Angry farmers are demanding wind farms bury their power lines. Hundreds of turbines have been proposed throughout the Ballarat region. While many residents have accepted that wind farms will be a part of life in the area, they say the companies building them should foot the bill to put the power lines underground.

THE first batch of ballot papers were yesterday dispatched to residents who live closest to the proposed site of a contentious 21-turbine wind farm west of Thurso. Caithness West Community Council is surveying the 1000-or-so electors in its patch to find out whether they support or oppose the 57.5 megawatt development. The timing is particularly sensitive as Baillie Wind Farm Ltd's scheme for farmland near Shebster is being tabled at a Highland Council hearing next month. The community council is among the objectors to the proposal, which would add to the existing nearby six-turbine cluster at Forss. But it is pledging to reflect the feedback of the vote in its representation.

An East Yorkshire resident is calling for a change in the law so new wind turbines cannot be built near homes Currently there is no minimum separation distance between homes and the structures, but company director Larry Fleming, from Spaldington, near Goole, wants a 2km limit. Villagers are fighting proposals by two separate developers for 14 turbines standing 400ft tall, three times higher than Howden Minster.

If industrial wind turbines set up shop in her community, however, she said they'd be destroying a community that is "so peaceful and relaxing." In a 4-1 vote Thursday night the Litchfield Town Board passed a local law that will ban construction of industrial wind turbines.

Assemblyman Will Barclay (R,C,I-Pulaski) said today too many questions remain unanswered for windmills to be allowed to be built along the Lake Ontario shoreline. The New York Power Authority announced in December 2009 it is accepting requests for proposals (RFPs) from prospective wind mill companies to construct wind turbines along Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. The period for proposals to be accepted will come to a close in March.

The School Committee last night decided to put off a vote on whether to remove the high school from contention as a location for a proposed turbine. ...School Committee members agreed to take up the turbine matter at its Oct. 16 meeting. That group is expected to recommend an alternative site at the end of Legion Way, which would essentially make the school committee's rejection of the high school site unnecessary. ...And because the device would be as close as 190 feet from a school building, the committee has been under pressure to withdraw its approval of the high school site.

The City of Grand Rapids wants to install two turbines to generate 80,000 megawatts to power the city's water treatment plant. The city brought their plans to the residents of Grand Haven on Monday night, and they are not too happy about it. The Lake Michigan shoreline has been described as beautiful and pristine, and for many people in Grand Haven, it's also their backyard.

Residents in the East County are sounding an environmental alert about future wind farms in their community. The battle is heating up over plans to build hundreds of wind turbines near Boulevard. ..."And we're talking over 500 to 600 turbines for now, over 400-feet tall silhouetted on that ridge line," she said. That ridgeline to the south is in Mexico, where Sempra Energy - the parent company of SDG&E - Is planning on building a massive wind farm. So big, in fact, it will be visible from San Diego County.

Ocotillo's project also changed the hydrology of the desert to cause erosion and flooding. "Construction was an absolute nightmare," he added, citing dust storms, noise and floodlights all night long shining in his windows. When he complained, lights were directed at him even from places where no work was occurring, an action he suspects was malicious.

Even Canada's leading promoter of wind power admits that the industry has to learn from its critics and work with them. Sean Whittaker, policy director of the Canadian Wind Energy Association of Ottawa, says public concerns can be expected with any new technology. "Their concerns are definitely legitimate and something we have to take seriously," Mr. Whittaker said recently in Halifax. ... Ms. Betts and 450 other members of the Gulf Shore Preservation Association oppose a developer's plan to build 20 to 27 large wind turbines in the area. Last summer, Ms. Murray wrote a commentary in The Chronicle Herald, saying many people want to build their "dream home" in the area. A wind farm would be catastrophic, she said. Ms. Murray said she supports the idea of wind-generated electricity but opposes the location of the turbines in an area close to where people live and said there are too many unanswered questions concerning the effects of noise, vibration and shadow flicker.

Many of the landowners whose property abuts the Beaver Ridge windmill project met at the Beaver Ridge Road home of Sally Hadyniak Saturday afternoon to voice some concerns about the windmill project and explain why they want the town to reinstate its commercial development review ordinance. ...[Resident Jeff] Keating explained at Saturday's press conference that he wants to see in writing that the builders of the project, formerly referred to as Competitive Energy Services (CES) but now known as Beaver Ridge Wind LLC, will abide by the standards set forth in the ordinance. Originally, CES had worked with the town while it created the ordinance but, according to the abutters, were ultimately unwilling to make the windmill project meet the ordinance's guidelines, and encouraged the town to get rid of the ordinance after it had been enacted.

Opposing perspectives rose from residents who gathered Monday to probe the proposed alternative energy development site along Big Sewickley Creek Road in Bell Acres. Many borough residents questioned the potential noise level and electromagnetic presence of the site, which would include a 66-foot wind turbine. Others questioned the potential threat to great blue herons that nest along Big Sewickley Creek. Some questioned the visual impact on the borough's landscape.

Residents of Benson say they are not opposed to having a wind farm in their community but would prefer them to be at least a mile and half outside the village limits. At a meeting of Woodford County's Conservation, Planning and Zoning Committee on Tuesday, a Village Board representative presented a letter asking the county to insert a 1.5-mile setback radius surrounding Benson to the wind farm permit.

A 110-metre wind turbine is to be erected inside the house of an opposition group chairman - if a new photomontage is to be believed. The document shows one of Your Energy's seven proposed structures near Berwick "piercing" the home of Mike Maud, who leads the Moorsyde Action group (MAG), and another of his properties.

Councillors in Huntingdonshire are being asked to back a bid which could set a minimum distance of two kilometres between wind farms and homes. Nearly 800 people signed a petition calling on Huntingdonshire District Council to draw up a policy on the location of wind farms and housing - well over the 500 limit required to force a debate on the issue.

...Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri's pledge nearly two years ago to bring wind power to a state where there is just one operating wind turbine. His goal was to get 15% of the state's electrical power from wind by 2011 - which would require about 100 turbines. Several major challenges now stand in the way of the small state's big plans. Among them: No one has decided where to put a wind farm, it's not clear how the project will be paid for, and public opposition - a major wild card - is unknown, according to Carcieri's top energy adviser, Andrew Dzykewicz. ...No other state has built an offshore wind farm, forcing Rhode Island's government to invent the process nearly from scratch. One of the state's main environmental regulatory bodies, the Coastal Resources Management Council, has not even decided what it requires from prospective wind power developers.

According to the first nuisance complaint of the lawsuit, all four farms have decreased and will continue to decrease in value due to the "planned and imminent development, construction and operation of the Big Sky wind farm." In addition, the development will make it more difficult to lease the rental home on one of the properties.

The developer of a proposed wind farm on White Mountain has scaled back the probable number of wind turbines in favor of a larger turbine size for the project. If fully built, as few as 185 wind turbines could be constructed on scenic White Mountain instead of the 237 under study by federal administrators, company officials said Wednesday night during a public meeting.

The Oireachtas is to consider in detail shortly a Bill, tabled by Labour Senator John Kelly, that would impose restrictions on the location of wind turbines near people's homes. Under the Bill, ...larger turbines of 50m-150m would have to be a minimum of 1km to 2km away.

Janet Grace, a local realtor and former president of the Kingston Real Estate Association, said Thursday that when retirees go to buy property like the Kenneys', "quality of life is important." Having power-production facilities nearby, she said, may be a negative factor in making their decision.