“It is time for the French people, the politicians and ecologists who have remained somewhat honest, to put a stop to this monstrous boondoggle whose consequences will become rapidly irreparable.”

Brady Yauch, Financial Post
Governments across Europe, regretting the over-generous deals doled out to the renewable energy sector, have begun reneging on them. To slow ruinous power bills hikes, governments are unilaterally rewriting contracts and clawing back unseemly profits.

In Italy, one of Europe’s largest economies and one that lavished billions in subsidies on the renewable sector, the government in 2013 applied its so-called “Robin Hood tax” to renewable energy producers. Under the new rule, renewable energy producers with more than €3 million in revenue and income greater than €300,000 must now pay a tax of 10.5%.

That follows a 2012 move to charge all solar producers a five cent tax per kilowatt hour on all self-consumed energy. The government also told solar producers that it would stop taking their power – and would offer no compensation – when their output overwhelms the system. Read article

BBC, By Diarmaid Fleming
Ireland is short of money but not wind, which now forms a central plank of its energy policy. But plans to develop wind power and export it to Britain are sparking a rural revolt, with local protest groups uniting through social media. Some claim Ireland will become a wind farm for Britain.

Turbines up to 180m (590ft) tall – half the height of the Empire State Building – are cropping up as part of a drive to meet EU green energy targets and generate 40% of Ireland’s electricity from wind. Revenue, too, will flow by exporting power to Britain under inter-governmental plans.

More than 100 opposition groups have sprung up against new wind farms – all in rural areas – claiming the turbines will ruin the landscape, with noise and shadows blighting homes nearby. Some have joined forces with groups opposing planned new electricity pylons to upgrade the national power grid. Read article

Sumi Somaskanda Special, USA Today
For British entrepreneur Timothy Porter and millions of other Europeans who get generous financial incentives for solar panels, the sun has been very lucrative. Not only does the government pay Porter for the solar energy he produces, at far higher than the market rate for electricity, but he can also use what he generates for himself. “It’s fantastic,” he said, admiring the solar panel he installed on the roof of his home in the English West Midlands two years ago.

Such subsidies are widespread in Europe, where policymakers say that energy from wind and the sun will stave off global temperature increases they blame on the use of fossil fuels such as oil and coal. But Europe’s debt crisis has many countries worrying more about their bottom lines than climate. Read article

Struan Stevenson

The Telegraph

The Compliance Committee of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), which enforces the Aarhus Convention, has released its final findings and recommendations regarding the case presented by Mr. Pat Swords, a chemical engineer from Ireland (1). In a nutshell, the UN is saying that if the EU wants to be in compliance with the said Convention, to which it is a party, it must have its 27 Member States properly reassess their National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAP), and submit them to popular consultation. The Aarhus Convention requires that, in matters affecting the environment, the citizens be consulted in a transparent manner before any policy is embarked upon. The Convention applies principles adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro. Continue reading →

by Peter Foster, Financial Post
Germany is still hurtling into the renewables cul-de-sac
This week’s talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel were a triumph for Stephen Harper. Ms. Merkel gave firm support to the Prime Minister’s European trade pact ambitions and did not complain at his continued refusal to throw Canadian taxpayers’ dollars into the eurozone money pit.

Some sections of the media, however, desperate to rain on the parade, noted that Chancellor Merkel had used the word “problems” when responding to a question on the Alberta oil sands. This, they claimed, suggested a “gap” between the governments when it comes to the environment and energy. Other media sources — also attempting to flog the environmental horse — suggested that Ms. Merkel’s visit to a Dalhousie University in connection with an ocean research project highlighted Mr. Harper’s alleged problems with “science.” After all, Ms. Merkel is a former “quantum chemistry researcher.”

Some pondered the significance of Mr. Harper’s gift to Ms. Merkel of a paddle. Could it be because — quite apart from the eurozone crisis — she is up climate creek? In fact, when it comes to grasping environment policy, Mr. Harper’s economics qualifications and ideological principles have led him to a much more realistic view. Read article

Series starts Sunday, October 09 at 8:00 PM
What happens when a wind farm of nine 120-metre high turbines is planned to be built on a sensitive landscape? Filmed over a turbulent four year period, Blown Apart explores the truths, myths and future of a highly controversial resource: land-based renewable energy.

The Government’s policy on renewable energy is based on dogma not evidence.
The Telegraph (UK):  The Coalition is committed to a policy, mandated by the EU, of ensuring that 40 per cent of Britain’s electricity comes from renewable sources by 2020. The renewable source that has been chosen to provide most of the electricity is wind. As our columnist Christopher Booker has pointed out, this creates a serious problem: wind does not blow at a constant rate, which makes it unreliable as an energy supply. There is no way to store the surplus electricity produced when there is too much wind; and when there is no wind, there is no electricity from wind turbines. Continue reading →