A recent announcement by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) that says the costs of onshore wind farm operations and maintenance (O&M) continue to fall rapidly is further proof that the electricity-generating technology is both affordable and dependable.

The wind energy sector is making significant improvements not just in the capital cost and performance of its turbines, but also in the ongoing cost of operating and maintaining them once installed, the BNEF announcement said, adding the average operations and maintenance costs since 2008 saw a cumulative decrease of 38%, or just over 11% per year.  Operation and maintenance costs are only a small part of the overall costs in particular for onshore wind energy.

“Wind power has done much to improve its competitiveness against gas-fired and coal-fired generation in recent years, via lower-cost, more technically advanced turbines, and more sophisticated siting and management of wind farms,” Michael Liebreich, chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in a press release.

EU Energy Minister John Hayes

It’s been a tumultuous week for the wind power sector in the UK with reports and developments underscoring the industry’s benefits while a furor was breaking out over whether Energy Minister John Hayes had overstepped his position on the popular renewable technology.

By Thursday, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas was wondering publicly if Hayes’s mis-directed anti-wind farm views allow the new Conservative energy minister to even have a future in Britain’s energy department.

Lucas, in a Guardian story, said Hayes’s comments “represent the latest intervention in a co-ordinated campaign by an anti-renewables lobby with vested interests in propping up the declining fossil fuel industries. They peddle a number of myths – on effectiveness, cost and public opinion – which must be challenged.”

A new UK-wide poll indicating that more than two-thirds of respondents would favour a community-owned wind turbine close to their home rather than a shale gas well is bound to raise questions about Chancellor George Osborne’s proposed “dash for gas.”

The Guardian reported Tuesday that the poll, conducted by ICM Survey, shows only coal and nuclear are less popular that shale gas.

When asked to choose between having the two energy sources within two miles of their home, the Guardian noted, 67% of respondents favoured a turbine, compared to just 11% who would support the gas development.

Extending or ending the US’s Production Tax Credit is a topic high in the minds of wind industry professionals with interests in the US, but how is it reported in US media?

Interestingly, an increasing number of US newspapers support an extended PTC.  Here, we round-up some of the latest articles…

In San Angelo,Texas the Standard-Times said, “give the wind industry some certainty, and then stand back and watch the turbines spin.” In an editorial on Saturday the newspaper noted the tax credit of 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour is set to expire at the end of the year unless Congress renews it. “Few disagree that failing to extend it will cause great harm to the industry just as it is beginning to flourish,” the newspaper lobbied.

US Presidential candidate Mitt Romney

While there is no doubt that the US is the number one economy in the world and its international influence — from popular culture to military power — is second to none, trying to understand the nation’s domestic political scene is far from an easy task.

Take for example recent stories regarding climate change denial, a wind power-related lawsuit, and a new poll showing the majority of Americans favour wind energy.

Last week, at the first of three scheduled Presidential TV debates, a number of newspapers and websites have reported that neither Democrat candidate Barack Obama nor Republican Mitt Romney are even speaking about climate change.