Controversial plans to build two huge wind turbines at a beauty spot have been axed after opposition. German power company Volkswind had proposed to build two 415ft wind turbines on the tops of picturesque Salt Hill and Wether Down ...It was thought the giant rotating blades - big enough to power 3,700 homes - would have been visible from the Solent. But following complaints from residents and conservation groups, the company has withdrawn the application.

The workers, who were sacked last week for their part in the protest, have been staging the sit-in protest for 15 days but Vestas today won a court order to remove them from the Newport factory. ...Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT, said "The court has made its decision but we will continue with our campaign and the right to work on green energy jobs."

A controversial onshore wind farm in Tendring should not be built because the district is already providing a giant offshore wind farm, it is claimed. Peter Balbirnie, district and parish councillor for Little Clacton and Weeley, told an inquiry into the proposed five-turbine wind farm at Earls Hall Farm, between Clacton and St Osyth, that Npower Renewables' plan should not be allowed.

One of Britain's biggest energy companies will miss out on renewable energy subsidies worth more than half a billion pounds because it placed an order to buy equipment for a huge offshore wind farm too early. Ian Marchant, chief executive of Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), told The Times that it was "unfair" that its £1.3 billion Greater Gabbard wind farm, off Suffolk, would be excluded from fresh incentives designed to kick-start stalled investment in the industry.

A controversial plan to build two 400ft high wind turbines on the South Downs near East Meon has been abandoned. After "taking advice" from East Hampshire District Council, German wind farm specialists Volkswing has decided not to submit a formal planning application for the giant turbines. The news has been received with jubilation by East Meon campaigners against the plan.

Last-ditch hopes of saving the UK's only wind-turbine manufacturing plant have been dealt a blow, as the industry's own association admitted it did not make sense to keep it open. ...the British Wind Energy Association said at the weekend the market for onshore wind turbines in the UK was "too small to sustain a UK-based factory in the long term".

Tow Law residents who have been protesting over a proposal to build a wind turbine in the village said they are disappointed after planning permission was granted. The turbine, which is due to be built in the grounds of the local football club, was given the go ahead at a planning meeting in Crook last week. Protesters who attended the meeting said afterwards they were not happy with the outcome.

The planned closure date of a wind turbine factory which is being occupied by workers as part of a campaign to save their jobs has been put back, it was revealed today. Vestas Wind Systems was due to close its plant in Newport on the Isle of Wight today, with the loss of over 600 jobs. A 90-day consultation with the workers was due to end today, but employees have received letters saying the timescale had been extended.

Energy giant E.ON was rapped by watchdogs over misleading adverts for a windfarm planned for the region. The Advertising Standards Authority upheld two complaints against E.ON Climate and Renewables UK ... the first being E.ON used images of turbines in its press adverts that were around half the height of the eight proposed. ...Mr Wakeling's second complaint related to a photomontage in a brochure showing views of its scheme around 7km away. He argued there are communities nearer the wind farm location to whom the turbines will be more visually intrusive.

Vestas workers who were "sacked by pizza delivery" have defeated bosses' attempts to evict them from their factory occupation. Executives at the Danish multinational firm failed in their court bid to end the protest against mass redundancies at the wind turbine manufacturing plant on the Isle of Wight - but stepped up their efforts to starve the workers into submission.

More than a million pounds has been wiped off the stock market value of renewable energy firm Vestas after a judge today refused to grant the company's bid to regain possession of its stricken Isle of Wight factory.

The 'Nimby' stereotype of an older person who supports renewable energy schemes like wind farms but 'Not In My Back Yard' does not exist, a new study has found. ...Professor Gordon Walker of Lancaster University also said criticising people for opposing wind farms was counter productive. "Just calling protesters 'Nimbies' and suggesting, as Ed Miliband recently did, that it should be socially unacceptable to oppose wind turbines, is just counterproductive," he said.

More than £6m is to be awarded to a wind turbine firm's research centre on the Isle of Wight, despite its plans to cut 625 jobs and shut its factory. The government grant allocated to Vestas Technology UK Ltd comes as 25 workers continue a sit-in at its plant. Vestas Windsystems is making the redundancies at its Newport site at the end of July despite rising profits.

A Landowner who has offered to host controversial wind turbines last night angered objectors by claiming they would "grow to like them". Bryn Dowson, regional director of sustainable transport charity Sustrans, has agreed to house three turbines on his land at Wingates, near Rothbury, in Northumberland. The proposal has come from developer Novera Energy which is seeking to put up six of the engines.

British workers occupying a wind turbine factory in an attempt to prevent its closure have become a cause célèbre for environmentalists, Green MEPs and trade unionists, but the wind lobby in both London and Brussels has condemned the actions of the workers and taken the side of the company.

A power company wanting to build a windfarm on Lewis moors has submitted another planning application for fewer but significantly taller turbines. Beinn Mhor Power in December 2004 applied to the Scottish Executive to construct a 399MW farm on the Eishken Estate, comprising 133 turbines. In April 2006 the proposed scheme was scaled down to 53 turbines, each of 3MW, with a total output of 159MW. ...Beinn Mhor Power said yesterday: "Due to considerable advances in wind turbine technology since 2004, Beinn Mhor Power has notified Scottish ministers of their intention to revise the layout of the proposed site modifying the scheme to 39 turbines, each of 3.6MW.

Workers are staging a sit-in at the Vestas turbine plant Protestors from environmental groups have this morning joined striking workers at the UK's only wind turbine blade factory. ...the Vestas plant in Newport on the Isle of Wight is due to be closed at the end of the month with the loss of 525 jobs. Around 25 employees barricaded themselves into the admin building on the site at 7.30pm last night in the country's first green collar strike.

A second public inquiry into the proposed Den Brook wind farm gets under way on Thursday. It is understood the outcome could affect the future of wind farms across the UK. ...The crux of the campaigners' case is that data supplied by RES shows the company has significantly underestimated the effect of atmospheric conditions on the levels of noise likely to be produced. The group is also making submissions on the landscape.

Battle lines are being drawn again in the fight to stop wind turbines being built near Gargrave. Craven District Council has already turned down the application for five 100-metre-high turbines on Brightenber Hill. But, days before a six-month deadline, the applicant, EnergieKontor UK, has appealed against the decision.

The London Array, intended to be the world's largest offshore wind farm, has applied for a loan of about £1bn from the European Investment Bank, the European Union's lending arm, to cover almost half the costs of the project's first phase. The application illustrates the pressure on the consortium behind the £2.2bn wind farm project to keep its funding options open as commercial sources of finance dry up in the recession.