An overcrowded meeting room forced Toronto Hydro officials to cancel an information meeting last night about a proposed wind study in Lake Ontario off the Scarborough shoreline. Toronto Hydro Energy Services wants to find out if there's enough wind 2 to 4 kilometres offshore to justify planting about 60 big wind turbines in the lake. Close to 200 people crowded into a meeting room at Christ Church on Markham Rd. ...Many who came to the meeting had serious reservations about the proposal. "This is the wrong place," said Roy Wright, who lives in the Scarborough bluffs overlooking the proposed study area.

Wind generators have been the Rodney Dangerfields of the electricity market. They're unreliable, traditional utilities say. And expensive. So when Rob Gramlich, policy director of the American Wind Energy Association, got up to address the fifth Kansas Electric Transmission Summit on Friday, he seemed to be suppressing a smile. A previous presenter had just dropped a couple pretty stunning figures: about 13,000 megawatts of wind projects have been queued up for study, and the total could reach 40,000 to 60,000 megawatts in the near future. To put that in perspective: total peak demand in the heat of summer is only a little over 40,000 megawatts. ...A huge stumbling block for wind development is that the cost of connecting the wind farm to the electric grid can fall to the local utility. Most of the wind potential in Kansas is in rural areas served by small electric cooperatives, who therefore could be forced to underwrite connection to the network even though they may not use any of the electricity.

Councillors on Whitworth Town Council have unanimously said no to the proposed wind farm at Reaps Moss, Bacup. Although the final decision will rest with Rossendale Council, Whitworth, as a consultee, will recommend that the wind farm be turned down.

At an East Lindsey planning committee meeting, members voted unanimously to refuse an application for four turbines on farmland, from RWE npower Renewables Ltd. "If this went ahead, it would have a devastating impact on the landscape," said, Coun Terry Knowles.

Residents attending a meeting called by Ward 16 Coun. Dave Marsh didn't mince words when expressing their frustration and concerns over wind turbine projects proposed for the Bethany and Pontypool areas. ...a number of people left the Manvers Community Centre when representatives from the Ministry of Energy and Infrastucture spoke, while others interrupted the presentation to express their anger and frustration with the process.

Protesters are preparing for the latest round in a bitter dispute over a massive wind turbine proposed by the world-famous Glyndebourne Opera House. They claim that if it is allowed the 230-feet-high turbine will spoil the iconic beauty of the South Downs countryside. ...Ruth Chambers, the deputy chief executive of the Council for National Parks, said: "This case raises important national issues as it would be the largest turbine in any national park in England once the park comes into being. We are fully behind the local groups in opposing this threat to the precious downland landscape."

BEDFORD — Three years ago, Todd Hutzell of Rockwood thought Sand Spring Mountain in Somerset County provided one of the region’s most beautiful views. Now with 20 wind turbines lining the mountain just down the road, he has a much different view. “It doesn’t matter how far you go from them. You can see them,” Hutzell. Hutzell and his sister, Karen Ervin, spoke to about 200 Bedford County residents Monday night at a meeting of Save Our Allegheny Ridges, a nonprofit group formed last year to educate residents about the negative aspects of wind turbines.

An appeal brought by an energy company wanting to install eight wind turbines in Lincolnshire has been dismissed. Your Energy appealed to the Planning Inspectorate after its application was deferred by West Lindsey District Council for a third time in 2007. But an independent inspector ruled the turbines would cause "significant damage" to the landscape at Laughton. Your Energy's managing director Richard Mardon said the company was undertaking a legal review of the report.

The council has moved to ban turbines from Battle Hill Regional Park near Pauatahanui, park land that was once part of a major wind farm proposal. The rule change which is included in a revised draft of the park's management plan comes just five months after the council revoked permission for RES New Zealand to build three turbines in the park as part of a larger wind farm project.

Campaigners scored a victory against the developers of wind turbines on Tuesday. Plans to build a 60-metre monitoring mast near Tivetshall St Mary by Enertrag UK Ltd were rejected by a South Norfolk Council planning committee. Members of the public packed the council chamber to see six of seven councillors reject the application, with one abstention. They cited visual and environmental impacts among their reasons.

As supervisors develop an ordinance to regulate wind turbines, some people continue to express concern that a turbine facility proposed for the southern part of Wyoming County could hurt the watershed. "My concerns are when you cut off the top of the mountain, it creates runoff," Doug Ayers, a Noxen resident and conservationist, said.

A plan to bring energy from West Texas wind turbines to population centers in East Texas has some Hill Country residents crying foul. KUT's Mose Buchele has details on what's got them worried.

Commission members Peter Kaufman, LuAnn Zbinden, Mark Fraher, Stephen Cooney and Don Wilkes rejected the proposal because of concerns about "adverse effects upon the existing and probable future character of the neighborhood or its property values" and because "this specific site is not appropriate for this specific use."

... wind power has recently come under attack by groups that say it will ruin undeveloped areas and threaten wildlife. ...The opposition from citizens groups follows a statement last week by the Pennsylvania Biological Survey, which said wind turbines must be "properly sited" or they could destroy birds and bats. The nonprofit survey group didn't see wind energy development as suitable on many state-owned lands "where natural resource conservation is a major goal," especially land owned by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

The citizens group contesting the proposed locations of wind turbines in southern Brown County has asked county officials to take an active role in convincing the state to further study the health and safety impact. In more than two hours of presentations before a joint meeting of the county's Human Services Committee and Board of Health, group members cited sleep disorders, physical danger and well contamination among their reasons.

Opponents to the town's plan to build a wind turbine on the bluffs above White Crest Beach spoke out at a recent meeting of the National Seashore Advisory Commission. They had strong words for the Wellfleet Energy Commission and pointed questions for Seashore Supt. George Price. The Seashore, an abutter to the town-owned land where the 400-foot turbine will be located, has refrained from making any public statements for or against the project.

In recommending refusal, Jane Meek, the council's director of development and regeneration said Mr Culshaw "has failed to demonstrate the very special circumstances required to overcome the presumption against inappropriate development in the green belt". She said the siting, height and scale of the turbines would harm the open character of the area, and also that Mr Culshaw failed to submit adequate information to allow the council to assess the potential impact of noise from the turbines.

Hampton officials are concerned and upset, having just learned of a plan that calls for the construction of up to 10 wind turbines less than a quarter mile off Salisbury Beach, threatening the view of Hampton and Seabrook beaches and causing possible nautical hazards to recreational boaters and commercial fishermen. ...Salisbury officials were outraged their input was not sought in the draft plan and only learned of it about a week ago.

Plans to build a wind farm near a Shropshire town have been refused following a public inquiry. Nuon UK's proposals for seven wind turbines up to 360ft (110m) high at Bearstone, near Market Drayton, were considered at a public inquiry in May. ...However, the Planning Inspectorate said the scheme would mean a "marked and unacceptable reduction" for nearby residential areas.

The Unamaki Institute of Natural Resources, based in Eskasoni, is calling for consultations with the island's First Nations communities. The Pitu'paq committee, comprising Cape Breton's municipalities, First Nations communities and government agencies, has called for a full panel federal environmental assessment and independent Mi'kmaq environmental assessment. Laurie Suitor, intergovernmental relations adviser with the Unamaki institute, said Lisi, who is also Cape Breton Explorations chief financial officer, has yet to sit down with aboriginal groups to discuss the company's plan for 44 wind turbines and a hydroelectric plant powered by water from Lake Uist. "Unfortunately, he hasn't followed up on that to date," Suitor said, adding that an extensive federal review of the project is needed to sort through any potential negative environmental impacts that may arise. "A full panel federal environmental assessment would bring a lot more scrutiny to the project."