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.

Offshore wind farms could seriously damage tourism in some of the country’s most scenic beauty spots, it was warned yesterday. Failte Ireland is particularly concerned about plans to build up to 400 wind turbines off the coastline between Killiney, Co Dublin and Arklow, Co Wicklow. All of them, at 160 metres-high, would be visible from the shoreline. Failte Ireland said it was not ‘anti-wind farm’ but had to protect the country’s tourism industry.

The Environment and Public Works Ministry is in favor of developing wind farms on Greek islands but wants to place strict restrictions on such development. The Greek islands, buffeted by winds for most of the year, have great potential as wind park locations. Ministry officials estimate that as many as 7,000 turbines could be installed, producing about 14,000 megawatts of energy annually. Private investors are fighting over prime locations. The islands also happen to be among Greece’s major tourist attractions. An overdevelopment of wind farms would create both aesthetic conflicts and great noise pollution, as anyone who has visited a wind park can confirm. Thus, the new land use plan for renewable energy sources being prepared by the Environment and Public Works Ministry would limit wind parks to 4 percent of a municipality’s area (versus 8 percent on the mainland and on the island of Evia), which should limit the number of wind turbines to 2,000, producing some 4,000 MW of energy.

A campaign group representing more than 20 rural communities opposed to the siting of wind turbines in their areas has this week written to Minister for Natural Resources Noel Dempsey and Minister for the Environment Dick Roche seeking a meeting to discuss their concerns. Peter Crossan, spokesman for the Irish Wind Energy Truth Alliance (IWETA) also confirmed that it was considering running general election candidates in counties such as Tipperary and Cork, to take votes from members of the Coalition Government.

A DRAMATIC stop has been put on an application to erect 10 of the largest wind turbines in Wales on a site near Pencader.

West Devon councillors are to debate plans for a wind farm of 390-foot turbines in the face of an objection from a national charity.