The 19 turbines of the wind farm on the Sattelberg Mountain in Italy would have stood at an altitude of over 2,000 metres. The Region of South Tyrol had authorised the project despite widespread opposition: the Environmental Advisory Committee returned a negative verdict, as did the Austrian State of Tyrol. The umbrella organization of Alpine clubs, the Club Arc Alpin, had even appealed to the review committee of the Alpine Convention, in which representatives of all Alpine states rule on breaches of the international treaty. Now the administrative tribunal in Bolzano has accepted the appeal by several environmental associations and revoked the permit for the wind farm. The reason given is that, at altitudes of over 1,600 metres, the mountains in South Tyrol are covered by landscape protection regulations. An additional reason is the Alpine Convention: for projects with cross-border effects on the environment, "the opinions of the Treaty States must be given appropriate consideration in the context the authorisation procedures". The ruling further states that such consideration was extremely limited and involved debatable evidence.
Source and further information: www.umwelt.bz.it/presse , http://unsersattelberg.files.wordpress.com/2012/11