the laboratories to collaborate in aerodynamics and wind turbine structures. ³Formal cooperation between NREL and Risø on technology development and deployment is an example of the kind of international effort that is needed to bring the world affordable, clean energy, and to effectively lower greenhouse emissions at rate commensurate with the challenge,² says Alexander Karsner of the Department of Energy. NREL is focussing both on off-shore wind and better utility integration in the U.S., and the Danish laboratory has years of experience in the challenges of developing offshore windfarms and putting large amounts of wind power onto the grid. The MOU encourages the laboratories to collaborate in all other areas of renewable energy and energy efficiency technology that are of mutual interest.

- Sempra Generation will build a 250 MW windfarm in Baja California, Mexico. The subsidiary of Sempra Energy will acquire the development assets associated with the proposed La Rumorosa Wind Power project under a co-development arrangement with Cannon Power of San Diego. It is considering other solar investments and renewable energy projects in the Pacific Southwest. La Rumorosa would generate power from as many as 125 turbines to be installed along the easterly ridge lines of the Sierra Juarez mountains in the Ejido Jacume, 70 miles east of San Diego and across the US-Mexico border. The project could be operational by 2010 and require capital investment of US$400 million.

- A Scottish consulting firm will advise on the first western-financed windfarm to be built in China. SgurrEnergy will provide technical advice on development of the Balingmiao project on behalf of Honiton Energy, and the 50 MW project is the start of Honiton's plan to develop 4,000 MW of wind power over the next 15 years. Suzlon of India will provide 40 of its 1.25 MW turbines for the project in Inner Mongolia.