The French government will launch an offshore wind tender worth around 1GW by the end of the year, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault revealed at the weekend. He made the announcement during a government-hosted conference on the environment at which he and President Francois Hollande promised a plan to kick-start the renewables industry in France.

The previous government under the leadership of Nicholas Sarkozy awarded tenders to build offshore wind farms to produce 2 GW of energy in April, and this new tender is being seen as the second part of the initial offer. A full second round should be launched next year. The French wind energy association said the announcement was “good news”, but called for the government to “rapidly envisage a third tender for 3 GW” if the country were to meet its objectives of producing 6 GW from offshore wind turbines by 2020.

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Artic sea ice on 18/09/2012, and previous extent in red.

A leading expert on ice suggests that the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free during the months of August and September as early as four years from now, a prediction that is rocketing formerly-held assumptions that advancing climate change wouldn’t melt the northern ocean’s summer ice for at least another two decades.

Cambridge University Professor Peter Wadhams said the rapidly increasing pace of summer ice melt is such a “global disaster” that humankind must urgently study other methods to thwart global temperature rise.

“Climate change is no longer something we can aim to do something about in a few decades’  time, and that we must not only urgently reduce CO2 emissions but must urgently examine other ways of slowing global warming,” he said in an email to The Guardian.

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Pierre Tardieu, EWEA

By Pierre Tardieu, Co-Chair of the Policies and Markets track at EWEA 2013

Some wind energy markets across Europe are experiencing damaging changes to their national support schemes which are counterproductive since they set back the prospect of renewables being able to compete without support in the near future.

Italy is in the process of going from a tradable green certificate mechanism to a combination of Dutch auction for installations over 5 MW and a feed-in tariff under 5 MW. This represents a major challenge for the sector which will have to adapt to the new scheme in a matter of months (the new scheme will be effective as of 2013).

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The prospect of cheap natural gas pushing wind power and other renewables off the green energy agenda while increasing the risk of global temperatures climbing to “catastrophic” levels was raised in two European cities Thursday.

In Berne, the chief economist for the International Energy Agency (IEA) was reported as saying a new “golden age of gas” could thwart international efforts to mitigate climate change as governments dealing with the ongoing economic crisis consider switching to the cheaper fossil fuel.

In London, the chairman of the UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) sent a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron saying he was concerned about the UK Government’s statement “that it sees gas as continuing to play an important role in the energy mix well into and beyond 2030 … [not] restricted to providing back up to renewables.”

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It may not become the norm, but some wind turbine suppliers are beginning to switch to concrete from steel in the construction of wind turbines, according to a story in this month’s Wind Directions magazine.

The story also says that while steel has become accepted as the ideal material for turbine towers, suppliers are now starting to consider concrete because smaller pre-cast sections are easier to produce, can be transported rapidly, and assembled quicker onsite.

Christian Hinsch, of German renewable development company JUWI, said an extremely high tower will have quite substantial bending movements at its base.

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