Two items of interest in the news with regard to wind energy from Reuters:

In the UK, Reuters writes: “Lack of investment in the vessels used to build offshore wind farms could hinder Britain’s ambitions to shift to renewable energy, the head of E.ON UK’s Robin Rigg wind project told Reuters at the operations center in Workington, northwest England.

“Britain aims to install 32 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2020, enough to meet a quarter of the country’s electricity needs, and although there has been investment in turbines factories and ports, a lack of vessels could curtail targets.” Lack of ships may hinder UK wind power targets: EON

But here in the US, there was good news from General Electric. “General Electric Co. will invest 340 million euros ($453 million) in offshore wind technology in Europe until 2020, the company said on Thursday.

” ‘Today’s announcement is the beginning of our offshore wind effort where technology and network of suppliers is located in Europe, which is where we see the biggest growth potential, ‘” GE said in a statement.

“GE said it will build development centres in Norway, Sweden and Germany, and manufacturing facilities for offshore wind turbines in the United Kingdom.” BRIEF-GE says to invest EUR 340 mln in offshore wind | Reuters

Copyright 2010 Rita Watson