Wind Power News: Germany
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted.
Founding of the European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW)
In Paris today, on the occasion of the international demonstration against wind farms, German, Belgian, Spanish and French federations and associations have founded the European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW).
This project has received the support of colleagues from 16 countries representing several hundred federations and associations.
The founding members of this platform have agreed to make the following declaration:
1) Ecological deception and financial scandal
It has now been proved that industrial windpower does not reduce CO2 emissions and therefore does not contribute . . .
Wind fuels gas
Following Russia’s invasion of Georgia, a vital link between Europe and the energy resources of Central Asia, energy security is back at the top of Europe’s agenda. For years now, many Europeans thought that a major part of their future energy security might come from wind turbines and solar panels. Industry, too, has suggested that this may be the case: At this summer’s World Petroleum Congress in Madrid, most major oil and gas companies presented new plans for big renewable . . .
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German experts deem wind turbines lethal for bats
German animal campaigners are alarmed by the number of dead bats being found near wind turbines and have called for restrictions on generators in areas with high populations of the nocturnal mammal.
“The bats are not only being clobbered to death by the turbines, but can also suffer from collapsed lungs due to the drastic change in air pressure,” said Hermann Hoetker of the Michael Otto Institute for wildlife and the environment.
Hoetker, an ornithologist and expert on bats at . . .
Theolia to keep more wind power for itself in Germany
Theolia plans to change strategy in Germany by producing more power for its own account rather than developing wind farms and then selling them to third parties, Jean-Marie Santander, chairman of the French renewable energy company, told Les Echos newspaper.
The switch is aimed at taking advantage of an planned 18 percent increase in prices paid in Germany for wind power, effective next January, he said.
‘With these new prices, it will be in our interest to keep the power plants . . .
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Negative vibrations: Fraunhofer develop "anti-noise" to silence wind turbines
If wind turbines clatter and whistle too loudly, they are only permitted to operate under partial load to protect the local residents – but this also means a lower electricity output. An active damping system cancels out the noise by producing counter-vibrations.
If wind energy converters are located anywhere near a residential area, they must never become too noisy even in high winds. Most such power units try to go easy on their neighbors’ ears, but even the most careful design . . .
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Leader at E.ON urges Germany to keep nuclear plants
With Germany committed to reducing global warming gases while struggling to deal with soaring fuel costs, one of the giant energy companies in the country said Thursday that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition could only deal with both issues by extending the working life of the country’s nuclear plants.
Wulf Bernotat, chairman of the European energy powerhouse E.ON, said during an interview here that it was “questionable” whether Merkel’s government of conservatives and Social Democrats could realize its environmental ambitions without reversing . . .
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Germany wants to build 30 windfarms
The German government wants to build up to 30 offshore windfarms in a bid to meet its renewable energy targets, Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee said in an interview published Sunday.
Tiefensee told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that the windfarms would be built in the Baltic and North seas and said some 2,000 windmills should soon be producing 11,000 megawatts of electricity.
The government is aiming to obtain “25,000 megawatts of energy from windfarms by 2030″, Tiefensee said.
“The rise in the oil . . .
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No need of subsidies for wind energy cos: Tanti
The billionaire Chairman of Suzlon Energy Mr Tulsi Tanti has said wind energy firms does not require subsidies, as the prices of fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal are becoming more expensive.
Quoting Mr Tanti, the German business weekly WirtschaftsWoche said that wind energy does not need subsidies as the fossil fuels are turning more costly. Fossil energy fuels such as oil, gas and coal are turning more expensive,… therefore the wind ener gy needs no more subsidies,” the publication . . .
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Germany's Windwarts Energie to build 20 MW wind park
Germany’s Windwarts Energie plans to build a 20 MW wind park in Buren, in
the German state of Northrhine-Westphalia, the company said Friday.
The park is to consist of 10 turbines of 2 MW capacity each and is due to
take up operations in the first half of 2009, Windwarts Energie said.
According to the company, annual production is to amount to about 50 GWh,
equaling the supply for about 16,500 households.
Windwarts Energie said the location Buren–with an average wind speed of
7.2 meters/second–proved that there . . .
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German utilities, wind power industry dismiss govt's 2020 wind power target
German utilities and wind turbine makers have dismissed the government’s goal of boosting off-shore wind power capacity to 15,000 megawatts by 2020, citing a lack of resources and transmission lines, Financial Times Deutschland said.
The goal, which is equivalent to 3,000 high-capacity wind turbines, is ‘not viable, neither from an economic nor a technological point of view,’ the paper quoted a spokesman from German utility E.ON AG as saying.
The construction of off-shore wind parks is slowed down by a lack of . . .
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