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REpower Systems AG has successfully installed the first of six wind energy turbines for the Belgian offshore wind farm Thornton Bank. The project, located about 30 kilometers off the coast, is the first Belgian offshore wind farm. For the first of three construction phases, REpower is providing six 5-megawatt (MW) offshore turbines, adding up to a total capacity of 30 MW. Gravity based foundations were erected and carried out to sea to form the foundation for the six wind turbines in Thornton Bank. All work at sea is performed in a water depth of approximately 25 meters using jack-up drilling platforms. The 5-MW turbine which has just been erected in Belgium is the twelfth of the model installed by REpower.

Copper theft has become such an issue that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a warning stating that copper theft is a threat to critical homeland infrastructure. In a 2009 survey published by the Electrical Safety Foundation International, utilities in the United States reported approximately $60 million in losses and 450,000 minutes of outage time annually because of copper theft.

Thin-film solar company Nanosolar has been sitting on a big secret for much of this year, it turns out: The company took a $300 million financing this March, and has remained mum ever since, only detailing it on the company's blog this morning after VentureWire reported the funding. While Nanosolar hasn't been entirely secretive about its technology, with chief executive Martin Rosencheisen showing off a rapid manufacturing technique early in summer, but apparently it didn't want details leaking on this giant-sized investment until necessary. Word slipped out in April about $50 million of the total, but at the time, Nanosolar didn't want to talk - and it's now clear why. The race for funds, and ever-larger production targets, is definitely on for thin film. Secretive thin-film silicon company Optisolar has raised over $200 million this year, and Nanosolar's thin-film CIGS competitor Miasole is trying to close on a similar amount. And while dozens of other startups are also on the hunt, large companies like Oerlikon Solar and Applied Materials are pouring money into ventures of their own. In many ways, it looks like an overheated sector. But on the other hand, Optisolar's recent deal with PG&E to provide 550 megawatts of electricity suggests that the potential for thin film panels is larger than previously expected, even when considering one analyst firm's prediction earlier this year that the sector will grow at 45 percent annually. That figure could now be much higher, especially for a few big winners - of which Nanosolar will likely be one. The company will be doing some utility-scale projects of its own, Rosencheisen tells us, with experienced partners. It also has a panel built specifically for use by utilities. And one of the backers of this funding, AES Corp., is also one of the world's biggest power companies. At the moment, Nanosolar is still working toward a gigawatt of annual manufacturing capacity, but it will grow be

The Responsible Mining Foundation is convinced that public disclosure would not only save thousands of lives

Historically, wind technology has been seen on land and near offshore locations. Restrictions, such as prohibitively expensive offshore foundations to support wind turbines larger than 20 meters, may be viewed as stunting potential market growth. Now, new technology based on floating turbines may enable deeper offshore placement. The view mentioned with this news is that pushing turbines further out to sea will equalise the issue of aesthetics. However, the real issue here is can this technology deliver a useful and economic addition to the grid.