Worldwide wind energy Total installed capacity 2007

After part of a cooling tower collapsed last August at Vermont's only nuclear power plant, the company that runs it blamed rotting wooden timbers that it had failed to inspect properly. The uproar that followed rekindled environmental groups' hopes of shutting down the aging plant. Workers last August examined the collapsed portion of a cooling tower at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. Entergy, the plant's operator, blamed rotting timbers for the collapse.

Norway could become "Europe's battery" by developing huge sea-based wind parks costing up to $44 billion by 2025, Norway's Oil and Energy Minister said on Monday. Norway's Energy Council, comprising business leaders and officials, said green exports could help the European Union reach a goal of getting 20 percent of its electricity by 2020 from renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydro or wave power.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth is going green by investing in the largest wind turbine in the world, her property company the Crown Estate said on Wednesday. The Estate, which owns most of the seabed off Britain's shores, regularly leases out its land to wind farm projects but has never invested in the turbines. With a capacity of 7.5 megawatts, the Crown has gone for the biggest yet. "This is not something we've ever done before and I think it will raise quite a few eyebrows," Ben Barton, the company's offshore manager for wind farms said.

At 265 feet tall, four gleaming white wind turbines tower over the tiny farm town of Rock Port, Missouri, like a landing of alien intruders. But despite their imposing presence and the stark contrast with the rolling pastures and corn fields, the turbines have received a warm welcome here. As Eric Chamberlain, who manages the wind farm for Wind Capital Group, eats lunch in a local restaurant, local people greet him with a "Hey Windy!" and many say they are happy to be using clean electricity.

Spanish power company Iberdrola said it plans to invest $8 billion (5.1 billion euros) in the US between 2008 and 2010. The Bilbao-based firm is aiming to have a 15 per cent share of the wind power market in the US by 2010, it added. It had a wind power production capacity of 2,400 megawatts in the US at the end of March and it expects to reach 3,600 megawatts by the end of the year, the statement added. Iberdrola chairman Mr Ignacio Sanchez Galan has said he considers the US as the company's most exciting growth market.

RAMANATHAPURAM district will soon find its place among the districts in Tamil Nadu, which generate power through windmills. Experts from Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) have conducted a survey along the coast of Rameswaram and Dhanuskodi during the past two years. They have installed wind monitors in three locations to calculate the velocity of wind. Following the assessment of the velocity of the winds along the coastal areas, the TNEB has decided to erect some windmill towers between Rameswaram and Dhanuskodi for power generation.

British utility Scottish Southern Energy Plc(SSE) will build the world's largest offshore wind farm and has awarded $3 billion in contracts to US engineer Fluor Coip and Germany's Siemens AG. Despite industry doubts about the viability of offshore wind .SSE said it would build the farm off Britain's east coast. Work would begin on the 504 mw Greater Gabbard project shortly and power generation would startin2011. The utility added it had bought Texas-based Fluor's 50%stake in the projectfor40 million pounds.

Pradip Sen Alternative and green energy resources like hydropower, wind power, biomass, fuel cell, solar PV, geothermal and other unconventional resources constitute a high potency growth segment. In India, green energy generation has been on the priority list for quite some time, but its potential is yet to be realised because many unhelpful conditions affect viability of green energy. Inadequate power distribution networks, high cost of generation and absence of focussed approach are impediments in making green energy a preferred alternative.

Tulsi Tantir a rainmaker who cashed in on the unlimited supply of nature's energy, the wind---------

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