Alternative energy faces hurdles

LONDON, July 15 (UPI) -- Delays in policy statements from the British government regarding green energy financing are causing setbacks and job losses, businesses complain.

London said it plans national policy statements regarding the need for new infrastructure for so-called green technology, nuclear power and oil and gas facilities.

The government said it anticipates publishing statements to guide local authorities and the Infrastructure Planning Commission this fall, but energy companies said they were anxious in the interim, the Financial Times reports.

Vestas, which manufactures wind turbines, closed a facility on the Isle of Wight citing difficulties with the planning efforts. That closure resulted in the loss of 600 jobs.

Britain has one of the best environments for wind farms in Europe but lags behind its regional partners in terms of wind energy. Ditlev Engel, who heads Vestas, said in the Times that Britain is "probably one of the most difficult places in the world to get permission" for wind-energy projects.

Renewable energy in the United States, meanwhile, faces its own challenges due in part to the tight credit market. Billionaire U.S. oilman T. Boone Pickens has delayed his plans to build the largest wind turbine farm in the world citing tight credit markets and cheap gas alternatives.