The beauty of windfarms – in pictures

A windfarm in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire. Photograph: Christopher Thomond

Turbines near Burra in South Australia. Photograph: Angela Harper/AAP

Windmills off the coast of Ramsgate in Kent. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/AP

Turbines in the Mojave desert, California. Photograph: Sinibaldi/Getty Images

Twenty kilometers from England's Kent and Essex coasts, the world's largest offshore windfarm has started harvesting the breezes over the sea. Located in the Thames Estuary, where the River Thames meets the North Sea, the London Array has a maximum generating power of 630 megawatts (MW), enough to supply as many as 500,000 homes. The windfarm became fully operational on 8 April 2013. Credits: OLI/Landsat-8/NASA

A turbine on the island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Photograph: Murdo Macleod

The Braes of Doune windfarm behind Stirling Castle. Photograph: Alamy

Figures from the British artist Antony Gormley's Another Place installation in front of turbines in the mouth of the river Mersey. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

A stork stands in its nest amid turning wind turbines near Schoeneck, Germany. Photograph: Frank Rumpenhorst/EPA

A band of sunlight shines through snow clouds to illuminate wind generators near Palm Springs in California. Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images

The windfarm off Scroby Sands in East Anglia has its own microclimate. The turbine blades churn up warm air at sea level, mixing it with cooler air above. When the conditions are just right, the towering turbines create their very own low-level clouds. Photograph: Albanpix/Rex Features

An offshore windfarm near Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. Photograph: Dong Energy

Wind turbines are seen in the Landes de Couesme windfarm near La Gacilly seen near the church in Saint-Nicolas-du-Tertre, western France. Photograph: Stephane Mahe/REUTERS

Seaton Carew beach near Hartlepool, north-east England. Photograph: Alamy

Turbines at sea near Prestatyn, north Wales. Photograph: Christopher Thomond

Sheep graze in the Te Apiti windfarm in Manawatu Gorge, New Zealand. Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images

Turbines off the coast of north Lincolnshire, England. Photograph: David Sillitoe

Poppies in a windfarm in La Muela, Spain. Photograph: Tor Eigeland/Alamy