RSPB Scotland has lodged an objection to plans for Scotland's largest community wind farm, on Shetland. The Viking Energy project, for 150 turbines, is a joint venture between Scottish and Southern Energy and the island community. ...Populations of birds, including the golden plover, could be threatened by some of the turbines, RSPB Scotland said.

Wind farms risk becoming "redundant symbols" of Government efforts to combat climate change, the Campaign to Protect Rural England has warned. ..."What is going to happen is we will end up with these monstrosities in the landscape when other renewables have been developed and they will not take them down," she said.

Danish company Vestas Windsystems, the owners of a wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight have fenced off the entrance to the site, where about 25 staff are on the third day of a sit-in. ...The company said the factory was being closed next week due to reduced demand for wind turbines in northern Europe. ... A spokeswoman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said the plant made blades for the US market which were not the right specification for onshore or offshore wind farms in the UK.

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.

A landowner has bowed to pressure from campaigners fighting plans for a wind farm they argued would damage views of one of Scotland's most iconic landmarks. The controversial proposals in Lewis would have damaged the view of the island's ancient Callanish Stones, according to those fighting the scheme. It would also have set a precedent, they argued, as the first wind farm built in a National Scenic Area in Scotland.

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.

Hundreds more wind farms than those already planned will have to be built to meet "flawed" Government targets for renewable energy, it was claimed last night. ...Professor Ian Fells, an energy expert and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said the Government's plans were "hugely expensive" and "wildly optimistic."

Britain's most beautiful landscapes are under threat after permission was given for a wind farm to be built on the outskirts of the Peak District National Park, environmental campaigners have warned.

Controversial plans to build four 102m wind turbines at Carsington Pastures have been given the go-ahead. A High Court Judge has today determined that proposals for the wind farm should proceed. Pundits said the ruling could be a landmark case for the future of wind farms across Britain.

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.

Selby District Council this week agreed to form a stringent wind farm framework in a bid to stop the area skyline being "decimated with turbines". Members of the authority's policy and resources committee voted on Tuesday night to spend £30,000 to employ experts to assess all wind farm applications. ..."We've currently got eight or nine applications coming in, and I don't think we want to have our whole skyline decimated with turbines."

The installation of three further turbines at a wind farm in west Wales has been rejected after an inspector concluded that their visual impact on users of a nearby road would be unacceptable.

The Rural North, Oundle and Thrapston plan states that wind farms will only be acceptable under set criteria specifying that turbines must not subdue or disrupt the landscape. Applications would have to meet all the criteria to be successful. However, inspector John Mattocks vetoed the policy despite wide support because it fails to comply with national climate change and renewables guidance.

Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, announced yesterday that planning rules would be changed to make it easier for 6,000 onshore wind turbines to be built. Britain's "default position" would be to accept new onshore turbines, he said. The expansion in wind farms was included in the Government's Renewable Energy Strategy, which aims to cut energy use and carbon dioxide emissions, and reduce Britain's dependence on fossil fuels.

Wind farm plans which have lay dormant for six years are back on the table. RWE npower renewables has submitted a planning application for a 16 turbine wind farm at Goole Fields to East Riding of Yorkshire Council. The proposal, to be situated on intensively-farmed agricultural land south east of Goole, first came to light in 2003.

The Local Government Assocation's plans are part of a streamlining process for renewable energy schemes, but turbines still remain a contentious issue for locals

Plans to build a wind farm near a Shropshire town have been refused following a public inquiry. Nuon UK's proposals for seven wind turbines up to 360ft (110m) high at Bearstone, near Market Drayton, were considered at a public inquiry in May. ...However, the Planning Inspectorate said the scheme would mean a "marked and unacceptable reduction" for nearby residential areas.

Plans for a wind farm in the Berkeley Vale have caused concern among residents in a nearby village. Stroud-based firm Ecotricity is hoping to build eight wind turbines on a plot of land next to the M5 motorway near Stinchcombe. The firm has put in an application to Stroud District Council, called a Scoping Survey, which asks the council to undertake an environmental impact study at the site.