Perth councillors drew public applause tonight when they denied permission for a new city building to site wind-turbine power generators on its roof. The three bright-red vertical turbines would have reached 9m above the roof of a five-storey building under construction on the southern side of Adelaide Tce, with frontages to Terrrace Rd and Victoria Ave. Neighbours in surrounding high-rise apartments had complained that the Dutch-designed turbines would create a visual eyesore and unnecessary noise, affecting the values of their properties.

The Preservation League of New York State has jumped into a wind-project controversy in Jordanville, naming the Holy Trinity Monastery to the group's annual list of New York's most-threatened historic resources: ``Seven to Save.'' The nonprofit group says tranquility at the monastery, which sits on 750 acres in southern Herkimer County, would be ruined if a proposal to site about 50 wind turbines in the area ever moves forward. ``The Holy Trinity Monastery is of extraordinary historic, religious and cultural significance, but it is currently threatened by an industrial-scale wind energy project,'' Jay DiLorenzo, the nonprofit organization's president, said Friday. Panoramic views and contemplative quiet will disappear from the surrounding countryside if wind tubines are erected as proposed by Iberdrola, DiLorenzo said.

The three-blade turbine reaches roughly 155 feet. That includes a pole that is 120 feet high. The owners recently decided to move the project about 150 feet north toward the back of the property. That should reduce the "shadow flicker," a complaint of some neighbors, Kenney said. The rotating blades create shadows. Moving the turbine also will slightly reduce the sound ...

SEI, the school for renewable energy and sustainable housing technology, won approval June 4 from the Board of County Commissioners for its bid to erect a 106-foot-high tower on its year-old Paonia campus. The tower will support an electricity generating turbine with blades spanning 12 feet to be used for class instruction and to produce power for the school's use. The BoCC, sitting with commission chair Jan McCracken absent, voted 2-0 in favor of the schools proposal after hearing comments from neighbors both in support and opposition of the plan.

Fearing noise and bad looks, some communities are banning them.

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.

Trial of a lawsuit against FPL Energy, owner of a wind farm in Taylor and Nolan counties, has been postponed until Dec. 4. Several property owners in southwest Taylor County sued the company in February 2005 in connection with its plans then to build the Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center. The Horse Hollow project, with a third phase recently completed, was dedicated Thursday. FPL Energy claims Horse Hollow is the world’s largest wind farm.

Where can the project be seen from? Will it be in the viewer's foreground or background? Will the viewer likely to be stationary or moving? Will the project offend the sensibilities of the average person? When viewed as a whole, is the project offensive or shocking, because it is out of character with its surroundings, or will it significantly diminish the scenic qualities of the area? These will be addressed by the Public Service Board.

They introduced the world to "environmentally friendly" energy, but now some of Europe's "greenest" countries are under pressure to backtrack on wind farms as public anger grows over their impact on the countryside.