Global investment in clean energy hit a record $260 billion in 2011, up 5 percent from the previous year as investment in solar grew by more than a third despite shrinking profit margins, some bankruptcies and flagging share prices, a report said.

The United States last year regained its title as the top country for clean energy investment, beating out China for the first time since 2008, said a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) on Thursday.

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Click here to read this Reuters article

Wind War won, Clean Power Now to withdraw troops from field
Nothing left for 12,000 member grassroots organization to accomplish

By Walter Brooks

Clean Power Now, that grassroots group of Cape Wind supporters here on Cape Cod and the Islands, is disbanding now that the project has its approvals and lease. Apparently, it's hard to keep up the energy of the clean energy group when the fight seems to have been all but won. Clearly, they were there when it mattered most, countering what they viewed as misinformation being put forward by the opposition group and in helping give an organized voice to the majority of folks here who support this project at public hearings and with the media.

This 'battle fatigue' can be seen with the opposition group too. They recently reported that the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound (APNS) ended the year 2010 nearly a million and a half dollars in debt, their donations just weren't keeping pace with their ongoing and increasing legal expenses.
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Click here to read more on Cape Cod Today

Maryland utilities Exelon and Contellation required to provide $32 Million to fund offshore wind power research and develop substantial amounts of reneweable energy in Maryland to create jobs in-state (instead of just importing it from other states) as part of a settement agreement in their merger case.
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Click here to read the announcement

EON AG, Germany's biggest utility, will invest 7 billion euros ($9 billion) in renewable energy in the next five years as the country abandons nuclear power.

EON plans to build at least three offshore wind projects, including the 1 billion-euro Amrumbank West farm in the German North Sea, the Dusseldorf-based company said today in an e- mailed statement. It's also investing in new power lines in northern Germany.

“Renewables are a cornerstone of our strategy, and offshore wind is one of EON's growth areas,” Chief Executive Officer Johannes Teyssen said in the statement. “We intend to commission a new offshore wind farm every 18 months.”
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Click here to read Bloomberg article in Business Week

Click here for link to Platts article

17 EU countries planning massive offshore wind, says EWEA

As the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) opened the doors of its offshore wind event today, it published its latest report analysing all existing offshore wind power projects in 17 EU member states, mostly in north-western Europe. New offshore wind farms with a capacity of 5.6 GW are currently under construction in the UK, Germany and Belgium.

Over 141 gigawatts (GW) [1 gigawatt is 1,000 megawatts] of offshore wind energy capacity is built, under construction, consented, or planned in Europe: enough to power 130 million average EU households, finds EWEA in its latest report entitled “'Wind in our Sails”. These wind farms - representing 35 times more capacity than the just under 4 GW installed today - would provide 13.1% of Europe's total electricity production.

"There is huge developer interest in offshore wind energy across Europe", commented Arthouros Zervos, President of EWEA. "Developers, governments and investors realise that offshore wind energy offers the growth and jobs that Europe desperately needs."  169,000 jobs in the EU offshore wind energy sector are expected to be created by 2020, going up to 300,000 by 2030, according to the EWEA report. European companies are currently global leaders, with over 99% of the world's installed offshore capacity in European waters.
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Click here for the full Renewable Energy Magazine article

Click here to read this article in Cape Cod Today

China plans to increase the combined installed capacity of its offshore wind power sector to 5 gigawatts by 2015 and 30 gigawatts by 2020, with investments totaling 100 billion yuan, according to the recent national wind power meeting hosted by the National Energy Administration.

Wind power is a type of new energy and also the fastest growing source power in the world, and offshore wind power represents today’s most advanced wind power generation technology.

Note: Click here to read this article in People's Daily

...Renewables -- especially wind energy -- are injecting new optimism into Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, reflected in a word that often comes up in conversations with business and political leaders: "Reindustrialisierung" (re-industrialization).

In a state with a sea-faring heritage, there are now more jobs in renewable energy than in shipyards: 6,000 jobs at 704 firms, expected to nearly quadruple to 22,000 by 2020.

Companies are building, designing, maintaining and operating wind turbines and photovoltaic and biomass plants -- for which farmers are growing crops and harvesting animal waste. There are more than 1,200 wind turbines on land, and a new push into off-shore wind energy in the Baltic will further fuel that growth.
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Click here to read this Reuters article

...The negative German prices on July 24 occurred on a day when winds averaged 15 mph in the northern state of Mecklenburg- Western Pomerania, home to many wind farms, Bloomberg weather data show.
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Click here to read this Blooberg article