Plans to build nine giant 93m-high wind turbines near the iconic Gleneagles Hotel have been approved by the Scottish Government, despite more than 400 complaints from locals. Developers have been battling for more than a decade to build the Strathallan Wind Farm at Greenscares.

Impact on Landscape Impact on Views UK

The wind turbines are currently on hold due to a lawsuit from neighbors, claiming their property would have decreased value with the turbines obstructing their view. The petition put together by the Crazy Mountain Neighbor Coalition currently has more than 200 signatures from people across the state. Pattern Energy anticipates construction will begin in the spring of 2020.

Impact on Landscape Impact on Views Montana

“The agency can and should improve the draft provided,” the council’s letter read. “Projects that are consistent with current laws and regulations, are guided by science, that protect intact forests, that promote sustainable and resilient communities, and that expand carbon sequestration and the resiliency of natural and human communities will be key to making New York and the Adirondacks a world leader in the fight against climate change.”

Impact on Landscape New York

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

Historical enemies are uniting to protest against the building of massive wind turbines near the site of the battle of Agincourt. Parties from both sides of the channel have moved to condemn the idea of having the 500ft structures looming over the site of one of Britain’s most indelible victories ever. 

Impact on Landscape Europe UK

"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

Caithness is being "trashed" by turbines, according to an anti-wind-farm campaigner who is opposed to three new projects planned for the county. Brenda Herrick insists the far north has "more than its share" of wind farms and is past its saturation point.

Impact on Landscape UK

A recent series of protests by a small number of people living close to the site at Bellacorick has highlighted wider concerns about the developers’ approach. “North Mayo has learned the meaning of community but the handling of this wind-farm project so far shows the State clearly has not,” says Brendan Lavelle of Keenagh Community Development.

Impact on Landscape Impact on People Ireland

“While wind farms can make an important contribution to reducing greenhouse gasses, so do peat lands. When we build a wind farm on peat land it is self-defeating in terms of the environment. The site is within a 6 mile distance of nesting birds of prey and adjacent to the Water of Dye which is included in the river Dee Special Area of conservation.

Impact on Landscape UK

There are 7,100 onshore wind turbines in Britain, and just under 2,000 off shore. Corbyn’s plan, unveiled in a briefing note at Labour’s Party Conference, is to double the number of turbines on land. He also intends to add a further 12,000 offshore turbines ...The country will be carpeted with wind farms if Corbyn gets his way. 

Impact on Landscape UK

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

Wind Energy Partners say the delay is the result of extra studies on the project’s visual and noise impacts, which have been undertaken in response to community concerns. Meanwhile, the Hills of Gold Preservation group met in Nundle on Thursday night, to highlight a number of concerns regarding the 98-turbine project.

Impact on Landscape Noise Australia

Villagers from the far north coast of Scotland have travelled to Edinburgh to deliver a petition against plans to build two giant wind farms in a region known for its dramatic scenery. Locals fear the schemes, ...will have a “devastating” impact on the village of Reay and the Caithness countryside.

Impact on Landscape Impact on People UK

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