LM Glasfiber announces mass lay-offs in Denmark as a result of the on-going financial crisis. Wind turbine blade producer LM Glasfiber has announced that it is to fire one fifth of its Danish workforce in what is being called the biggest domestic firing-round of recent times. ...‘We believe 2009 will be a year with stagnant growth in the windmill market and LM Glasfiber has a clear case of over capacity,' said Rothausen.

The big challenge, wind developers acknowledge, is modifying site permits that restrict the spacing and height of turbines. Neighbors are often put off by the visual impact of the turbines themselves ...Wind developers face an additional hurdle to repower in Denmark, where legislation going into effect next year will require wind-park operators to compensate residents if wind turbines reduce their property values.

A couple from West Prince has proof from the government their property has dropped in value since wind turbines were put up near their home. ...Beverly Howard told CBC News Monday there are now five new turbines within sight of their home, the closest about 500 metres away. "If you're sitting out on your deck, they're noisy, if you're out gardening they're noisy," she said.

Plans to get Britain's first offshore wind farm producing power again after a gap of almost three years have been stalled by a further technical hitch. Rotor blades on the two turbines off Cambois, Northumberland have not turned since March 2006, when the seabed cable connecting them to the mainland snapped.

Wind farms are blowing land values off course, slashing property tags by up to a third in some areas and lifting others by as much $50,000 per turbine. A new study shows the presence of wind turbines significantly influence land values - but it's not all bad. The study co-incides with a new push by the Federal Government to speed up the building opf wind farms across Australia. Ballarat-based value Alan Hives said there had now been enough sales of property featuring or near wind farms to draw some conclusions of their impact on property values.

John Jess has been valuing properties in Gippsland, Vic, since 1982 and says wind turbines are having a significant impact on values for both farmland and residential property. Having conducted valuations for a panel hearing on proposed wind farms, Mr Jess said farming properties appear to drop 10-15 pc near turbines. There is stronger evidence to suggest rural-residential values drop by 30-40pc near win turbines.

A proposed 120-metre wind turbine would knock 50 per cent off the value of thousands of nearby homes, an action group claims. Save Our Skyline (SOS) was formed in response to a planned turbine taller than Wakefield Cathedral at Coca Cola's warehouse at Wakefield 41 Industrial Park. SOS claims 3,800 homes within a mile radius would see 54 per cent knocked of their value by the turbine. The information comes from a recent study by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

What's "green," 18 stories tall and trashes property values? A wind turbine next to the new East Ridge High School in Woodbury - according to developers. Plans for a wind turbine roughly 200 feet tall hit a snag last week when developers balked at the idea of building houses nearby. They said buyers of high-end homes would be spooked by the noise and visual distraction of huge whirling fan blades. City officials are taking the threat seriously.

Parliament approved the construction of Denmark's largest offshore wind turbine park on Tuesday. The wind farm will be placed in the Kattegat strait of the North Sea between Jutland and the island of Anholt by 2012. The turbines will be capable of producing 400 megawatts of energy ...Denmark has 5267 turbines, of which nearly 70 percent are located on Jutland.

An emergency meeting was held at Argyll and Bute Council's headquarters in Lochgilphead yesterday to discuss Friday's shock announcement that the Vestas wind-turbine factory at Machrihanish, near Campbeltown, is to close its manufacturing plant in Kintyre with the loss of 92 jobs. ...A council statement said no representative from Vestas attended the meeting, insisting that any talks had to take place at the company's head office in Denmark.

Thousands of homeowners may see the value of their properties plummet after a court ruled that living near a wind farm decreases house prices. In a landmark case, Jane Davis was told she will get a discount on her council tax because her £170,000 home had been rendered worthless by a turbine 1,000 yards away. The ruling is effectively an official admission that wind farms, which are accused of spoiling countryside views and producing a deafening roar, have a negative effect on house prices.

The Highland Independent School District learned earlier this month that it is a property wealthy district after being notified of its status by the Texas Education Agency. In TEA terms, Highland is a Chapter 41 district for the 2008-09 school year. Chapter 41 of the Texas Education Code makes provisions for certain school districts to share their local tax revenue with other school districts. ... The Highland ISD has been declared a Chapter 41 district because of significant increases in property values due to the new wind farms in the district. Nelson said those wind farm values will peak in the 2008-09 school year and then decline due to tax code Chapter 313 property tax limitation agreements ...

Since Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy has proposed putting up 29 wind turbines in Logan County, along with 37 turbines in Tazewell County, many arguments have surfaced regarding whether the construction might have a negative impact on some local residents. ...The first zoning board of appeals' public hearing will be Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Hartsburg-Emden High School gymnasium, where Horizon will present its testimony and call witnesses in support of its evidence. Porter will call his witnesses and cross-examine Horizon's testimony at a zoning board of appeals meeting, which will follow Horizon's on a separate day. "We have hired an appraiser, Michael McCann, who has done a study specific to the proposed Logan County Turbine Facility. Mr. McCann has extensive experience with valuing affects of proposed projects on nearby properties," said Porter. "Unlike Mr. Poletti, Mr. McCann has no pre-study biases that impact his decisions.

Apparently hoping that a proposed agreement between the staff of the West Virginia Public Service Commission and Allegheny Energy would put a better face on the utility's proposed Trans-Allegheny Interstate Power Line project, the Hampshire County Commission received an e-mail request to reverse its opposition to the project. Commissioners Don Cookman, Steve Slonaker and Robert Hott, however, all agreed that would not happen.

The Tazewell County Zoning Board of Appeals has been holding public hearings since April 1, getting public input on the proposed Rail Splitter Wind Farm by Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy LLC. ...Spanos presented an acoustical engineer from Michigan who said the wind towers would create noise that could affect nearby residents and a real estate appraiser who said property values near the farm could drop. "These wind farm turbines surround the properties," said Michael McCann, a real estate appraiser from Chicago who said homes near the proposed farm could drop in value between 20 percent and 30 percent.

Vestas has landed a deal with energy giant E.ON worth over one billion kroner, although the company's wind turbines continue to experience construction and maintenance problems. ...Vestas has been the focus of less positive news recently, as several of its wind turbine owners have reported serious malfunctions, with a few of the structures having collapsed over the past two weeks.

On February 22 a 600 kW Nordtank wind turbine at Halling in eastern Jutland experienced a so called runwaway event causing its blades to spin out of control. Minutes later the blades collided with the tower and caused the turbine to collapse. In an unrelated event at Vig in Odsherred a Vestas V47 600kW wind turbine lost a blade. In both cases, Vestas assume that human errors in service and maintenance caused the events, but points out that they are in process of finding the accurate causes.

The climate minister will begin an investigation into two separate cases of Vestas wind turbines collapsing within the past week The climate minister, Connie Hedegaard, is calling for an investigation to determine the cause of two violent wind turbine collapses in Denmark in the past week. Both of the windmills were produced by Vestas, and Hedegaard's request to the Energy Board comes after other breakdowns both here and abroad have been reported in the past two months.

Local councils in the country's 28 windiest towns are digging in their heels against a national plan that would cluster the next generation of high-efficiency wind turbines within their borders, Politiken newspaper reports. ...Facing the prospect of asking their residents to accept an average of 35 giant wind turbines, local councillors are already warning national politicians that they are preparing to put up a fight.

A report by congressional investigators concludes power lines like the proposed New York Regional Interconnect in upstate New York could make the electric grid more efficient, but could also pose safety and security risks. The Government Accountability Office released the report Friday, examining the possible effects of building a line like NYRI. The company wants to build a 190-mile, high voltage power line running from Utica into Orange County to feed the growing power demands of the suburbs around New York City and alleviate some of the congestion in the electric grid. "When you look at the report as a whole, it clearly confirms many of the things that we have talked about in terms of the damage (NYRI) would do," said Rep. Michael Arcuri, a Utica Democrat who sought the GAO review.