Plans to transport windfarm components through a Powys town by lorry have been criticised by the local county councillor. Stephen Hayes, Powys County Councillor for Montgomery, said he is concerned at plans to transport parts for the proposed Llanbadarn Fynydd Windfarm through the market town of Montgomery. The proposed windfarm will have 17 turbines which will be 126.5 metres from the ground to the blade tip. And Montgomery is one of a number of towns which could be affected. ..."I'm concerned about people living here," he said, "their houses are right on the street. To come up here they will have to clear all the traffic on the road which will cause disruption. "I am also concerned about damage to the fabric of Montgomery, it is one of Montgomeryshire's most spectacular towns in terms of architecture."

A proposed wind farm project for Higgins Mountain is causing some concern for the operators of Ski Wentworth and others in the Wentworth Valley-Folly Lake area. "I want to make it clear that we are in favour of renewable energy and all of the benefits that come with it, but we do have some concerns about the proposal that will see 400-foot (120-metre) turbines being erected right across the valley from the ski hill," Ski Wentworth spokeswoman Leslie Wilson said Monday. Ottawa-based 3G Energy Corp. proposes to build 66 turbines along a seven-kilometre stretch of the Cobequid Mountains. They would be on a ridge on the opposite side of the valley from the ski hill. The project is among the largest ever proposed for Nova Scotia.

Agriculture Canada says it has yet to decide what to do with a noisy wind turbine in P.E.I. that was shut down less than three days after its blades started spinning because a nearby resident claimed it was making her sick. The turbine, set up to provide power to an Agriculture Canada research station north of Charlottetown, started operating in January. Department spokesman Mike Hennigar confirmed the $200,000, 30-metre turbine in Harrington was shut down less than three days later, after a woman living a few hundred metres away complained of migraine headaches.

Following complaints from farmers, the U.S. Department of Energy is now planning its toughest environmental review of a proposed $120 million power transmission line between Great Falls and Lethbridge, Alberta.... Wind farm developers have said the line is critical to construction of their projects. To date, three companies have signed up to use capacity on the line to ship power from wind farms they're planning between Great Falls and the Canadian border.

Amaranth Township has scheduled the evening of March 3 and all day Saturday, March 4, as public meeting dates to review proposals for 23 wind-turbine sites.

The conclusion of the Ontario Municipal Board hearing into the Amaranth portion of the 132- megawatt Melancthon II wind farm is being scheduled for the township offices at Laurel on Feb. 27 and 28. ...At the earlier hearing, Mr. Jackson indicated his dissatisfaction with an earlier Certificate of Approval for the first of two 230 kV transformers at a time when neighbour Paul Thompson and others said they were still unhappy with the noise abatement.

PUGWASH - Opponents of a proposed wind farm on the Gulf Shore got more fuel for the fire Friday night. Mark Harris, a pastor from Bridgewater, Maine, spoke Friday night at the Ground Search and Rescue in Pugwash about how a wind farm in Mars Hill, Maine has terrorized locals. He bought property in Mars Hill roughly 1200 feet away from the turbines, but hasn't done anything with it because of how unbearable the sound and strobing from them is. "Many of the mills we have, on certain days when the wind comes from a certain direction and the humidity is such and such, it will be all but silent at 1200 feet away where my home site would be. But come back the next day and it'll pound until you can't tolerate being there and there's no predicting when that will happen," he said. He said the wind farm has wreaked havoc on the town, with many people now dealing with health complications allegedly caused by the turbines' sounds and shadows.

Alternative power is all the rage but even a magic bullet can draw blood. Dave Bidini visits Ontario's bucolic Wolfe Island, where an Alberta firm wants to build a $410-million wind farm, bigger than any now operating in Canada. Many residents are bitter - their home is a major stopover for species that migrate in the dark, 'when you can't see the birds getting chopped out of the sky'

It was another restless night in a long string of interrupted sleep. Amaranth's Leo Mendonca didn't feel quite right, like something was wrong, but he didn't know what, or why. When he got out of bed, he was struck by a wave of nausea. ...Thinking some fresh air may do the trick, he headed out to the garden. There, he looked up and saw what he now believes is the source of his troubles ... an industrial-sized wind turbine about 600 metres away, and many more within sight.

Just like the July public information session held by Energy Farm Ontario Inc. about its study to develop a wind turbine farm near Grafton, the public meeting held Thursday night by those in opposition, drew a huge gathering of concerned people. It was far beyond standing room only for those squeezed around the edges of the seated audience packed into the Centreton Community Centre. Some were unable to get into the building, forced to stand on the steps and sidewalks outside.

Windmills, and wind turbines, are harmless. Or are they? Centuries after Quixote's fictional fight, the question of wind-power safety is at the centre of a battle between homeowners and an energy firm 150 km southeast of Calgary, where hundreds of wind turbines are planned. Two farmers living close to the Blackspring Ridge Wind Project say they are worried about long-term health impacts -- something the company, Greengate, says has no basis in fact.

Opponents of wind farm developments allege turbines are not just ugly and inefficient, they can also make you sick. There are growing reports of people who live near wind turbines complaining of headaches, nausea, sleeplessness and other symptoms. Sufferers contend the illness is caused by low frequency noise and vibrations released by the turbines, along with the flickering shadows cast when the sunlight is cast through the blades. ...Here, we present four views on so-called "wind turbine syndrome."

A father of six children in Pubnico Point, Nova Scotia said he and his family had to move from their home earlier this year because of health problems from nearby wind turbines. Daniel d’Entremont and his family moved out of their house in February 2006, and moved in with d’Entremont’s in-laws about half an hour away. He said there are 17 turbines near his property. The fisherman personally sent the accompanying pictures on this Web page to illustrate the proximity of the turbines to his home. He said the turbines were installed and running by February 2005. D’entremont said everyone in his family had trouble sleeping once the turbines began operating. He said he’d sleep four hours, and then a “hum” or “vibration” feeling inside of him would wake him up.

When the 50-turbine Dokie wind farm just outside Chetwynd is up and running next year, it will be B.C.'s first commercial wind power project, making the province the last in Canada to have such a power project. A farm near Dawson Creek, B.C., called the Bear Mountain project is also scheduled to start generating power next year, and there are many other prospective sites being considered. ...And a group of homeowners near Bear Mountain has been rallying against the project there, insisting the wind farm will be too close to people.

A city committee decided Wednesday to postpone its decision until at least Thursday about whether Graham Findlay should be allowed to install a power-generating turbine on top of a 10-metre pole in the yard of his home near Fisher Park. ...About 20 of Findlay's neighbours showed up at the committee meeting Wednesday to express their opposition to the turbine.

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.

PUGWASH - The head of a citizens group fighting a proposed wind farm in the Gulf Shore area is asking the province to stop the project until its safety can be proven. "Please err on the side of caution and call a moratorium of all wind power developments that are any closer than two kilometres of a residence until independent and government research has been done to establish the safe and healthy distance from a turbine people should be living," Lisa Betts said in a letter to Premier Rodney MacDonald.

Tory MPP Bill Murdoch's resolution calling for a moratorium on new wind turbines in Ontario pending confirmation that there are no adverse health effects on humans stalled in the legislature. Murdoch said his resolution was drafted in response to concerns about wind power raised by hundreds of people in his riding and across the province. "I'm disappointed and where the people go from here I don't know," Murdoch said yesterday. "The government of the day has decided that they don't count by turning down my resolution."

A committee consisting of most Municipality of Bluewater councillors voted Monday to support the notion of a study into the health impacts of wind energy developments. The decision was made at Bluewater's July 13 planning committee meeting, and was a response to a request from the Huron County Federation of Agriculture (HCFA) that Bluewater and other municipal councils support two resolutions passed June 22 by the HCFA board of directors.

The winds of skepticism gusted through the auditorium of Sir Wilfrid Laurier Collegiate last night as about 500 Scarborough residents gathered to learn more about a proposed wind power development off Toronto's eastern shoreline. Toronto Hydro is considering a plan to install up to 60 wind turbines in Lake Ontario, on a natural reef two to four kilometres offshore.