Wind energy proposals in the U.S. should face one less hurdle now that the Pentagon has given approval to eight wind farms after determining they would not interfere with a nearby military radar facility.

According to a story in The Oregonian, officials at the Pentagon determined the risk that the proposed wind farms in Oregon and Washington state would negatively impact operations at an Air Defence Radar Station near Fossil was “manageable.”

Published last Friday, the story said the decision gives “the national security green light” to the eight projects with 1,128 turbines.

Offshore wind energy has an “important” role in helping the EU to meet its 2020 renewable energy target, Hans Van Steen, Head of Unit at the European Commission’s department for energy said on Tuesday.

Some 40 GW of offshore wind energy should be online by 2020, with the majority being in the North Sea, he added, speaking at an event called ‘Offshore renewable energies: exploring the synergies’ in Brussels as part of the European week of regions and cities.

The 40 GW figure chimes exactly with EWEA’s target to have a minimum of 40 GW of offshore wind energy by 2020.

It is imperative that people approve of and share in the benefits of wind energy and other power-generating technologies if Europe is to reach its target of decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% compared to 1990 levels by 2020.

That was the main message coming out of a lively debate that took place during the Committee of the Region’s Open Days, Hans van der Loo, Shell’s Vice-President of European Union Liaison, said in an interview Wednesday.

Van der Loo, who made closing remarks at Tuesday’s debate, said it is important that Europe work harder at encouraging public support for emissions-free wind power and other renewable technologies in order to deal with NIMBYism.

Wind power in New York could be increased in the next eight years by more than five times the amount currently operating in the state, a new study has found.

Continued wind development would bring a number of benefits to the 19.5 million people living in the state, including lowered energy production costs and decreased amounts of CO2 and other harmful pollutants, the study by the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) found.

“Wind power is a vital component of New York State’s renewable energy strategy,” Stephen Whitley, NYISO president, said in a press release issued Thursday. “This study provides a much clearer picture of the benefits consumers can see as a result of continued wind development.”

Ward Van Hout, a student studying Aerospace Engineering at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands, tells EWEA why he is a fan of wind energy and why he adopted a wind turbine as part of EWEA’s 2010 campaign…

EWEA: Why do you support wind energy?

Van Hout: I support wind energy because it is the future. Wind energy will help us to overcome the shortage of fossil fuels. There has been an enormous increase in world population which means a drastic increase in energy consumption. And with this comes more and more pollution, higher CO2 concentrations, etc. An excellent alternative is wind energy. On Earth, sufficient wind is available for our energy needs. Strikingly, there is 200 times more wind energy available than current energy demand. Wind power is solar power, meaning that as long as the sun is giving us heat, we can make use of wind turbines to collect that power. It is clear that wind energy is the driving power of the 21st century – the renewable energy age!