Eyesores or clean machines? Environmentalists are split over the giant energy-producing towers popping up in Maryland and other states.

It seems few in this town of about 1,500 people can agree on UPC Wind Management’s newly completed $85 million project, which makes the unassuming potato-growing and truck-brokerage community home to New England’s largest wind farm. But there’s one thing everybody can agree on: The place sure looks different. Long before a visitor arrives at Mars Hill, the towers become visible along what used to be just another mountain. The total height from the ground to the tip of the blade is 389 feet. Each tower has three blades, which spin in winds whipping west to east toward Canada just a few miles away.

Richard Tamplin, the planning inspector who heard the appeal, ‘applauded’ the ‘dedication and persistence’ of Mr and Mrs Bradford and acknowledged that the urgency of meeting Devon’s renewable energy targets for 2010 weighed very heavily in favour of the proposal. However, he judged the benefits were even more heavily outweighed by the unacceptable harm to the character and appearance of the distinctive local landscape around the appeal site. The adverse impact on the viewpoints of Brent Tor, which he said was ‘such an unusual and special place’, and Pork Hill, ‘would damage the special qualities of the National Park’. The size and motion of the turbines would destroy the fragile quality of this ‘quiet, still landscape’ and would be ‘wholly inappropriate’ to the setting of Brent Tor and the scheduled barrow cemetery on the crest of the Beacon just below. The ‘alien feature’ would also cause ‘significant harm to the longer views’ from the National Park and the Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. One of the statutory purposes of Dartmoor as a National Park would be compromised. He also considered there would be a significant adverse effect on the residential amenity of people living up to two kilometres from the site.

The Prince of Wales believes that wind farms are a "horrendous blot on the landscape" and that their spread must be halted before they irreparably ruin some of Britain's most beautiful countryside. The Telegraph can reveal that Prince Charles, who has an abiding interest in environmental issues, has told senior aides that he does not want to have any links with events or groups that promote onshore wind farms.

Heidi Brautigam loves nothing better than horseback riding in Warm Springs Valley, where she has lived for 17 years. But she is worried her rides could become dangerous once big tractor rigs and construction trucks start hauling equipment and materials to build Nevada Wind's proposed wind turbine farm on the northern ridges overlooking the valley, north of Spanish Springs.

Nearly 40 jobs at a Holsworthy yoga centre could be lost if plans for a neighbouring wind farm go ahead. The British School of Yoga, which chose the site at Dunsland Cross because of its tranquility, says the calm of the centre will be shattered and it may be forced to move. Bolsterstone Plc, a North Midlands-based property development and investment company, wants to put up four 105 metre wind turbines.

Researched and written by Eleanor Tillinghast of Green Berkshires Inc. this is a comprehensive study of the probable impact of industrial wind plants on the rural character, quality-of-life and economy of the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. Specific issues addressed include visual aesthetics, tourism, property values, public roads and public safety.

Plans for two separate wind farms visible from Exmoor have come up against another hurdle. Campaign group Open Spaces Society has launched objections to the projects, stating they would have a negative impact on the feel of the moor. The two projects are the Three Moors scheme at Knowstone, North Devon, where the company Airtricity Developments hopes to erect nine turbines, and Bickham Moor, near Oakford, Mid Devon, where Coronation Power want to erect four. Kate Ashbrook, Open Spaces Society's general secretary said: "We are dismayed that the wind-energy companies keep applying to erect turbines in this part of North Devon. There are already two outstanding applications nearby, at Batsworthy Cross and Cross Moor."

Hundreds of Tehachapi residents are trying to ban a wind farm from blowing into their part of town, but Kern County may not have legal grounds to stop the San Diego company that wants to build it. The nearly 700 Tehachapi residents have signed a petition against giant wind generators, but it's not because they're anti-environment. It's quite the opposite. They just don't want the wind farms blowing in their back yards. "If you picture a football field spinning in the air, that's how big they will be," Kassandra McQuillen explained.

The seven 406ft turbines planned at Petsoe End, Emberton, were given the go-ahead by the city planning committee. But it was anything but a breeze for supporters of the Your Energy project - with councillors split six-five on the crucial vote. ...Cllr Isabella Fraser said: "The council is caught between a rock and a hard place. We are in a no-win situation." She complained of "email harassment" by supporters of the scheme and attacked those in the public gallery for "extremely immature" behaviour in waving placards.

I walked on my normal walk in the woods one day and looked up to the top of the mountain. Just several months before it had been a picturesque view of wilderness beauty ... the kind that attracts tourists and creates much of the state's income. Now, it was lined with these tall mechanical monsters, towering over the trees of an old forest. I am not talking about the quaint and charming windmills of Holland here, we are talking about metal and flashing lights and a size that miniaturizes the grand forest beneath it.

He told the Lynn News: "The intention is to protect the unusual and singular view of places like The Fens and also the lush and picturesque landscape of North West Norfolk. "The Fens is a place internationally recognised as an area of flat landscape where rainbows can be seen end to end and both sound and vision can be measured in miles rather than yards. "The rest of North West Norfolk is also a rare and beautiful place and I am attempting to protect it for future generations by limiting the height of any structure built in open countryside to a very generous 246 feet - which seems to be more than reasonable."

Plans for 276 large wind turbines in Central Otago would not "turbinise" the Lammermoor Range in Central Otago, a Meridian expert said. Landscape expert Peter Rough said while the landscape would be changed by wind turbines, its rural character would remain. "It's still fundamentally a rural landscape with an element of energy product," he said in the Environment Court in Queenstown yesterday.

Worries for the safety of wayward skydivers is just one of the concerns that has led Hobart to blow away a proposal to install wind-turbine power generators on a CBD rooftop. Perth rejected the rooftop turbines in August last year when it denied a similar application, mostly on the basis of visual impact. Concerns over visual impact and bird strikes marked Hobart's rejection of the turbines at a council meeting last night, but worries over skydivers was an added reason for knocking them back.

"I like the idea of green energy," he says. "I just don't want it on our doorsteps." Residents of the tiny village of Routh objected when they discovered land behind their 26 homes was being earmarked for a wind farm. East Riding Council refused the application, but developers RidgeWind have appealed to the Planning Inspectorate, with further developments expected in the near future. And with E.ON proposing an offshore development off the East Yorkshire coast, the issue of wind farms is set to remain on the agenda. The Routh reaction is identical to those seen in other communities when onshore wind farms are mooted.

Critics of one of the largest wind farms planned for Scotland warn it may never save more Co2 than it releases from fragile peat bogs. ...[They] warn building the wind farm could release so much Co2 from damaged peat bogs that the scheme may never save a net amount of greenhouse gas emissions. An objection from RSPB Scotland yesterday followed another from the John Muir Trust earlier this week.

A West peer yesterday hit out at the Government's plans to create thousands of “monstrous” wind turbines across the country, all well over twice the size of Nelson's Column. Lord Stoddart of Swindon claimed the towering turbines would be an ugly scar in both the countryside or in shallow waters off the coast while being nowhere near sufficient to cater for the nation's energy requirements. The 82-year-old Independent Labour peer said: “It is not widely realised that the Government's new proposals for the installation of 5,000 wind turbines in Britain requires them to be 400 ft high.”

A "wind farm" that would take advantage of the gusts that have been blowing through the Central Coast at 30 to 50 mph is moving right along despite a lawsuit filed against the county's approval of the project. Construction won't begin for at least a year, but in the meantime officials of the developer say they are working to meet all the requirements imposed by the county with the intention of protecting the environment surrounding the "clean energy" project.

If wind energy was the one practical and affordable answer to global warming then I would grit my teeth at the loss of the countryside and accept it. But I know that they are no answer to global warming in northern Europe. The Germans who have invested more than anyone in this form of energy are finding, according to newspaper Der Spiegel, that despite more than 17,000 wind turbines across Germany the nation is now emitting more CO2 than before it built them.