Villagers in a picturesque corner of Suffolk have spoken of their anger at plans for up to eight wind turbines they claim will dwarf their homes and devastate the surrounding countryside.

A Lewis-based archaeologist has hit out at proposals to erect a Western Isles windfarm on a famous and mystical hill formation that resembles a woman lying on her back. If the plan is successful, Cailleach na Mointeach, the Old Woman of the Moors, would have some of the 53 turbines sprouting from her knees. The Cailleach, also known as the Sleeping Goddess, can be seen to the south side of the ancient Callanish stone circle.

The Rendell administration is considering opening state forests and state parks to wind turbine development. Michael DiBernardinis, secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said today that a decision will be made in the next six months on what he admitted would be a controversial issue.

A proposed plan for a wind farm at the western end of Brome-Missisquoi has been modified, but the community remains divided on whether it should exist at all. Several of the 300 people who packed into Bedford's community centre Monday night called for a moratorium on windmills, or a referendum. While a number complained of a lack of transparency, others commended Groupe SM International and the municipalities on their efforts to inform the population. "The support of the municipalities and the MRC will be helpful in getting the project approved by Hydro Quebec," said Arthur Fauteux, warden of the Brome-Missisquoi MRC. He said the MRC will take a final position on the windmill issue at the end of August.

The latest bid to build a windfarm near Kirkwhelpington has been opposed by Tynedale Council........ Their concerns were reflected by councillors who voted to agree with the recommendation that the Steadings development would "cause demonstrable harm in landscape and visual terms".

If Kitimat is chosen as the destination for the power produced, a transmission line would run up the Douglas Channel and connect with the BC Transmission Corporation lines here, explained Katabatic president and CEO Tony Duggleby. The line would look similar to the one which runs between Kitimat and Terrace and would have some visual impact on the coast of the Channel, Duggleby admitted while describing the project to Dennis Horwood of the Kitimat Valley Naturalist Society. Horwood described the Douglas Channel as some of the most pristine coastline in the world. While in favour of the wind farm, he expressed his fears of any development along the coast of the Channel.

The Dunedin City Council says the proposed Mahinerangi wind farm will have an adverse impact on its landscape, despite no turbines being built within its boundaries. TrustPower had initially proposed a wind farm which included land within Dunedin but, after consulta tion, it had scaled back its proposal to a 200MW wind farm, solely within the Clutha district. In a council submission yesterday, city council landscape architect Barry Knox said the wind farm would have a significant adverse effect on the broad natural character values of the Lammermoor range and its high country outstanding landscape area, within the Dunedin city.

The plug has been pulled on the Wellow Wind Farm by the company that wanted to build six huge turbines on farmland next to an area of outstanding natural beauty. The decision that Your Energy would not be appealing against IW Council planning refusal was greeted with jubilation by campaigners, who said turbines would despoil the area.

A state arbitration panel has dealt a setback to the Hoosac Wind project by rejecting a state-issued wetlands permit that would be needed to access the site....... The Division of Administrative Law Appeals yesterday ruled that the developer's evaluation of the impact on wildlife habitat was insufficient and certain parts of the project didn't comply with the Wetlands Protection Act.

Plans to build a windfarm on the moors above Littleborough have suffered a setback. An application for the five turbines located just over the border in Yorkshire has been recommended for refusal by Todmorden Town Council. Coronation Power hopes to build a total of 12 125m turbines at Crook Hill, seven of which are located in Rochdale. Councillors recommended refusal because they felt the windfarm would damage the moorland, affect walkers, horse riders and cyclists and destroy peat bogs.

The site chosen for Meridian Energy's proposed wind farm on the Lammermoor Range west of Middlemarch was not an outstanding landscape and was of no particular significance, the first day of Project Hayes hearings in Alexandra was told yesterday.

The Scottish Executive refused to respond to the P &J's questions on the issue, saying it was "for SNH to field these questions". SNH commissioned the work and states in its completed document that "many windfarm developers participated". There is currently no uniformed method of photomontage to assess turbines and the issue has consistently baffled Highland councillors who decide the fate of most planning bids. Critics have pressed for years for a definitive system of accurately assessing the visual impact of turbines.

Town meeting voters Monday shot down a proposal to study the feasibility of creating a town-owned wind farm. Although wind power is an environmentally-friendly energy source and could potentially generate considerable revenue for the town, voters decided that putting a wind farm on the land near the Almeida Farm on Interstate 195 could pose a danger to the wetlands on the 22-acre parcel. John Ferreira, who donated the land to the town for conservation use, spoke against the proposed wind farm.

The green light to build the world's biggest wind farm in Central Otago hinges on consent hearings which got underway on Monday. Meridian Energy wants to erect more than 170 giant turbines many as tall as a 45-storey building in an area opponents say is too beautiful to be spoiled.

The National Trust for Scotland has attacked the proposed £230million Beauly to Denny power line, saying it would "seriously damage" some of the most scenic landscapes in Perthshire. Under the Scottish and Southern Energy plan, 600 electricity pylons, each around 200ft, would be erected along the spine of the country.

PLANS to build a seven-turbine wind farm near Workington should be rejected, says the county council. Winscales Moor Windfarm Ltd has applied to Allerdale council to erect the 81-metre high turbines at Benedict Plantation, Winscales. But the county council has objected claiming the scheme will affect the landscape's character and that there would be too many in the area.

Photo simulations submitted for LIPA's proposed offshore wind farm offer a limited, possibly undersized view of the 40-turbine array as it will appear in South Shore waters, a town supervisor charged yesterday. After a study it commissioned last fall by a third-party imaging firm, the Town of Babylon produced its own photo simulations of the wind farm and found that, by comparison, the turbines portrayed in the Long Island Power Authority's submissions "look smaller," according to a report expected to be released today. The study found the LIPA photo analysis, conducted by an outside company, to be "incomplete," lacking in resolution and a range of lens depictions to provide a breadth of viewpoints. Babylon Supervisor Steve Bellone said the analysis, combined with a study his office conducted of the estimated construction costs of the project, lead to concerns.

California and the city of Los Angeles have set an ambitious goal for ‘greener' power: obtain 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2010. But to do that difficult decisions need to be made. Wind, solar, and geothermal electric power produced in the rural reaches of the state must be somehow be transported to faraway cities - meaning some transmission lines must cut through national forests, wildlife refuges, and other treasured land areas. Solar panels require the expanse and cloudless climes of desert areas, wind requires the funneling effect of mountain passes, and geothermal power is derived from hot or steamed water underground. But how does the city get the energy to where it's needed without spoiling the pristine environments that it's trying to preserve?

The view from the beach could be radically different soon with wind turbines replacing uninterrupted coastline before long. The government is proposing to introduce a law to allow wind turbines to be built offshore, the Spanish daily El Pais reported on Tuesday. They would stretch around 4,000 kilometres of Spain's coastline.

JORDANVILLE - More than 60 400-foot-high wind turbines along the landscape weren't part of the plan when the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Monastery was founded more than 75 years ago, monastery officials say. The few-hundred acre spiritual retreat settled where it did because of the area's isolation and beautiful landscape, and an "army" of turbines from the proposed Jordanville Wind project are not welcome, said the Rev. Luke Murianka, deputy abbot of the monastery. "This would greatly affect our whole mission here," Murianka said.