As this month's power station tracker shows, planning remains the biggest hurdle for many onshore windfarm projects. But opposition to windfarms leaves many in the industry nonplussed and with a suspicion that it is just simply an expression of NIMBYism - ie not in my backyard, by the holiday property owning class. In the following article, Jill Hatcher, from the main NGO that has expressed concerns about windfarms, sets out a more coherent view. Across the hills and lowland plains of England, new age windmills are an increasingly common sight. Turbines reaching heights taller than Big Ben's clock tower are set to multiply rapidly in number - the Campaign to Protect Rural England predicts a potential 1,000 square miles of our countryside could be covered by windfarms by 2020. CPRE says minimising the harm rendered to the landscape by new renewable energy development must be a key issue for the industry and the land-use planning system.
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