Christel and Luc Fockaert awarded €110,000 after experiencing windfarm-related health problems
A French court has recognised “turbine syndrome” after a couple complained their health was damaged by living near a windfarm.
In what is believed to be the first judgment of its kind in France, Belgians Christel and Luc Fockaert were awarded more than €100,000 in compensation by the judge in Toulouse.
Continue reading...Exclusive: crown estates accused of greed in selling rights to ‘incompatible’ carbon capture and windfarm projects
A clash between two multibillion pound “net zero carbon” schemes is brewing in the North Sea after the Queen’s property manager granted development rights for one patch of seabed to two different projects at the same time.
The crown estate will earn millions of pounds after agreeing to lease an area off the Yorkshire coast to the latest phase of the giant Hornsea offshore windfarm, as well as to a scheme led by BP which plans to begin storing carbon dioxide under the seabed. This has prompted concern that the giant wind turbines could interfere with seabed sensors for the carbon storage project.
Continue reading...Seven major offshore wind farms would be developed on the east and west coasts and in the Gulf of Mexico under a plan announced Wednesday by the Biden administration.
The projects are part of Joe Biden’s plan to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, generating enough electricity to power more than 10 million homes.
Continue reading...More than 150 turbines may be torn down after licences to operate and build them are declared void
Two windfarms in western Norway are harming reindeer herders from the Sami people by encroaching on their pastures, the country’s supreme court has ruled.
It was not immediately clear what the judgment’s consequences of would be, but lawyers for the herders said the 151 turbines on the Fosen peninsula could be torn down. The turbines, whose construction was completed in 2020, form part of the largest onshore windfarm in Europe.
Continue reading...For a fleeting moment on the weekend more than half the nation’s electricity generation came from solar power, but experts say Australia is still a long way from peak renewable energy
The national electricity market reached a new milestone on Sunday, with solar power outstripping energy generation from coal for the first time since the market was set up two decades ago.
The crossover point lasted for only a few minutes, as low demand and sunny skies on Sunday meant the contribution from coal dropped to a record low of 9,315MW just after noon, while solar provided the dominant share with 9,427MW.
Continue reading...Move towards renewables to hit net zero by 2060 would also pay off with saving of $1.6tn, analysis finds
China must shut down nearly 600 of its coal-fired power plants in the next 10 years, replacing them with renewable electricity generation, to meet its goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2060, a report has said.
But replacing the 364GW of coal generation with renewable power would achieve a net saving of $1.6tn (£1.2tn) over the period, since wind and solar power are now much cheaper than coal, according to the analysis company TransitionZero.
Continue reading...Wainscott, a hamlet in the Hamptons, offers a new obstacle in Biden’s renewable energy plans as ‘Nimbys’ fight back with petitions, lobbyists and lawsuits
Should Joe Biden’s plans for a huge expansion of renewable energy across the US survive the gamut of congressional bickering, a very different obstacle threatens progress – wealthy homeowners who enjoy sweeping scenic views.
Wainscott, a hamlet in the wealthy New York enclave of the Hamptons, is the unlikely setting for a rancorous battle over what would be the state’s first offshore wind farm. A flurry of angry letters to the local newspaper has escalated to petitions, the hiring of high-powered lobbyists and now lawsuits, in what could presage similar quarrels elsewhere as the Biden administration seeks to support a national boom in new wind turbines at sea and on land.
Continue reading...Developers built windfarms with a total capacity of almost 100GW in 2020, a rise of nearly 60% on previous year
China built more new windfarm capacity in 2020 than the whole world combined in the year before, leading to an annual record for windfarm installations despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
A study has revealed that China led the world’s biggest ever increase in wind power capacity as developers built almost 100GW worth of windfarms last year – enough to power almost three times the number of homes in the UK and a rise of nearly 60% on the previous year.
Continue reading...Report says country set to cut carbon emissions by 54% compared with 1990 levels, not 70% as planned
The Danish government’s efforts towards meeting the country’s ambitious target of reducing emissions by 70% by 2030 have been judged “insufficient” by the body tasked with monitoring its progress, with measures so far announced only likely to take it a third of the way.
In its first annual status report, the Danish Council on Climate Change said new laws, inter-party agreements and initiatives announced since the country’s climate law came into effect last June would reduce emissions by the equivalent of 7.2m tonnes of CO2 by 2030, which is only enough to reduce Denmark’s emissions by 54% compared with 1990 levels.
Continue reading...Indigenous communities say planned Øyfjellet turbines will interfere with migration paths
Indigenous reindeer herders are bringing a legal action against a proposed wind power project that would be one of the largest in Norway.
The Sámi herders from Nordland county are accusing the Øyfjellet windfarm constructors of breaking licensing agreements which stipulated that construction would not interfere with reindeer migration paths.
Continue reading...Wartime relics need to be cleared for wind farms but explosions can kill cetaceans
The detonation of wartime bombs left on the seafloor around the UK must end to stop the deaths of whales and dolphins, campaigners say.
The offshore wind industry is expanding rapidly and this may lead to a sharp rise in such explosions as the seafloor is cleared before construction. A quieter “burning” technique is already available, say the campaigners.
Continue reading...Prime minister tells virtual Tory conference that country must not return to status quo
Boris Johnson claimed the “ructions” of the Covid pandemic can pave the way for a transformation akin to the “new Jerusalem” pledged by the postwar cabinet as he sought to restore Tory morale with an upbeat party conference speech.
With Keir Starmer’s Labour party gaining in the polls, and mounting disquiet among colleagues over Johnson’s handling of the pandemic, the prime minister used his set-piece speech to set out an optimistic vision of change.
Continue reading...PM vows to make Britain world leader in low-cost clean power with ‘Build Back Greener’ drive
Boris Johnson will promise to power every home in the UK with offshore wind energy within a decade, pledging to make the coronavirus pandemic a catalyst for green growth.
In a speech to the virtual Conservative party conference on Tuesday, he will say that the government will invest in a clean energy future to create “hundreds of thousands, if not millions of jobs” in the next decade.
Continue reading...Despite funding challenges, community aims to increase biodiversity at Langholm Moor making it resistant to climate change
A small community in the rolling uplands of southern Scotland hopes to create a major new nature reserve, straddling more than 10,000 acres of heather moorland home to hen harriers, black grouse and curlew.
The 2,300 villagers of Langholm, a small settlement a few miles north of the English border, hope to buy one of the UK’s most famous grouse moors, owned by one of the UK’s most powerful hereditary landowners, the Duke of Buccleuch.
Continue reading...Investigations under way into the reasons behind deaths of 13 men and two women
At least 15 people have been bludgeoned to death with stones and cement blocks, and some bodies partly burned, in an indigenous village in southern Mexico plagued by a dispute over windpower.
The municipal government of the Pacific coast community of San Mateo del Mar in Oaxaca state said 13 men and two women were killed at the weekend by what it described as a group of six people with the support of a local crime boss. Activists who successfully opposed windpower projects say the mayor’s followers ambushed them at a coronavirus checkpoint.
Continue reading...Japan aims to power region, scene of 2011 meltdown, with 100% renewable energy by 2040
Fukushima is planning to transform itself into a renewable energy hub, almost nine years after it became the scene of the world’s worst nuclear accident for a quarter of a century.
The prefecture in north-east Japan will forever be associated with the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on 11 March 2011, but in an ambitious project the local government has vowed to power the region with 100% renewable energy by 2040, compared with 40% today.
Continue reading...Ambitious export plan could generate billions and make Australia the centre of low-cost energy in a future zero-carbon world
The desert outside Tennant Creek, deep in the Northern Territory, is not the most obvious place to build and transmit Singapore’s future electricity supply. Though few in the southern states are yet to take notice, a group of Australian developers are betting that will change.
If they are right, it could have far-reaching consequences for Australia’s energy industry and what the country sells to the world.
Continue reading...