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German alarmist site klimaretter.de here reports on the latest negative developments now hitting Germany’s wind power industry. The latest to be hit is wind-turbine transmission manufacturer Bosch Rexroth AG, which announced it will slash 210 jobs and give up a production plant in Nuremberg.

Image cropped from: www.youtube.com/kGXoE3RFZ8

Klimaretter writes that the reason behind the move is “the changing wind market“, which according to Bosch-Rexroth spokesperson has seen immense fluctuations.

Because 2013 saw 10 gigawatts less wind energy power installed than a year earlier, ‘capacities have to be scaled back’.”

The layoffs come on the heels of Bavaria’s move to restrict the installation of wind parks in its idyllic countryside. However, the company claims that Bavaria’s policy had no impact on the decision.

Bosch Rexroth is just the latest in a series of setbacks the wind energy industry has seen over the last months. Germany’s solar industry has already collapsed and wind energy is just the latest victim in Germany’s rollback of renewable energies. Spiegel here writes that Germany’s solar industry has shed half its jobs in the last two years alone!

Last month German wind energy investment company Prokon filed for bankruptcy. The Local here writes that the company attracted 75,000 investors through a successful advertising campaign, where an 8 percent return on investment was promised. Today these investors are uncertain if they will ever see their money returned at all. The Local writes:

Investors had reportedly pulled €227 million of a total investment of €1. 4 billion, leaving the company far short of the 95 percent capital investment it needed to stay solvent.”

Spiegel here also reports on the dwindling returns and “broken promises” of wind energy investments.

Not only are windparks losing their appeal as a source of energy or as a secure investment in Germany, but resistance from citizens’ groups and environmentalists to planned projects is also rapidly mounting worldwide. Now windparks are facing lawsuits for killed birds. Benny Peiser’s GWPF site here writes:

A $1 million settlement with a renewables business for birds killed at two of the company’s wind farms marks the first time the U.S. government has pursued legal action against a wind developer for bird deaths caused by turbines. Research published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Biological Conservation last year estimated that between 140,438 and 327,586 birds—or a mean of 234,012—are killed annually due to collisions with turbines across the U.S.”

Expect more strong headwinds against wind power in the months and years ahead.