A recent report published by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has said large wind farms such as proposed here are not the way forward for New Zealand, the significant adverse impacts are avoidable by harnessing wind power using smaller clusters of small turbines servicing remote towns, and this will be better for the country. Unfortunately this report was published just after our hearing was completed.

A state Supreme Court judge has ruled the Wind Power Ethics Group (WPEG) and one of its members can challenge the town Zoning Board of Appeals' decision that a proposed wind turbines project is a utility subject only to a site plan review. WPEG is asking a judge to vacate a Feb. 28 determination that the project is a utility within the meaning of the town's zoning law and therefore is a permitted use subject to site plan review in the town's agricultural/residential zoning district.

Walkers opposed to a wind farm development in the Ochil Hills are set to take part in a protest hike. The campaigners are angry at plans to site a 13-turbine wind farm on Burnfoot Hill, near Tillicoultry. Clackmannanshire Council backed the project put forward by Edinburgh company Wind Prospect Developments in March. The council said the 102m high (334ft) turbines would not be visible from most surrounding towns.

In a report to councillors, David Rush, development control quality manager, said the decision came down to a balance between support for renewable energy and the harm a wind farm would do to the landscape. He said: "I do not consider the economic, climatic or ecological benefits accruing from the scheme outweigh the substantial harm caused by the scale of this proposal."

Ladd said the purpose of tonight's meeting is to get concerned taxpayers who don't like the idea of "wasting our tax dollars, increasing our electric bills and diminishing our property values 30 to 40 percent" involved. "If it were not for the tax credits involved, we would not have wind turbines being constructed in the state of Texas," Ladd said. "... It's the biggest waste of tax dollars I have ever seen."

A proposed plan for a wind farm at the western end of Brome-Missisquoi has been modified, but the community remains divided on whether it should exist at all. Several of the 300 people who packed into Bedford's community centre Monday night called for a moratorium on windmills, or a referendum. While a number complained of a lack of transparency, others commended Groupe SM International and the municipalities on their efforts to inform the population. "The support of the municipalities and the MRC will be helpful in getting the project approved by Hydro Quebec," said Arthur Fauteux, warden of the Brome-Missisquoi MRC. He said the MRC will take a final position on the windmill issue at the end of August.

Plans to build a windfarm on the moors above Littleborough have suffered a setback. An application for the five turbines located just over the border in Yorkshire has been recommended for refusal by Todmorden Town Council. Coronation Power hopes to build a total of 12 125m turbines at Crook Hill, seven of which are located in Rochdale. Councillors recommended refusal because they felt the windfarm would damage the moorland, affect walkers, horse riders and cyclists and destroy peat bogs.

The Environment Court has ruled in favour of Maori spiritual values over an energy company's bid to erect dozens of wind turbines on a Hawke's Bay mountain range. The court said the 37 turbines would go against Maori spiritual values, including the site's history, water and sacred areas. Judge Craig Thompson said it was impossible not to absorb some of the depth of emotion expressed about the attachment of people to the area. Such rulings have in the past been subject to ridicule from business developers and politicians.

The Maori Party has today welcomed the findings of the Environment Court in ruling against the erection of 37 turbines along Te Waka Range skyline on the Napier-Taupo Road. "The site of the Te Waka -Titiohanga-Maungaharuru range is a distinctive feature of the Hawkes Bay" said Maori Party Co-leader, Dr Pita Sharples. "It creates an unique skyline which has great value as a landform, as a recreation resource, and a milestone landmark".

Maori have attacked plans for more wind turbines in the Tararua Ranges, saying turbines are weakening the mauri (life force) and mana of the hill tops. He Kupenga Hao i te Reo (Inc) secretary Ian Christensen objected to the proposed Motorimu Wind Farm at the resource consent hearing in Palmerston North yesterday. It proposes 127 turbines for the hills behind Tokomaru and Linton. He told the three commissioners that the Tararua ridge line had enough turbines and "further desecration of the ridgeline" with more would weaken mauri to a point where the "wellbeing of people would be in jeopardy". "Manawatu has been desecrated by the pollution of human beings. We urge that the whole of the mountain range not be desecrated as well," he said.

In the Aroostook County town of Mars Hill, 28 wind turbines will soon be generating electricity. Even before they begin commercial operation, however, the windmills are generating considerable controversy. The biggest issue is noise.

A pioneering study controversially overlooked by borough planners when the Moorsyde wind farm decision was made has won a prestigious national award. The Regional Windfarm Development Study, which was produced on behalf of the Assembly by White Consultants with Arup, won a highly commended award for strategic landscape planning in the Landscape Institute’s 2006 awards. The study looked at the cumulative impact multiple wind farm developments in Northumberland would have on the area’s landscape and provided a method for doing this that can now be used across the country. Moorsyde Action Group (MAG) highlighted the study in criticism of the borough council’s recommendation to approve the ten turbine wind farm between Shoresdean and Duddo.......... A MAG spokesman said: “This study not only promotes understanding of the sensitivities in different types of landscape but also brings objectivity in assessing the impact of wind farms on peoples’ lives.”

Nimby-ism (Notin My Back) is almost understandable when talking about a gas pipeline or an ugly McMansion. But when it comes to environmentally friendly, quiet and- some say- beautiful windmills, an astonishing number of people are saying "no". Melanie Wold asks, "Why? Is it all the dead seagulls?"

Editor's Note: This article appeared in the October 2006 issue of Shattered Magazine. The pdf version is available via the link below.

Richard Tamplin, the planning inspector who heard the appeal, ‘applauded’ the ‘dedication and persistence’ of Mr and Mrs Bradford and acknowledged that the urgency of meeting Devon’s renewable energy targets for 2010 weighed very heavily in favour of the proposal. However, he judged the benefits were even more heavily outweighed by the unacceptable harm to the character and appearance of the distinctive local landscape around the appeal site. The adverse impact on the viewpoints of Brent Tor, which he said was ‘such an unusual and special place’, and Pork Hill, ‘would damage the special qualities of the National Park’. The size and motion of the turbines would destroy the fragile quality of this ‘quiet, still landscape’ and would be ‘wholly inappropriate’ to the setting of Brent Tor and the scheduled barrow cemetery on the crest of the Beacon just below. The ‘alien feature’ would also cause ‘significant harm to the longer views’ from the National Park and the Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. One of the statutory purposes of Dartmoor as a National Park would be compromised. He also considered there would be a significant adverse effect on the residential amenity of people living up to two kilometres from the site.

In many ways, the atmosphere is like a gold rush. With the backing of an enthusiastic Rendell administration, wind-energy companies have quietly but aggressively been negotiating leases for land on mountaintops, especially in Bedford and Somerset counties. Several developers hope to build hundreds, if not thousands, of windmills on the ridge lines of west-central Pennsylvania. Typical wind turbines stand nearly 375 feet tall -- about 70 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty -- and can be seen from 15 to 20 miles away. Some people question whether development of wind energy on this scale is appropriate for Pennsylvania, even though wind often is touted as a renewable, nonpolluting way to generate electricity. Longtime residents of Somerset County, where the building is more advanced, say the construction and operation of turbines have damaged the environment. They say the development offers little in return from jobs or taxes. "It's not quite what they tell you in the brochure," Todd Hutzell of Rockwood said.

Wind farm objectors, including a number of large-scale barley tillage farmers, yesterday won a landmark planning battle, shooting down plans for 17 giant wind turbines, taller than the Spire of Dublin. After a high-profile fight, An Bord Pleanala finally refused permission for Dutch developers WEOM to erect the 400ft-high turbines at Kilbraney, Co Wexford. The decision puts down a national marker that planners will not automatically give the green light for wind farms where they can visually damage the landscape and impact on the lives of local people.

A controversial bid to build five wind turbines on the outskirts of Burnham-On-Sea was unanimously thrown out by district planners on Tuesday morning (August 8th).

But I was sitting at my kitchen table in North Buffalo, far from the wind farms of the Southern Tier, and such distance makes for simple, black-and-white comprehension. There are places in Western New York where wind energy isn’t so clear a choice. Places with names like Perry, Sheldon and Arkwright, rural towns perched atop the high glacial ridges to the east and south of the city, whose landscapes might soon be dominated by hundreds of towering, 400-foot windmills. As wind companies eye their windswept fields and make overtures to local town boards, divisions run deeper and deeper between citizens who disagree on the merits of wind farm development in their backyards. In such locales, the gray areas of wind development come into sharp focus.

For those who live among the towers, the consequences of the development are palpable. The construction required building new roads and widening existing ones to make room for oversize vehicles. Hundreds of workers moved into town or stayed in trailers on the job site during the summer rush. The rural landscape was transformed into an industrial setting. Where stands of poplars and fields of corn and hay covered the plateau, the smooth lines of the light gray towers and steady rotation of the rotors now define the view. And the noises changed. The unobstructed wind has always been the dominant sound on the plateau. Now, the whoosh of the wind is mixed with the hum of the machines and a mechanical whomp of the blades turning.

Opponents today vowed to fight the resource consent granted to Meridian Energy to build 70 super-sized wind turbines near Makara in Wellington.