First it was a lorry park for 3,000 trucks. Then there was the small issue of a sludge recycling centre. Now locals have been left stunned by plans for a wind farm too. It never rains on a site between Aldington and Sellindge, it seems, but it pours. However, the latest plans for a wind farm have been mocked...because, say residents, there is not enough wind to power them.

Local Plaid Cymru AM for Aberconwy, Gareth Jones, has described the decision by the Westminster Labour Government to approve the construction of the huge Gwynt y Mor windfarm, off the coast of Llandudno and Colwyn Bay, as a slap in the face and an affront to the democratically-expressed wishes of the people of Wales. ..."The scale of the Gwynt y Mor development cannot be overstated. The 250 turbines will be visible for many miles around.

The West of Duddon offshore wind farm will provide 500MW of electricity, enough to nearly double Britain's existing offshore electricity-generating capability. Around 370,000 homes will be powered by the wind farm. Edmund Brooks, the Chamber of Shipping's deputy director general, told politics.co.uk the government's approval for offshore wind projects was problematic for shipping firms. "To use the famous analogy, you wouldn't put a wind farm in the middle of the M1, would you?" he said.

A two kilometre buffer zone from houses would make the proposed Glen Innes Windfarm unviable according to the project's developers, however they say they are hopeful of negotiating a compromise with critics of the project.

People objecting to wind farms were today told like it or lump it. The warning came as Glasgow councillors met and approved a 410ft wind turbine on Cathkin Braes, on the south of the city. The turbine will be just 49ft lower than the Glasgow Science Tower, which is Scotland's largest freestanding building. However, the move has sparked concerns about the impact on birds and on an area popular with walkers.

Arthur and Pamela Dodds are upset with the West Virginia Public Service Commission's approval of the wind turbine facility along the Laurel Mountain ridgeline in Barbour and Randolph Counties. "I was very disappointed that the wind turbine complex had been approved. I feel there was an improper balancing of the information that the opposition gave," says Pamela Dodds, a Barbour County resident.

Residents were left fearing for their safety after shards of melting ice fell on homes and gardens from the blades of a giant wind turbine. For about four hours people in King's Dyke, Whittlesey, had to take cover as huge lumps - some two feet long - showered them from the 80 metre high tower on Saturday morning. Resident Peter Randall, whose son's house lies a stone's throw away from the turbine, said: "Somebody is going to get killed. There was huge lumps of ice shooting off and landing everywhere.

Residents have expressed fears over the size of five huge wind turbines after their first view of how they would appear on the Derbyshire landscape. West Coast Energy, the company behind the scheme, said the 126m (413ft) turbines proposed for Matlock Moor at a cost of £16m ...

Heidi Brautigam loves nothing better than horseback riding in Warm Springs Valley, where she has lived for 17 years. But she is worried her rides could become dangerous once big tractor rigs and construction trucks start hauling equipment and materials to build Nevada Wind's proposed wind turbine farm on the northern ridges overlooking the valley, north of Spanish Springs.

KS Titan 1, one of two vessels to be used in the construction of 25 wind turbines at Rhyl Flats, was en route to Liverpool Bay from the Gulf of Mexico when the accident happened at the end of October. The huge three-legged vessel with two onboard cranes was set to install a series of 3.6-megawatt Siemens wind turbines on Constable Bank, lying five miles off the coast of Llandudno and Colwyn Bay.

RSPB Scotland put in written objections and supported Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) in giving evidence to a public local inquiry which finished this week, opposing what could be enormously harmful impacts of the proposed 14 turbine windfarm at Stacain, near Dalmally, in Argyll. RSPB Scotland believes the area is entirely inappropriate for a wind farm, and ministers should reject the application. The importance of the area for golden eagles, which are synonymous with Scotland's wild beauty, is such that it is almost certain to soon be proposed for designation as a Special Protection Area (SPA). If this goes ahead it will then be strictly protected under Scots and European law.

Hundreds of giant pylons connecting the English border to the Welsh coast will be needed to link huge new wind farms to the National Grid, campaigners warned yesterday. ..."Developers can be given planning consent for the turbines without consideration of the power transmission element, which can also have a huge impact on the environment.

Big Island residents want no part of a proposed wind farm development north of Picton, Prince Edward County council was told this week. Henri Garand and Ian Hanna presented council with a 112-signature petition asking the Big Island portion of the 66-turbine proposal be separated from the rest of the project. ..."All of us believe that Big Island is not an appropriate location."

The building of an offshore windfarm has had to be halted because of bad weather and the sinking of cranes in the Atlantic. It means the Rhyl Flats project will now be delayed by up to three months. It comes after a barge carrying giant cranes to build the turbines sank en route from America in October.

Proposals for a controversial wind farm that could be viewed from across East Lancashire have been thrown out by planners. ...German firm Energiekontor put forward the proposal for land at Brightenber Hill between West Marton and Bank Newton in Craven, North Yorkshire. The decision was greeted by loud cheers by around 270 people who attended a special meeting of Craven's planning committee in Skipton.

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.

A quiet land rush is under way among the buttes of southeastern Wyoming, and it is changing the local rancher culture. The whipping winds cursed by descendants of the original homesteaders now have real value for out-of-state developers who dream of wind farms or of selling the rights to bigger companies. But as developers descend upon the area, drawing comparisons to the oil patch "land men" in the movie "There Will Be Blood," the ranchers of Albany, Converse and Platte Counties are rewriting the old script.

The Scottish Government has overturned a council's rejection of a 22-turbine wind farm in south east Scotland. Scottish Borders Council turned down the PM Renewables development at Drone Hill near Coldingham a year ago. However, the company appealed against that decision and a public inquiry was held in August this year.

More than 30 people expressed their concerns about a massive power line upgrade project proposed by Central Maine Power at Lewiston City Hall Monday night during a public hearing before Maine's Public Utilities Commission. About 70 people were present. ...Nearly all of those who spoke before Commissioners Jack Cashman, Sharon Reishus and Vendean Vafiades were apprehensive about the project, anticipating noise pollution, loss of property value and health risks.

Homes and businesses risk being left in the dark if governments get too sidetracked by wind power. A House of Lords report yesterday warned that over-reliance on wind power could prove risky and costly. It said that nuclear energy was a much cheaper and more effective, low carbon solution. ..."Current policies would take the UK into uncharted territory, with a dependence on intermittent supply unprecedented elsewhere in Europe.