It is a landscape immortalised on canvas by JMW Turner and in verse by William Wordsworth, but Bolton Abbey, in the Yorkshire Dales, could be "ruined" by the construction of two wind turbines.

Opposition planning spokesman Matthew Guy said yesterday the Liberal Nationals Coalition would protect the state's greatest natural assets from wind farms. "The State Government's emphatic promise to defend our iconic natural assets from wind facilities is in tatters with the revelation that Acciona Energy has been allowed to build a $50 million 15-turbine wind farm on the doorstep of the Twelve Apostles and the Great Ocean Road," Mr Guy said.

Communities in North Cornwall are battling to stop the county's biggest wind farm from dominating the skyline over Bodmin Moor. Emergency meetings have been called by Camelford Town Council and parish councillors following a similar move last week by Davidstow parish council which saw 200 angry residents pack Otterham village hall. That meeting was attended by people from a number of moorland villages who are opposed to a plan by energy company Community Windpower to site 20 turbines near Crowdy Reservoir.

Perth councillors drew public applause tonight when they denied permission for a new city building to site wind-turbine power generators on its roof. The three bright-red vertical turbines would have reached 9m above the roof of a five-storey building under construction on the southern side of Adelaide Tce, with frontages to Terrrace Rd and Victoria Ave. Neighbours in surrounding high-rise apartments had complained that the Dutch-designed turbines would create a visual eyesore and unnecessary noise, affecting the values of their properties.

Following a July 17 selection by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, Gillespie County will be one of many counties in the state that will see new power lines in the next four to five years that will carry electricity from wind farms in West Texas and the Panhandle regions to the more metropolitan areas in Central and East Texas.

During a work session last week, the Ocean City Mayor and Council reviewed a presentation from Bluewater Wind proposing a 200-turbine wind farm off the coast of the resort with construction beginning by 2013. Delaware recently approved a similar, albeit smaller, project off its Atlantic coastline with an anticipated 60-70 turbines producing enough energy to supply about 50,000 homes in that state. While all agreed the idea has merit from an alternative, renewable energy standpoint, the biggest concern raised during Bluewind's presentation last week was the visibility of the massive windmills from the shore and their impact on the landscape.

However, not all Montanans are ready to raise their glasses. Among the skeptics is Ursula Mattson of East Glacier. She said she is all for the benefits of wind development, but worries about a potential downside, mainly "the negative impact of these huge wind farms right in front of the most spectacular scenery in our country." ..."We don't have much authority over wind farms," said Kristi DuBois, native species coordinator for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks in Missoula. She likens the state's current level of knowledge about the wind industry and its potential effect on wildlife to what was known about the impact of hydro-electric facilities on rivers and fish when they were first constructed. For example, the state has very little information about migration pathways of bats, she said. Without that information, it's difficult to for the state to provide input on the siting of facilities to lessen bat fatalities from turbine blades, she said.

Visibility was the top concern amongst Mayor and City Council members this week, as they heard the latest updates on the potential offshore wind farm off the coast of Ocean City. Bluewater Wind came before the Mayor and Council this week in an effort to keep the community updated on the potential offshore wind park, one they hope will come to fruition no later than 2013. ...Council member Jim Hall questioned the stability of residents' energy bills, pointing out that only 10 percent of energy bills would be affected by wind energy. "We would still have 90 percent, at least, of fluctuation in our bills," he said.

"We don't want to see them. Standing on the beach, we don't want to see them," he said during the council's work session Tuesday afternoon. Councilman Jim Hall echoed the mayor's sentiment, saying the project could prove far more popular if the turbines were invisible from land. "If you can't see it," Hall said, "then you can add acres and acres of wind farms. I think people are going to eat it up." For Bluewater, it's an expensive courtesy. Lanard said pushing the turbines farther out to sea makes it more expensive. It costs $1,000 for every foot of cable connecting the wind farm to the shore.

In evidence to the Central Otago District Council last year Meridian acknowledged the turbines each of which will have a rotor roughly the size of a Boeing 747 would have an adverse visual impact on the nearby Paerau Valley. But it produced photographic mock-ups suggesting that from other vantage points the mountain block on which they would be arrayed would remain the dominant visual feature. However, Sydney says the windfarm will "industrialise" the landscape for vast distances. "What happens when you put that number of wind turbines of that size in the landscape is that they actually become the landscape. You don't see anything else really."

The local authority warned stunning views of the Minster and St Mary's Church would be obscured - especially from the Westwood - if 12 huge turbines were allowed to be built at the village of Routh. A public inquiry into the controversial plans by RidgeWind Ltd to site the 100m-high turbines at Hall Farm began at the council offices in Skirlaugh yesterday. Megan Thomas, representing the council, maintains the visual impact would be significant and provides grounds for refusal.

In southeast Wyoming, they've pledged 1 million acres of land in hopes that wind farm developers will choose them, says Scott Zimmerman, a farmer and rancher in Laramie County. But Susie Lemaster, who is not an owner of vast acreage, built a house with her husband in the country four years ago near Horse Creek Road. She doesn't want to see the neighboring land filled with 500- foot towers topped with rotating blades, making electricity.

Controversial plans for a wind turbine on a dramatic Peak District hilltop have been refused permission by the National Park Authority. The National Trust wanted to erect the 12 metre structure to generate electricity for White Edge Lodge holiday cottage on the Longshaw Estate, on the hillside above Grindleford. The National Park's planning committee had recommended an exception be made to its policy of protecting special landscapes from visual intrusion, because of its environmental benefits. But the full authority did not agree, and neither did objectors including the Ramblers Association and Grindleford Parish Council.

Villagers fighting plans for a wind farm on the outskirts of Teesside have called on the area's civil and military airports to back their campaign. They are urging Durham Tees Valley Airport and RAF Leeming to object to the proposed 11 turbines in Bishopton near Stockton and Darlington on the grounds of air traffic safety. "If the turbines mean there is radar or air traffic interference, then surely lives are being put at risk," said action group spokesman Peter Wood. ...An MoD spokesman said: "All applications are assessed on a site by site basis." Similar air traffic safety concerns have been raised regarding potential plans for a wind farm of five turbines between the villages of Hilton and Seamer.

Tracks linking turbines scattered around the proposed Project Hayes wind farm on the Lammermoor Range would create visual scars additional to those created by 150km of access roading to the site, an Environment Court appeal hearing in Cromwell heard yesterday. ...Upland Landscape Protection Society representative Ewan Carr, of Dansey Pass, argued the tracks would have a significant impact on the landscape, as in order for large quantities of industrial material to be transported around the site, so called ‘‘fit-forpurpose tracks'' would end up being substantial roads. There would be a mass of additional roads, as well as box-cutting for roads and windfarm structures such as turbine platforms, than what is shown by the Truescape computer images of the proposed wind farm. What the court was looking at was not a full representation of the wind farm, Mr Carr said.

Meridian Energy claims its proposed Project Hayes wind farm, comprising 176 turbines on the Lammermoor Range, is an appropriate use of the land, which includes parts of the old Dunstan trail. Meridian counsel Andrew Beatson said Old Dunstan Rd will be changed by the wind farm development, although such alterations would not significantly change the experience visitors had. ‘‘A key aspect of the significance of the site is that it is a place where people can still envisage first-hand the experience of a gold-miner traversing the historic route to the gold fields. This is somewhat artificial given that people are travelling along a significantly upgraded road, generally in the safety of a motor car,'' he said. Mr Beatson said the context and setting of the road were not essential or substantial heritage landscape features, and there was nothing strategic or essential about the views from the road.

Fears that a scenic lookout point on the top of Nuttby Mountain would be ruined by the installation of a huge wind turbine have been laid to rest. Clair Peers, president of Cobequid Wind Power, a development partner in the Nuttby Mountain project, confirmed Thursday afternoon that a turbine would not be constructed on the mountain's highest point. "The thing is with this particular high spot is it's just not a stable enough location," said Peers. He did say, however, there would most likely be a windmill constructed near the peak, but was unsure exactly how close it would be.

The New Zealand Historic Places Trust has withdrawn its opposition to a huge Otago wind farm, saying it lacks the funding to fight every battle. ...Trust chief executive Bruce Chapman said the manner in which the trust prepared and presented its submission was an internal matter, and not one for review through the media. He said the trust's limited resources meant it must focus on particular heritage places. "This requires careful prioritisation, and an understanding that we may not meet every expectation," he said. Ministry for Culture and Heritage spokeswoman Shona Geary said it did not direct the trust to negotiate with Meridian.

Weeks after plans to locate Europe's biggest wind farm on Lewis were refused, a public inquiry opened on the island yesterday into another controversial wind farm proposal. Opponents are concerned it would set the prehistoric Callanish standing stones in an industrial landscape. ..."Over 20,000 people travelled to see the Callanish last year. The setting is as much part of the experience for visitors as the stones themselves. It is ludicrous that the government would even entertain the idea of marching turbines across such a world-class landscape."

Opposition is growing today against plans to turn one of the largest wind farms in the UK into one of the tallest. ScottishPower Renewables and Eurus Energy want to treble the output of "clean, green energy" at Llandinam in Mid Wales and to replace 103 45-metre (149ft) tall turbines with 42, 122-metre (400ft) machines. When it was opened in 1992, Llandinam was one of the largest wind farms in Europe.