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Wind Watch: Industrial Wind Energy News
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These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch in its noncommercial educational mission to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law. The original articles, links to which are provided, may have additional links and photos and other media that were not included here.
Shock as Scots farmer threatened with losing his land – for wind farm 300 miles away
A Scots farmer was left shocked after discovering that a multinational energy company could have ripped land away from him to help build a wind farm 300 miles away. Jack Milroy was approached repeatedly by Equinor who wanted to purchase some of his farm in Kirkcolm, near Stranraer, to create a special coastal habitat for sandwich terns. After he repeatedly rejected the company’s overtures, it instead went to the Scottish Government to ask whether it would support it in a . . . Complete story »
Birchip farmers plough sign against wind turbines in ‘land rights’ campaign
Birchip farmers have laid down a marker against the roll out of renewables in their area as their ’land rights’ campaign escalates. Nyal Chivell, Birchip, ploughed the logo of their campaign organisation ’Farms For Food’ in a field of stubble last month. The message – to leave farms be farms and let farmers farm their land – was loud and clear. Birchip landholders have renewable projects springing up on all sides and many, even though they are against the developments, . . . Complete story »
RFK Jr. blasts offshore windmill farms for harming marine life as he tries to save whales and ostriches: ‘Make no economic sense’
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to save the whales along with the ostriches. The Secretary of Health & Human Services – who recently went to bat for nearly 400 ostriches threatened by the bird flu in Canada – doubled down Sunday on his contention that offshore windmills need to be banned because they threaten whales and other marine life. The offshore contraptions also are a costly bust as a clean-energy alternative to fossil fuels, Kennedy told WABC 770 AM’s the “Cats Roundtable” . . . Complete story »
Hosting a wind or solar project? This is what a litigation lawyer wants you to know
A leading litigation lawyer has outlined the forgotten costs of hosting renewable projects and encouraged landholders to seek advice at the right time. If not, a legal fight against a project could cost up to $500,000. That was the warning given by AJ and Co Lawyers senior legal advisor Leanne O’Neill during her address to the Property Rights Australia conference in Emerald on June 7. As Queensland pushes towards its goal of sourcing 80 per cent of its energy from . . . Complete story »
‘Mass wuther’ protest as giant wind farm threatens Brontë moors
Out on the wily, windy moors above Haworth in West Yorkshire, hundreds of Kate Bush enthusiasts are to gather – to protest against plans for England’s biggest wind farm. An annual event billed as “The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever” is taking place on Sunday, July 27, on Penistone Hill, above the village where Emily Brontë lived with her sisters, Charlotte and Anne, two centuries ago. Known as a “mass wuther”, it will feature more than 500 people dressed in red . . . Complete story »
53 community councils demand Scottish Highland energy projects pause
More than 50 community councils have come together to demand a pause on energy infrastructure projects across the Highlands. Councils from across the Highland region gathered both in person in Beauly and online on Saturday to discuss their concerns over the pace and the scale of projects such as windfarms, battery storage sites, and transmission lines. Representatives shared their widespread frustration at how applications are being handled by developers, the government, and national planners. Collectively, more than 72,000 residents from . . . Complete story »
Highland fury as pylons march south with Scotland’s wind power
How democratic does this look to you? Pylons are marching across the landscape of the Highlands, Moray, Aberdeenshire and Angus to bring (mostly) wind energy from rural areas to (mostly) power England. That’s hard to dispute because Scotland produced 113% of its electricity consumption through renewables in 2022 – so we are wind-full unless Scots can use or store that energy locally in a way our Margaret Thatcher-devised, Westminster-controlled energy system doesn’t currently allow. So instead, 34% of all energy . . . Complete story »
Citing environmental grounds, Swedish court revokes permit for large wind farm project in Baltic Sea
A Swedish court on May 21 revoked a permit for a large offshore wind farm project, citing environmental reasons. The Land and Environment Court at Nacka District Court revoked a Natura 2000 permit which would have allowed the construction of the Aurora offshore wind farm, a sizeable 5.5 GW project planned by developers OX2 and Ingka Investments. The decision left the project’s future in doubt, pending a possible appeal or a revised environmental assessment. Natura 2000 is the European Union’s . . . Complete story »
‘Wind energy more expensive, less stable and less secure,’ Swedish report finds
A new study by Swedish think-tank the Scandinavian Policy Institute (SPI) has warned that the promotion of wind power as being cost-effective and reliable was misleading – at best. Sweden has strongly developed solar and wind power production capacity yet, at the same time, the SPI researchers found that electricity prices had become more volatile. Making matters more pressing, future electricity demand was, they said in the report titled New Policy Brief: Electricity at any price?, bound to go up – . . . Complete story »
Dutch offshore wind boom could trigger huge household bill increases
Dutch consumers could pay three times as much for electricity after an ambitious offshore energy expansion, barring a massive change to the current financing model. The average household grid tariff in the Netherlands could nearly triple after new planned wind power projects, from €400 today to more than €1,100–according to Dutch public broadcaster NOS . State-owned transmission system operator TenneT plans to invest €88 billion by 2040 to connect a new fleet of North Sea wind parks to the Dutch . . . Complete story »
