Facing criticism from landowners and local agencies over a proposed wind farm on Shaffer Mountain, Gamesa officials are working to dispel what they say is incorrect information being spread about the project. "We feel that the wind farm will be a positive for the community. People have some fears, some concerns about the project and we're going to reach out to the public in the coming months," said Ellen Lutz, Gamesa's director of development for the Atlantic region. The 30-turbine wind farm, which is projected to extend through parts of Shade and Ogle townships in Somerset County and Napier Township in Bedford County, has been subject to extensive studies by Gamesa and should meet environmental standards, company officials have said. However, allegations by local landowners that the project will ruin a spring that feeds a New Paris fish hatchery have been of particular concern to the company. "Our geotechnical testing of the area showed we would not disrupt any underground water supplies," Lutz said.

Campaigners trying to protect the Lammermuirs were this week in shock following a decision to allow a windfarm in a national beauty spot. The approval for 16 giant turbines on the Aikengall Ridge took protestors by surprise when it was granted by East Lothian District Council last Tuesday. Widespread outrage erupted after councillors went against the recommendations of their own planners and voted in favour of the 125m turbines. There was further anger when it emerged that only five of the 12 councillors at the meeting had actually visited the site which is on a prominent ridge on the eastern edge of the Lammermuirs. Six councillors voted in favour with six against and the deadlock was broken by chairman Norman Hampshire using his casting vote in favour of the farm. East Lothian's first windfarm would, he said, be good for the "global environment".

Opponents of a 37-turbine wind farm proposed to be built on Te Waka Range, west of Napier, say it will have significant adverse effects on the environment and the visual landscape. The Environment Court is considering evidence from three organisations including local iwi opposed to the wind farm. It would provide sufficient power for 50,000 households. Counsel for the Outstanding Landscape Preservation Society says the site is within an area considered an outstanding natural landscape. Mathew McClelland says the turbines will dominate and disrupt the visual landscape and compromise the range's integrity. He says the benefits of wind power are undeniable but it is totally inappropriate to put turbines on the top of the range as they will appear as a clutter of mechanical structures.

Maori have attacked plans for more wind turbines in the Tararua Ranges, saying turbines are weakening the mauri (life force) and mana of the hill tops. He Kupenga Hao i te Reo (Inc) secretary Ian Christensen objected to the proposed Motorimu Wind Farm at the resource consent hearing in Palmerston North yesterday. It proposes 127 turbines for the hills behind Tokomaru and Linton. He told the three commissioners that the Tararua ridge line had enough turbines and "further desecration of the ridgeline" with more would weaken mauri to a point where the "wellbeing of people would be in jeopardy". "Manawatu has been desecrated by the pollution of human beings. We urge that the whole of the mountain range not be desecrated as well," he said.

A scheme by the National Trust to use a 42ft tall wind turbine as an alternative to installing an £11,500 mains electricity supply in the conversion of a former school is expected to be rejected. It has raised concerns about a possible clash between the need for renewable energy to tackle climate change issues and the difficulty of meeting National Park planning policies. The North York Moors National Park Authority is being recommended today to reject the change of use of the former School House in Bransdale, near Helmsley, into a community hall because of "the unsightly wind turbine".

Windber Area Authority members voted to oppose a wind turbine project slated for the Shaffer Mountain area over concerns that the watershed will be negatively impacted. However, the move was largely ceremonial as the authority's legal right to restrict operations on the watershed land have already been enacted, solicitor James Cascio said during Wednesday's meeting. The authority, under a 1989 land use agreement with primary landowner Berwind Natural Resources Corp., of Philadelphia, has only the right to approve or approve with written conditions the terms of any use that would impact the watershed, he said. In January, the authority asked in writing for restrictions and specifications of the project regarding the watershed, and the developer, Gamesa Energy USA, has complied with that initial request, he said. At the time, the authority's main concern was the proximity of several turbines to authority wells.

In an historic vote on March 13, 2007, after months of controversy and research, the Bovina Town Board banned wind turbines from this scenic Catskill town. Bovina is the first town in the Catskills to take a clear position against industrial wind development. The Bovina vote follows a twelve-month moratorium during which residents made their views known to town officials through open meetings sponsored by the board, hundreds of letters, a town survey, a petition, and a poll sponsored by industrial wind opponents. The vote was three in favor of a ban, one opposed. About sixty people attended the public hearing before the vote.

When looking at the visual effects of hundreds of turbines on the Tararua Ranges, should a wind farm that doesn't exist be taken into account? This question is starting to loom large over Motorimu Wind Farm Ltd's application to build a 127-turbine wind farm on the Tararua Ranges behind Linton and Tokomaru. Yesterday was the third day of the resource consent hearing and the debate over how much consideration should be given to the proposed Palmerston North City Council/ Mighty River Power Turitea Reserve wind farm continued. Experts and lawyers representing the applicant say the proposed Turitea Reserve wind farm should not have any bearing on Motorimu's consent application. The debate centres around how many turbines the Tararua Ranges can support before it hits saturation level.

‘The application for two 100-metre wind turbines and associated structures, at Cross Moor close to the Exmoor National Park(1), adds insult to injury, coming hot on the heels of another damaging application for nine turbines at nearby Batworthy Cross’. So declared Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society(2), which has submitted a strong objection to North Devon District Council, the planning authority, which is considering plans from Cross Moor Devon Light and Power Ltd. The society objected to the Batworthy Cross application last December.

AN expert witness told the public inquiry on Wednesday that the consent already granted to the Green Knowes wind farm, five kilometres south of Auchterarder, had, to some extent, “set a precedent” for turbine development in the Ochil Hills. But landscape architect Sam Oxley added: “That does not mean that further wind farm developments is automatically acceptable. But it will, in some sense, reduce the sensitivity to further appropriate development.”

A castle on the outskirts of Banff will play a pivotal role in plans for a new wind turbine development. Inchdrewer Castle, which is three miles south-west of the town, stands near the site of a proposed two-turbine development at Strath of Brydock, Alvah. The possible effect of the development on the setting of the castle, which is category A listed, is causing concern to Historic Scotland and local authority planners. Historic Scotland claims the visual effect of the proposed turbines on the unoccupied castle would be “severe”.

Controversial plans for a windfarm near a country park have been ruled out. A proposal to build 19 turbines - each around 300ft high - in Kelburn Estate, near Largs in Ayrshire, has been rejected in the face of major opposition. Planning chiefs said the windfarm posed a threat to the Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park environment and the tourism industry.

The visual effect of more wind turbines on an already crowded landscape could cost the proposed Motorimu wind farm 45 turbines. Motorimu Wind Farm Ltd (formerly Energreen Wind) has applied for resource consent to build a wind farm with 129 turbines. In a report to the consent hearing, due to begin next Thursday, Palmerston North City Council planner Jeff Baker recommends consent be granted for only 84 of the turbines. In a visual assessment report, landscape and resource planning consultant Clive Anstey said the wind farm as proposed would have very adverse cumulative effects.

Coronation Power has submitted planning applications for nine 410ft-high wind turbines overlooking Todmorden. The firm says the five machines on Todmorden Moor and four at nearby Reaps Moss will help generate clean and sustainable energy, and tackle the harmful effects of climate change. But the impact on the landscape even before they are built will also be dramatic.

RESIDENTS opposing plans to erect three giant wind turbines on the moors above Penistone are using technology to boost their battle plans. Villagers have created a CD to show in "graphic detail" what they claim will be an unbearable blot on their landscape should the plans go ahead. Villagers who do not want three 100-metre high turbines on land at Crow Edge, formed an action group called Clowt - Crow Edge Locals Opposing Wind Turbines. They have submitted more than 300 individual letters of objection to planners and have compiled an official objection document and created the CD containing a computer-generated view of the adverse effects they claim the turbines will have on the landscape and their lives. Alan Pestell, chairman of Dunford Bridge Parish Council and a vociferous campaigner against windfarms, told The Star: "We have adopted a very high-tech business-like approach to our opposition. "We are not merely arguing from an emotional point of view, but have adopted a hard-edged business-like approach and are using the latest in modern technology to hopefully convince the planning board that a wind farm is totally unsuitable. "Instead of asking people to try to imagine what the windfarm will look like and how it will impact on lives and the local countryside - we intend to show them." Residents are being urged to attend a meeting on Monday at the Dog and Partridge on Bord Hill at 7.30pm. Banks Developments, which operates the landfill site near Hepworth Building Products at Crow Edge, says the three turbines would generate enough electricity to power 4,000 homes. Members of Barnsley Council's planning regulatory board are due to visit the site on March 6 and a decision is expected shortly afterwards.

A new landscape guardians group has been set up to fight plans for two big wind farms. The Western Plains Guardians are worried about proposals for farms at Nerrin Nerrin, south-east of Lake Bolac, and at Stockyard Hill, south of Beaufort. Each is believed to have at least 100 turbines. Group spokesman Warick Read says a moratorium on further wind farms is needed until a national code for assessing them is in place. "The groups really would like to see the Government engage with the community a little bit more and just say, 'look, just pull up on these things a little'," he said. "I suppose people are feeling as though they're being railroaded into it, that these companies propose these developments and they're over a certain size and the council doesn't really have any input into it at all. "If only they could open the guidelines a little bit more and make it a lot more transparent."

APPLAUSE broke out after councillors unanimously rejected plans for a wind farm in the Eden Valley. Members of Eden District Council’s planning applications committee went against the recommendations of their own officers in turning down proposals for the three turbine development at Hoff Moor near Appleby.

MONTEREY, Va. — Wes Maupin says he will move this spring to a 20-acre spread here in remote Highland County, a pastoral place where sheep outnumber people and where little has changed since his boyhood, when he fished the county’s mountain streams with his father. Mr. Maupin, a 52-year-old former corrections worker, does have one misgiving, though. Like many others in Highland, known for its rustic heights as Virginia’s Switzerland, he finds no joy in the prospect that these blustery Allegheny ridges could soon become home to the state’s first wind farm: 19 wind turbines, each taller than the Statue of Liberty, its pedestal included. “Any wind farm,” Mr. Maupin said, “would surely change the character of this county forever.”

PAINT BOROUGH - Borough council members are going on record to oppose the proposed wind turbine project along Shaffer Mountain. Council member Walter Drzal said he was approached by the Ogle Township supervisors and others to officially oppose the project. “These people know we went on record opposing the landfill in Paint Township, so I feel that we should go on record opposing the construction of windmills in the watershed and recharge area,” he said. He said that the windmills themselves do not pose a threat to the watershed, but the land clearance and construction of access roads disrupts the natural flow of water into the recharge area. “Nature is all intertwined. When you disrupt the water flow, you disrupt the habitats of plants and animals,” he said. Gamesa Energy, USA is the company responsible for the wind turbine project. The majority of the planned windmills would be located on land owned by Berwind Natural Resources Corp., of Philadelphia. Council members passed a motion to send a letter in opposition of any development in the watershed and recharge area to the Somerset Conservation District, Pa. Fish Commission, Department of Environmental Protection and the Berwind Natural Resources Corp.

In the Aroostook County town of Mars Hill, 28 wind turbines will soon be generating electricity. Even before they begin commercial operation, however, the windmills are generating considerable controversy. The biggest issue is noise.