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Crohnote: Attention all shutterbugs...here's your chance...

January 25, 2012
Shutterbugs — do you revel in the sight of the Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm‘s many wind turbines spinning in the mountains of Southern California? Or perhaps the sun setting behind the offshore turbines of the United Kingdom’s Thanet Wind Farm? If so, you could have a shot at €1,000 in goods from Amazon and a shot at having your work shared around the world in celebration of Global Wind Day on June 15. The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) has announced a global wind energy photography competition, open to one and all, entitled (appropriately enough), “Wind in Mind.” Photographers are invited to take that and run with it, giving free rein to their imaginations in showing wind energy technology in a new way.

January 26, 2012

MOUNT STORM, W.Va. — Turn the final bend on Route 42 as it snakes up Mount Storm and a towering turbine appears, its blades swooshing in the winter gusts. Dozens more of these giants crown this remote mountain ridge 150 miles west of Washington, D.C. Dominion and Shell WindEnergy’s NedPower Mount Storm facility — 132 turbines in all — generates up to 264 megawatts, enough to power around 66,000 homes. But there’s a problem: The whirring blades kill birds. A lot of them. The turbines, positioned just so to harness the wind, are dead in the path of hawks, yellow-billed cuckoos, wood thrushes and other migrating birds. On one night last September, Mount Storm turbines killed 59 birds when a light was left on in one of the towers.Such mass bird kills represent a dilemma for the Obama administration. Can it promote renewable energy development and still enforce laws that protect wildlife?

January 25, 2012

Portland Mayor Sam Adams blames the U.S. government for 25 layoffs announced Tuesday at Iberdrola Renewables Inc.'s Portland office. To Adams, the federal failure to extend a wind energy production tax credit beyond the end of this year has created uncertainty that's killing orders for renewable-energy producers such as Iberdrola and Vestas Wind Systems, which is also bracing for Portland job cuts. "Without the certainty of that extension, project developers are not doing projects in the U.S., and manufacturers are not getting orders," Adams said.

January 27, 2012

MADRID - Spain has decreed an end to subsidies for new generating plants running on renewable energy sources to prevent billions of euros in debts held by utilities from escalating, Industry Minister Jose Manuel Soria said on Friday. Speaking after a weekly cabinet meeting, Soria said the decree would be temporary and not prevent eurozone struggler Spain from meeting European Union targets for renewables, which currently provide one-third of the country's electricity. "First and foremost there is an unequivocal goal through the government to reduce the deficit and no policy area is apart from that," Soria said, adding the move would not affect subsidies for plants already installed or under construction.

Crohnote: "Hammond will make the national TV spotlight this summer."

Image Credit: David Holloway/TNT

January 6, 2012

TNT has added its first-ever reality competition to its roster with The Great Escape, a series that will follow three teams each week as they surmount obstacles, fend off pursuers, and compete for cash in cinematic venues such as castles and sinking ships. “The Great Escape is a fast-paced series with all the heart-pounding excitement and nail-biting suspense of a summer popcorn movie,” said TNT’s executive vice-president of programming Michael Wright. “This is exactly the kind of fun, smart, unscripted competition show we’ve been looking for to complement TNT’s entertaining lineup of scripted dramas.”
Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, and The Amazing Race‘s Bertram van Munster are among the executive producers of the show, which will be hosted by NFL Network star Rich Eisen. The series will kick off this summer.

January 26, 2012

GREEN BAY — A county committee says Wisconsin taxpayers should have to cover the medical bills of people who got sick after a new wind energy farm opened near their homes. The Brown County Human Services Committee said the state allowed a, “irresponsible placement” of industrial wind turbines at the Shirley Wind Farm south of Green Bay in the town of Glenmore. The facility opened in 2010, and nearby residents have complained of anxiety, weight loss, depression, and higher risks of cancer.

January 25, 2012

WASHINGTON –  An arm of Spain's Iberdrola SA (IBDRY, IBE.MC) has suspended planning for new wind farms in the U.S., an executive said Wednesday, anticipating that Congress may not extend a popular tax credit for the industry. Rich Glick, vice president of government affairs for Iberdrola Renewables, also predicted Wednesday that there would be "close to zero" megawatts of wind power built in the U.S. in 2013 if the credit isn't extended soon. "This is a really urgent situation," he told congressional staffers at a briefing here. The statement came as lawmakers consider whether to extend the credit in coming weeks as part of a broader legislative deal to give payroll tax breaks to U.S. workers. If the wind provision isn't included in that bill, which is expected to be voted on next month, it might not be considered again until after the November elections, when Congress is next expected to take up tax issues.

January 25, 2012
When American noise expert Robert Rand turned up to work in Maine, in the US northeast, in April to investigate the impact of wind turbines on nearby residents he was literally blown away.
Not only did Rand’s readings confirm many fears in the community, he claims to have become an unwitting victim himself. A member of the Institute of Noise Control Engineering and a technician with 30 years’ experience, Rand was working for a philanthropic donor wanting to investigate why wind turbines were causing so much concern.

Rand told The Australian yesterday his experience had been unexpected. He had measured the noise from wind turbines on many previous occasions without difficulty but, in testimony to the State of Maine Board of Environmental Protection in July, Rand said the turbines had delivered “a miserable and unnerving experience”. When indoors, Rand and long-time colleague Stephen Ambrose, also a Member of INCE, experienced “nausea, loss of appetite, headache, vertigo, dizziness, inability to concentrate, an overwhelming desire to get outside and anxiety, over a two-night period from Sunday, April 17 to Tuesday, April 19″.

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