It seems few in this town of about 1,500 people can agree on UPC Wind Management’s newly completed $85 million project, which makes the unassuming potato-growing and truck-brokerage community home to New England’s largest wind farm. But there’s one thing everybody can agree on: The place sure looks different. Long before a visitor arrives at Mars Hill, the towers become visible along what used to be just another mountain. The total height from the ground to the tip of the blade is 389 feet. Each tower has three blades, which spin in winds whipping west to east toward Canada just a few miles away.

Plans for two separate wind farms visible from Exmoor have come up against another hurdle. Campaign group Open Spaces Society has launched objections to the projects, stating they would have a negative impact on the feel of the moor. The two projects are the Three Moors scheme at Knowstone, North Devon, where the company Airtricity Developments hopes to erect nine turbines, and Bickham Moor, near Oakford, Mid Devon, where Coronation Power want to erect four. Kate Ashbrook, Open Spaces Society's general secretary said: "We are dismayed that the wind-energy companies keep applying to erect turbines in this part of North Devon. There are already two outstanding applications nearby, at Batsworthy Cross and Cross Moor."

"The Rudston turbine could well be a test case, resulting in the near-destruction of the historical landscape." The plans were submitted to East Riding Council on July 4 but planning officers did not contact English Heritage about the proposals until last week.

He told the Lynn News: "The intention is to protect the unusual and singular view of places like The Fens and also the lush and picturesque landscape of North West Norfolk. "The Fens is a place internationally recognised as an area of flat landscape where rainbows can be seen end to end and both sound and vision can be measured in miles rather than yards. "The rest of North West Norfolk is also a rare and beautiful place and I am attempting to protect it for future generations by limiting the height of any structure built in open countryside to a very generous 246 feet - which seems to be more than reasonable."

Plans for 276 large wind turbines in Central Otago would not "turbinise" the Lammermoor Range in Central Otago, a Meridian expert said. Landscape expert Peter Rough said while the landscape would be changed by wind turbines, its rural character would remain. "It's still fundamentally a rural landscape with an element of energy product," he said in the Environment Court in Queenstown yesterday.

Seven hundred offshore wind turbines are being proposed for Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair including 165 turbines north of Lakeshore and wind farms off Amherstburg, Colchester, Kingsville and Leamington. SouthPoint Wind of Leamington had already proposed 15 turbines in three spots off the shores of Kingsville and Leamington. If SouthPoint gets approval for that project, it is proposing a 1,400 megawatt project with 13 wind farms.

In evidence to the Central Otago District Council last year Meridian acknowledged the turbines each of which will have a rotor roughly the size of a Boeing 747 would have an adverse visual impact on the nearby Paerau Valley. But it produced photographic mock-ups suggesting that from other vantage points the mountain block on which they would be arrayed would remain the dominant visual feature. However, Sydney says the windfarm will "industrialise" the landscape for vast distances. "What happens when you put that number of wind turbines of that size in the landscape is that they actually become the landscape. You don't see anything else really."

Senator Lamar Alexander expressed concern on Tuesday over the siting of renewable energy projects during a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, of which he is the ranking member. "We've spent more than a century and billions of dollars of public and private money protecting certain landscapes and scenic areas," Sen. Alexander told Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

"Wyoming is not only a recipient for proposals for transmission, we're also (electricity) generators," Lahti said. And wind turbines, which can reach 400 feet, will dominate the views in parts of Wyoming unless state and federal governments, historical preservation organizations, tribes and industry avoid cluttering the landscape before they build, he said.

Residents of a small Colorado artists' colony have galvanized resistance against three proposed wind farms, authorities say. The 880 writers and artists comprising La Veta live two miles from the proposed 7,000-acre Silver Mountain Wind Farm. The town council voted down the 150-megawatt facility and wants a moratorium on new wind projects until the county updates its land use regulations and master plan, The Denver Post reported Sunday.

"We don't want to see them. Standing on the beach, we don't want to see them," he said during the council's work session Tuesday afternoon. Councilman Jim Hall echoed the mayor's sentiment, saying the project could prove far more popular if the turbines were invisible from land. "If you can't see it," Hall said, "then you can add acres and acres of wind farms. I think people are going to eat it up." For Bluewater, it's an expensive courtesy. Lanard said pushing the turbines farther out to sea makes it more expensive. It costs $1,000 for every foot of cable connecting the wind farm to the shore.

Fourteen turbines were struck off as they would have marred the view from Mawallok, a historic homestead with gardens crafted by 19th-century landscaper William Guilfoyle. This is the first instance of wind turbines being rejected due to their impact on the outlook from a heritage property.

Residents are celebrating after plans for a wind farm near Beverley were thrown out. East Riding councillors unanimously rejected proposals to build a wind farm with 12 turbines up to 100 metres high at Routh, because of concerns they would spoil the views from Beverley Westwood. As reported on the Mail’s website yesterday, councillors voted against the scheme proposed by Ridgewind Limited amid fears views of Beverley Minster, in particular, would be ruined.

A NORTH Sutherland community stands to gain up to half a million pounds a year in community benefit from wind farms, it emerged this week. But the "pot of gold" has failed to impress some Strathy residents who this week angrily dismissed it as a sweetener, aimed at making them accept major changes to their local landscape. ...The power company wants to build a £90 million, 35-turbine development on the north side of Strathy and a follow-up 77-turbine development on the south side of the forest.

Villagers fighting plans for a wind farm on the outskirts of Teesside have called on the area's civil and military airports to back their campaign. They are urging Durham Tees Valley Airport and RAF Leeming to object to the proposed 11 turbines in Bishopton near Stockton and Darlington on the grounds of air traffic safety. "If the turbines mean there is radar or air traffic interference, then surely lives are being put at risk," said action group spokesman Peter Wood. ...An MoD spokesman said: "All applications are assessed on a site by site basis." Similar air traffic safety concerns have been raised regarding potential plans for a wind farm of five turbines between the villages of Hilton and Seamer.

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 30-page complaint says that the environmental impact statement (EIS) "presents a one-sided and incomplete portrait of the proposed project and its likely adverse environmental impacts." "The Project would pose significant adverse harm to a wide array of sensitive and protected species -- including desert tortoise, bighorn sheep, golden eagles, bald eagles, and resident and migratory birds and bats -- through direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts."

The decision on whether to give the go ahead for Enertrag UK Ltd to locate a wind farm at Chase Farm, Baumber, is due to be made at a three-week-long public inquiry beginning on October 5. ..."We do feel strongly that this proposal at Baumber is not the right site. The countryside and old buildings of our county are very precious and it is so easy to damage them by not thinking carefully about the ways that they could change."

Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) like the Lake District national park could be the sites of new energy infrastructure including wind farms, Ed Miliband has suggested. Asked if wind farms could be considered in AONBs, Mr Miliband said: "In exceptional circumstances, it may be possible for some limited development to take place without unacceptable impacts on these important sites."

Scenery is a non-renewable resource because once it’s disturbed, it can’t easily be restored, Palmer said. “It’s valuable because it exists and it needs to be respected,” he said.