Wind energy is next on the global agenda, but our feathered friends don't quite like it, discovers Shubha Khandekar

Bridgetown in Barbados, on the eastern Caribbean Coast, came to a grinding halt on November 1 due to a sudden power failure across the island when, according to some reports, a monkey climbed a high voltage pole as the backup systems failed.

While the Barbados Light and Power Company (BL&P), until recently the sole seller of electricity in the country, struggled with explanations, national industry has resolved to generate its own power. BL&P, in the meanwhile plans to expand its generating capacity with the help of a wind farm in the north of the island.

In the global search for alternatives to fossil fuels, wind farms are being seen as having a huge potential of power generation. Wind energy strengthens energy security, protects the environment, and creates good jobs. The Global Wind Energy Outlook 2006 report, by the Global Wind Energy Council and Greenpeace International, estimate that wind power could supply 34 per cent of the world's electricity by 2050.

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has declared in its Third Quarter Market Report that wind power generation will hit a record 2,750 megawatts (MW) through 2006. In Texas, FPL Energy's 735-MW Horse Hollow Wind Energy Centre completed a project this quarter that has shattered all previous records for the country's and the world's largest wind farm.

AWEA estimates that a total of 10,492MW wind energy capacity has already been installed, which can cater to the power needs of over 2.5 million homes. By year-end, an additional 1,500 MW of wind farms are expected to be completed, so as to make it the second-largest source of new power generation after new natural gas plants.

One megawatt of wind power produces enough electricity on a typical day to serve the equivalent of 250-300 homes. Wind farms in the US currently generate enough power to save over half a billion cubic feet of natural gas per day (bcf / day). And yet, wind energy units in the US await a consistent state policy that ensures a reasonably long extension of tax credit on production.

In Germany, E.ON AG aims at building wind farms in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, with a total power generating capacity of 700MW by 2010, which is expected to make the country a European leader in the field of offshore wind power generation.

India's hunger for power is expected to soar to between 800,000 and 950,000 megawatts by 2030. To meet this demand, the country is in the process of locating special economic zones (SEZs) for manufacturing renewable energy devices and systems in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. Wind power producer Vestas plans to invest Rs500 crore in wind farms in the Dhule district of Maharashtra, and invest close to Rs1,500 crore over the next 10 years to set up the wind-technology research and development centre.

In order to maintain 8 per cent growth, a considerable portion of the targeted power production can be entrusted to wind farms, since the southwest monsoon, contributes to a current annual power production of about 4,300MW from wind projects. This constitutes 80 per cent of India's wind-energy generation potential, making it the fourth largest global producer of power from wind behind Germany, Spain and the United States. The government predicts the addition of another 5,000MW from wind by 2012.

India is seen not only as the largest market for wind energy in the Asia-Pacific region, but also as a manufacturing hub for wind turbines and related parts and equipment. Pune-based Suzlon Energy has erected factories in locations as far away as Pipestone, Minnesota, and Tianjin, China, and has overtaken Siemens of Germany last year to become the fifth-largest producer by installed megawatts of capacity, with some 80 per cent of its orders coming from outside India.

By 2008, a 1,500-MW plant is scheduled to come up in Udipi in Karnataka. In Brazil, Suzlon Energy has signed a $283 million deal to install six wind farms, with a capacity to generate 225MW of wind power. Earlier, Suzlon bagged similar big orders in the US, Australia, China and Europe. The company expects 25 per cent of its total business to emerge from India by 2010, and 25 per cent each from the US, China and the Asia-Pacific and Europe and Latin America respectively.

Six wind farms have already been built on Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) land and another 40 projects are proposed, while there are also plans for small hydro schemes. By 2020 Scotland expects 40 per cent and the UK. At least up to 15 per cent or even more of its power is due to come from renewable sources.

Things aren't altogether a breeze, however, for wind power. Objections have been recorded from lobbyists for wildlife. Lewis Wind Power, a British energy company, which is planning to build the world's largest onshore wind farm on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's remote and windswept Western Isles, with over 200 wind turbines each measuring 120 meters, has run into stiff opposition.

Although the project targets power supply to 1.1 million people, and addresses the region's chronic problems like high unemployment and low GDP, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Europe's largest wildlife NGO, says the wind farm could ruin the delicate environmental balance.

Opponents of the plan say the farm's 40-story turbines, spread across a large area of peatland, protected under European law as a habitat for eagles, falcons, divers and important wader species, would damage the birds' habitat as well as kill those who fly into the gigantic turbines' spinning blades. RSPB estimates that 50 golden eagles and falcons each, and 200 to 250 red-throated divers could be lost over the 25-year lifetime of the project. The wind farms also would damage the peatland breeding habitat of wading birds like greenshank, dunlin, and golden plover.

Lewis Wind Power's plea that wind power is an answer to global warming, acknowledged as the greatest threat to these birds' survival, makes little impact. Opponents of wind farms also allege that any the project would spoil the scenic beauty of the location and economic benefits to the Western Isles would be outweighed by lost tourism revenue, which provides 2,300 jobs to local residents.

Similarly, Vesta's plans to erect five 850KW turbines at a cost of £4 million, between the villages of Cullivoe and Gutcher for the North Yell Development Council (NYDC) have been stalled because three pairs of red throated divers abandoned their eggs before they hatched.

Having steered clear of issues such as wind speed, water course, local archaeology and the habits of local bird life and otters, the survey team finally stumbled over a rare species of local bird. Nearby, a small wind farm on the isle of Gigha already generates £70,000 for the local community each year, making the potential that wind energy holds quite obvious.

In Australia experts on the orange-bellied parrots are holding up the $220 million Bald Hills wind farm being set up by Wind Power.

Australian developer Wind Hydrogen Limited's plans to build 148 wind turbines for Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park in North Ayrshire, one of Europe's largest wind farms, have been drastically scaled down to 24, after protests over the impact of the project on the hen harrier population. Local Council has spiked plans for a windfarm of six 100m turbines at Wellow near Yarmouth, a protected beauty spot on the Isle of Wight. Campaigners protested against the projects's impact on the island's skyline, the potential threat to wildlife and a possible impact on the tourism industry.

A case, one could say, of wings curbing the power of the winds.