Hundreds of giant pylons connecting the English border to the Welsh coast will be needed to link huge new wind farms to the National Grid, campaigners warned yesterday. ..."Developers can be given planning consent for the turbines without consideration of the power transmission element, which can also have a huge impact on the environment.

On a sunny spring morning, Deeping St Nicholas provides a perfect snapshot of English country life. The only buildings that break the flat horizon of the Lincolnshire fens are silver-grey church spires and neat red-brick farmhouses, around which are clustered barns and silos. A covey of wood pigeons clap their wings as they take off from the black, loamy, fertile soil striped with green lines of oilseed rape. And then you hear it. "Whoompf ... whoompf ... whoompf ..." Like the sound of an approaching train that never comes, the thumps that break the still air are not overpoweringly loud - at about 65 decibels, they're the level of a lorry going by at 30 miles an hour 100 yards away. But what is so menacing is the regularity and the scope of the noise, which feels like a giant heartbeat shaking the earth. When you see the culprits - the eight mammoth wind turbines installed just outside Deeping St Nicholas last May - you're actually surprised that the noise isn't louder. These aren't the little propellers that David Cameron nails to his roof to warm his cocoa and heat his children's baths. They're veritable behemoths - 100 metres high, as tall as Big Ben's tower.

The government has ruled out further research into wind turbine noise following the publication of a university report into the phenomenon. Salford University concluded the incidence of Aerodynamic Modulation, aerodynamic noise, (AM) from the UK's wind farm fleet is low. But its recommendation that more research might be "prudent" was rejected. Energy minister Malcolm Wicks said: "Where there are legitimate problems we will address them. But it is essential that we produce more wind power if we are to meet our climate change and security of supply aims."

More families will be driven into fuel poverty as a push to generate more electricity from "green" sources like wind, wave and solar power sharply increases household fuel bills, the Government has said. Electricity bills could rise by 13 per cent and gas prices could go up by as much as 37 per cent as consumers are made to pay more to subsidise green energy production, ministers said in a new Renewable Energy Strategy. ...The Renewable Energy Strategy says: "It is likely that the measures we need to use to increase renewable energy will add to the challenges we face in combating fuel poverty."

When Stephen Munday spent £20,000 on a wind turbine to generate electricity for his home, he was proud to be doing his bit for the environment. He got planning permission and put up the 40ft device two years ago, making sure he stuck to strict noise level limits. But neighbours still complained that the sound was annoying - and now the local council has ordered him to switch it off.

Angry residents have slammed a Scottish Government decision to overrule councillors and a decision to refuse a wind turbine development in a Lothian beauty spot. A proposal to build two 70-metre high turbines at Ferneylea Farm was rejected by East Lothian Council in March over fears it would harm the landscape.

AN ACTION group in Tallentire has sent residents a template objection letter to plans for a new wind farm in the area. Novera Energy has applied to Allerdale council to build five 105 metre turbines at Fleeter Wood, on land next to West House. But Tallentire Area Action Group chairwoman Margaret O'Hare said she had sent a template letter to nearby residents outlining reasons against the plans. The group wants as many people as possible to sign the letter and send it to the council. It says: "This proposal would result in unacceptable harm to the local landscape in terms of its intrinsic quality and local distinctiveness.