While Greek authorities are taking steps to harness the country's untapped potential in wind and solar energy, and to meet European Union targets on curbing the use of polluting fossil fuels, the residents of Aegean islands are opposing the drive, afraid that towering wind turbines will mar the natural beauty of their communities and offend the tourists on whom they rely.

Some 150 people today protested against the construction of wind turbines in Poland and the Czech Republic at a Czech-Polish tourist border crossing. According to the protesters, various investors plan to build up to 400 windmills in the area - the Czech and Polish side of the Orlicke hory mountains. They say the construction of up to 200 metre high windmills would go against the character of the landscape.

The complaint claims that unique natural habitats in the north-eastern Kaliakra region have been destroyed in the process of building a wind farm. It has been backed by 12 other environmental and civil non-governmental organisations. The environmentalists believe that Kaliakra "is emblematic of how innovations and investment are used to mask criminal encroachment on bio-diversity". The complaint package includes documents, photos and maps showing the damage that the wind farm projects have done to nature.

The government wants 45% of the country's electricity to come from renewables such as wind, hydro, and solar by 2010. And that's just a start. "This challenge will create a new industrial revolution," Portugal's economy minister, Manuel Pinho, told the BBC. ...The campaigners are torn between their concern about climate change and their love for the wildlife. "We should have renewable power but not at any price," Joao says.

THE tiny Greek island of Serifos, a popular tourist destination, depends on its postcard views of sandy beaches, Cycladic homes and sunsets that blend sea and sky into a clean wash of color. So when a mining and energy company floated a plan earlier this year to build 87 industrial wind turbines on more than a third of the island, the Serifos mayor, Angeliki Synodinou, called it her "worst nightmare."..."These are not just one or two turbines spinning majestically in the blue sky and billowing clouds," said Lisa Linowes, executive director of Industrial Wind Action Group, an international advocacy group based in New Hampshire that opposes wind farms.

With eight 78-metre high wind turbines, the Gotthard project would not only be the largest wind farm but also the highest in Switzerland, at 2,040-2,131 metres above sea level. ...However, obstacles remain before sails start turning in the Gotthard pass. The area first has to be rezoned by the local authorities before planning permission could be sought and granted. ...Plans for a wind farm on the Gotthard Pass are not new. A report on wind energy in Switzerland published by the state in 2004 said locating turbines in the Gotthard Pass would be "unthinkable".

There is no shortage of wind in the densely-populated Netherlands but there is a shortage of space and in a nation which likes its houses small and its gardens cosy, opposition to wind farms is immense. That is why a new Dutch wind farm is being built so far out to sea it is barely visible on the horizon, reducing the visual impact of its 60 turbines to virtually nil whilst at the same time harnessing higher offshore wind speeds. Offshore wind farms are likely to appear more and more frequently off European coastlines as governments seek to increase their use of renewable energy without angering their citizens by placing giant turbines on their doorsteps.

"These facilities are disproportionate to the islands' energy needs, and the majority of turbines installed in the past no longer function anyway," charged Antonia Antonakis, head of the municipal council of Serifos island. Local authorities fear that since wind turbines are usually situated on isolated hills and mountain tops, new roads will have to be built through previously unspoilt countryside, Antonakis said. Though the project on Serifos would involve building 87 turbines, 150-feet high each, this would provide less than a tenth of the country's renewable energy. The Greek industrial group Mytilineos has put in a bid for the project, which is still under consideration by the government.

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.

Residents who oppose the installation of a wind farm in Ahenny, Carrick-on-Suir, have called on the minister for the environment to protect their area against what they call “the blatant vandalism of one of the country’s most ancient landscapes.” The call comes less than a fortnight before councilliors are due to vote on the issue. The Ahenny Action Group insists that it should not be left up to local people to protect designated heritage regions from industrial development. They have written to Minister Dick Roche to demand a guarantee that no wind farm be erected in the area.

The battle to protect rural areas in South Tipperary from a proliferation of wind turbines is intensifying with communities uniting to combat the threat. The South Tipperary communities of Ahenny and Hollyford are embroiled in a campaign to prevent their unique rural areas from being invaded by wind turbines. Campaigners in Hollyford have warned of residents being locked into “an open air prison” if planning permission is given for up to forty wind turbines at different locations on their beloved hills surrounding the village.

Large swathes of scenic countryside are being ruined by massive wind turbines which damage people’s lives and the environment. That was the blunt message yesterday at the launch of a new nationwide alliance of communities fighting wind farms. Believing the answer to Ireland’s energy needs is not blowing in the wind, the Irish Wind Energy Truth Alliance (IWETA) insisted that the turbines damage the environment and, because of their inefficiency, do nothing to tackle the energy crisis.

Wind farm objectors, including a number of large-scale barley tillage farmers, yesterday won a landmark planning battle, shooting down plans for 17 giant wind turbines, taller than the Spire of Dublin. After a high-profile fight, An Bord Pleanala finally refused permission for Dutch developers WEOM to erect the 400ft-high turbines at Kilbraney, Co Wexford. The decision puts down a national marker that planners will not automatically give the green light for wind farms where they can visually damage the landscape and impact on the lives of local people.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - For centuries, Dutch windmills have pumped water out of the low-lying country, and old-fashioned wooden mills are as closely linked with the Netherlands' international image as its dikes and bikes. But in the face of a large and growing lobby against the windmill's modern electricity-generating counterpart - the wind turbine - the country has started moving them offshore and out of sight.......In the Netherlands, which hopes to generate nine per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010, the need to move offshore is growing more urgent due to the increasing number of wind turbine critics. They say the towering mechanical structures are blighting landscapes.

IRELAND'S wind farms have a devastating impact on fragile ecosystems and contribute to global warming, according to an international study published last week.

The peat landslip in 2003 at Derrybrien saw a bog slide almost two miles down a hillside in County Galway - polluting waterways, killing 50,000 fish and engulfing a farmhouse.

Only a massive immediate investment in wind energy and the installation of thousands of wind turbines over the next decade will permit France to reach its target of further reducing carbon dioxide emissions, according to a new report by a state agency.

The Wind Farms Awareness Group before the meeting. The encroachment of wind farms into Perthshire was again halted by councillors as another five proposed schemes were knocked back.

In a Question to the Environment Minister in the National Assembly, Elin Jones, Assembly Member for Ceredigion has challenged Carwyn Jones to give priority to the use of Forestry Commission land for windfarm developments.

They introduced the world to "environmentally friendly" energy, but now some of Europe's "greenest" countries are under pressure to backtrack on wind farms as public anger grows over their impact on the countryside.