The sPower plant would consume 10 square miles of designated forest lands. That is half the size of Manhattan, and larger than the entire city of Fredericksburg. The four larger solar power plants are located in the desert of the U.S. Southwest, far from any residential areas. The project is just plain wrong for Spotsylvania on several levels.

Impact on Landscape Impact on People Virginia

Opponents argue that the 600-foot-tall, 2,400-ton turbines would diminish the area’s natural beauty and harm sensitive geologic features that provide habitat to 16 endangered species, including bats and crustaceans that live in caves and underground streams. ...Opponents got a boost in October, when the Illinois Department of Natural Resources published a report, known as an Ecological Compliance Assessment Tool (EcoCAT), examining how natural areas and endangered species could be affected by the proposed wind farm. The agency made 19 recommendations. The first was for the developer to consider an alternate location.

Impact on Wildlife Impact on Landscape Illinois

A company called S-Power wants to build a massive solar energy center on 6,000 acres ...More than half of the land would be covered with solar panels. "This would be the fifth largest solar plant in the United States. ...All 10 of (the largest of) these are nowhere near a residential area." 

Impact on Landscape Impact on People Virginia

Do rural Americans have a say in what they see outside their dining-room windows, even if that view extends miles beyond their property lines? It’s a more profound debate than it might seem, having as much to do with the future of farming communities and land values as it does with aesthetics. And for the wind industry, it poses a sharp challenge. As turbines get ever bigger and more visible as they spread across rural areas, they become more controversial, threatening the industry’s growth.

Impact on Landscape Impact on Views North Dakota

But David Sinclair with Louisville Gas & Electric brought up a number of practical hurdles t...For example, if the city were to produce renewable energy from within the county, it would take 20 percent of the entire land in Jefferson County to meet the city’s needs with solar and 90 percent with wind power, Sinclair said.

Impact on Landscape Energy Policy Kentucky

"The purpose of the policy is to provide guidance for the review and approval of renewable energy projects inside the Adirondack Park with regards to the Adirondack Park Agency Act, the Freshwater Wetlands Act and the Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers Act," a press release says. "The policy is envisioned to advance renewable energy sources."

Impact on Landscape New York

Conflicts between energy producers and conservationists are nothing new in Texas, but a recent fight in Val Verde County centers around wind farms and whether they belong in one of the wildest natural areas left in the state. Members of the Devils River Conservancy, whose group includes landowners with property on the Devils River, have launched a campaign called “Don’t Blow It,” to advocate against wind development along the Devils and Pecos rivers north of the Texas-Mexico border.

Impact on Landscape Texas

Though still a long way from fruition — or even a concrete application — the prospect of up to about 50 turbines and 200 megawatts has already stoked debate across some of the surrounding farms and growing bedroom communities of Monroe County.

Impact on Landscape Impact on People Missouri

The Aug. 1 appeal from the Boulevard Planning Group says they object to the “weasel worded findings” of county staff to turn their rural community into a “renewable energy sacrifice zone.” New York-based renewable energy company Terra-Gen, which has an office in San Diego as well, wants to build a 126-megawatt project on a 2,000-acre private ranch in northern Boulevard. 

Impact on Landscape Impact on People California

Tisdale urges the public to “speak out with any concerns or any personal knowledge you may have of turbine noise impacts, health impacts, local wildlife,cultural, and groundwater resources or other related issues. These projects use millions of gallons of water for construction.” This meeting and public comments will help decide what issues should be included in the project environmental impact studies.

Impact on Landscape Impact on People California

“This fall we plan on installing additional sleeving over another section of cable to protect it from potential damage from a stray anchor or other heavy object. We will be meeting with the Coastal Resources Management Council and Deepwater Wind [on Thursday, Aug. 9] to discuss the current situation and explore other options. We will keep the town and other officials updated accordingly.”

Impact on Landscape Transmission Rhode Island

County Mapping, Platting and Zoning Director Mike Fausz said the windmills Koppeis is hoping to erect would be among the largest in the state of Illinois. He also said the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) has signaled it has concerns about the wind farm. 

Impact on Landscape Impact on People Illinois

“There was a large group of landowners here in Val Verde that are concerned about the impacts of that and their respective property rights. This is a very strong state for private property rights, and we belong to that line of thinking, and we believe we can do whatever we can on our individual properties, as long as it doesn’t harm our neighbors,” he added.

Impact on Landscape Impact on People Texas

Impact on Landscape Impact on People Nebraska

Opposition to wind farms in Texas is escalating as more projects are proposed close to where people live. More and more Texans find that giant turbines aren’t good neighbors. Now, no one is trying to eliminate renewable energy. What we – and many of your neighbors – are calling for is an honest discussion about the true costs of subsidizing wind energy.

Impact on Landscape Impact on People Texas

Some residents in Sandusky and Seneca counties say towering turbines would shatter their peace.

Impact on Landscape Impact on People Ohio

For more than 50 years, Carolyn Semin has treasured the black nighttime skies in the Nebraska Sandhills dotted with twinkling stars. "People come from all over the world to look at it, especially at Merritt Reservoir for the annual Star Party," she says.

Impact on Wildlife Impact on Landscape Nebraska

The Tug Hill Commission and the Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust have both released issue papers detailing how wind farms, for better or worse, impact surrounding areas.

Impact on Wildlife Impact on Landscape New York

To end the current destructive “Wild West” approach to renewable energy siting in Rhode Island, we believe that the state should immediately place a moratorium on state incentives for utility-scale renewable-energy development ...until the state establishes economic incentives to encourage the siting of utility-scale renewable energy on developed and disturbed locations, such as landfills, brownfields, rooftops, parking lot canopies, and gravel banks, and disincentives to prevent the continued loss of our forests and prime agricultural soils.

Impact on Landscape Rhode Island

As part of its review process to determine whether to approve an application to allow construction of wind turbines on 32,000 acres of public land in Nevada adjacent to the California border just west of Searchlight, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) conducted a series of scoping meetings to allow public input. At a recent meeting in Las Vegas a half dozen speakers largely expressed support for renewable energy but not on the proposed site.

Impact on Landscape Impact on People Nevada