Plans for a new £4 million community wind farm on the Shetland island of Yell have been stalled because three pairs of nesting birds abandoned their eggs before they hatched. The North Yell Development Council (NYDC) had hoped to start erecting five 850KW Vesta turbines between the villages of Cullivoe and Gutcher next year.

A state Public Service Commission hearing examiner has recommended approval of a western Maryland wind power project - but with environmental restrictions that the developer has said could force it to reconsider. The proposed order will become final on November 30th unless it is appealed before then.

A surge of opposition has diverted a plan to put wind-powered turbines on the Point Pelee peninsula. Boris Vondrus of Advantis Energy confirmed on Monday his company will respect the wishes expressed quite passionately at a Saturday night public meeting and look for a more bird-friendly location for the turbines. “We think we can find a solution a lot of people will be positively pleased with.”

The Quebec Environmental Public Hearing Board has rejected a $350-million wind power proposal from a Toronto company that wanted to build an expansive farm in the province’s northeastern region. The board, known by its French acronym, BAPE, gave the thumbs down to Skypower’s plans, which would include the construction of 114 windmills in four communities bordering the St Lawrence seaway, near Rivière-du-Loup. The board, which held several hearings on the project, concluded Thursday that the turbines would ruin a picturesque view, threaten the region’s natural and wildlife heritage and threaten the agricultural economy.

THE comprehensive landscape reasons for planners recommending the IW Council turn down the controversial Wellow wind farm have been unveiled to the public, ahead of Monday’s planning decision on the scheme. Consultants acting for the IW Council concluded the six turbines, two of which are nearly 110 metres tall, would have significant adverse effects on the protected landscape, nearby homes and rights of way, and insufficient consideration had been given by applicant Your Energy to mitigating adverse effects on the countryside. Insufficient information was provided on the impact of the turbines on bats.

The Bloomington-based John Wesley Powell chapter of the National Audubon Society wants Invenergy LCC to do a little more bird watching. On Wednesday, Angelo Capparella, the chapter’s conservation chairman and a bird expert at Illinois State University, asked Woodford County zoning officials to require the wind farm company to redo a study of the potential impact its turbines might have on birds. Capparella plans to repeat the request when McLean County officials discuss the company’s plan next month.

Martin Bellis dries himself off with his towel and gives a wry smile when asked if he is not just another Nimby objector looking after his own patch of beach against the potential encroachment of a wind farm near Faversham, Kent. “No, I’m really not. I am a supporter of clean energy and really care for the environment,” he said. “I just happen to think wind is a bit of a white elephant because it’s so inefficient and I cannot understand why anyone would choose one of the best bird sanctuaries in Europe as a site.”

Kittatinny Ridge is at the forefront of a conservation effort aimed at preserving its character as a wilderness corridor; the effort will be adapted to other areas such as the Northcentral Highlands and Laurel Highlands where the Appalachian Mountains run their course. There are plenty such places in Pennsylvania with its alternating terrain of ridges and valleys.

A bid by a farmer and environmental campaigner to block plans for a wind farm on marshland in Kent has failed. Philip Merricks made the legal challenge arguing that the danger of birds flying into turbine blades had not been taken properly into account. The wind farm site at Walland Marsh is close to a protection area for birds. But Deputy High Court Judge Hamilton said the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Alistair Darling, had been entitled to approve the scheme. The judge said the plans had correctly applied EU habitat regulations and had also correctly assessed the risk to bird life.

The High Court today cleared the way for a controversial wind farm which opponents say will present a hazard to birds, especially swans. Farmer and award-winning environmental campaigner Philip Merricks attempted to block plans to construct the 26-turbine wind farm at Little Cheyne Court, Walland Marsh, Kent. The site is close to a special protection area for birds. Mr Merricks challenged last October’s decision by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Alistair Darling, to approve the scheme. He argued there had been a failure to take proper account of the danger of birds flying into turbine blades. Today Deputy High Court Judge Hamilton rejected the argument and ruled Mr Darling had been entitled on the evidence before him to give his approval.

The billionaire was understood to have concerns over revised plans for a wind farm off the Aberdeen coast which may affect views. The Scottish RSPB has already expressed concern over the impact of both planned developments. When Mr Trump visited the proposed site of his development he expressed concern about the wind farm.

THE ROYAL Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) in Scotland has published a map indicating that nearly all of Shetland is too sensitive to build wind farms. The society hopes the map, which was presented to the British Wind Energy Association on Tuesday, will reduce the conflict between wind farms and birds of high conservation concern by urging developers to avoid the most important sites.

The first utility-grade wind farm proposed in Virginia is hailed by its supporters as clean energy that can help stem global warming and rising fuel prices. But mountaintop residents near the Highland County site worry about what the blades of 18 towers taller than the Statue of Liberty would do to their environment. That would include rare or endangered birds, bats, and a few other species, as well as a wild trout stream. Eleven state agencies have reviewed the Highland New Wind Development proposal and come up with a lengthy list of suggested studies, including an analysis of the cumulative impact of wind farms on the four-state Allegheny Mountain region. The State Corporation Commission, which has final say, will conduct a public hearing Oct. 30 in Richmond on the proposal by retired poultry processor Henry McBride of Harrisonburg. His attorney, John Flora, hopes the project can benefit from a federal tax credit that expires in 2007.

A Law lord has lost his fight to stop a windfarm being built next to his Perthshire holiday home. Lord Hope of Craighead, a respected ornithologist, had argued 16 turbines planned for the hillside of Drumderg, near Bridge of Cally, would pose a threat to a rare and protected group of ospreys. Yesterday, a Scottish Executive reporter dismissed his claims and allowed the £30m development to go ahead. Lord Hope - who took his name Craighead from his cottage near Drumderg - had used 35 years of observations, all carefully documented, to show the planned windfarm would be on the flightpath between the nesting and feeding sites of ospreys, putting the birds at risk....... His records were never disputed. But scientists employed by Scottish and Southern, the electricity giant behind the windfarm plans, said they did not endanger the birds. The independent reporter, Malcolm Malony, agreed. "I'm satisfied," he said in his report, "that the osprey collision risk is low and is not such as to justify refusal of the proposal."

The September 20, 2006 VDGIF letter states: “We support the use of alternative energy sources, including wind energy. However, based on review of the information provided thus far by the Highland project applicant, in the absence of accountable mitigation conditions . . . we feel this project presents an unacceptable risk to wildlife.”

A pair of wind turbines on farmland near March have been given the go-ahead despite opposition from conservationists. Fenland District Council’s planning committee agreed to allow the pair of 67-metre turbines subject to a Section 106 agreement. This is in addition to plans for three turbines on the same site, north-east of Ransonmoor Farm, Benwick Road, Doddington, which were approved last year. But conservation groups said they wanted guarantees about the impact on wildlife before more turbines were permitted. Cambridgeshire Bat Group said the site is home to the only known noctule maternity roost in the county.

The nation's first offshore wind farm is being proposed for the waters off Orient Point, in hopes of powering 4,000 homes with alternative energy. But while local officials applaud the benefits of this new technology, some worry about its proposed location in the path of endangered migratory birds.

RYE area farmer and conservationist Phillip Merricks is involved in a High Court challenge to the government decision to allow a wind farm to be built near Camber. Mr Merricks insists the controversial plans would damage protected bird populations if built at Little Cheyne Court, a few miles east of Rye.

Plans to build a windfarm in the far north that would have been the biggest in Britain have been scaled down to protect birds. In November 2002, North British Windpower (NBW) revealed proposals for a £75million development on the Skelpick Estate, near Bettyhill, in Sutherland, that would have been three times bigger than any windfarm operating in the UK at that time. The company hoped to erect 50 turbines with a capacity of over 100megawatts - enough power to supply 84,000 households, or the equivalent to 90% of the homes in the Highland region. But the Edinburgh-based energy company went back to the drawing board after it was discovered that some of the turbines were on the flight path of birds from the nearby Caithness and Sutherland Special Protection Area. Managing director Andrew Shaw said yesterday they were now proposing 22 turbines, measuring about 410ft to tip of blade and producing just under 50MW of electricity. The development was now expected to cost about £40million.

The phrase ''not permittable'' is typically the last thing a developer wants to hear. But that's exactly what the state environmental office has called Boston construction magnate Jay Cashman's proposal to build a 120-turbine offshore wind farm in three clustered Buzzards Bay sites. If Cashman wants to pursue his renewable energy plan, he ''proceeds at the risk of denial'' because the sites fall within the Cape and Islands Ocean Sanctuary, according to a certificate written by former Secretary of Environmental Affairs Stephen Pritchard that lays out the state's scope of review over the project.