Renewable energy companies across the south-west say the Coalition's new climate change policy will have little impact on a crisis facing their sector. Portland-based Keppel Prince Engineering yesterday asked 70 employees to take leave while it waits for the Federal Government to reassess the way renewable energy certificates are allocated.

A renewable energy entrepreneur says he will be forced to cut 150 staff from his company unless the Federal Government can deliver more assistance to wind power equipment manufacturers. The threat comes as the Government's rebate for solar hot water has created huge demand, forcing down prices for renewable energy credits and stifling demand for other forms of alternative energy.

The Federal Government's renewable energy targets will hit hospitals hard, increasing operating costs by millions of dollars every year, a Senate inquiry has been told. Labor plans to drive investment in renewable energy and wants a target of having 20 per cent of electricity coming from green sources by 2020.

Tasmania's first wind-power generator is planning to lay off nine workers as it continues to rationalise its business. Roaring 40s -- a 50-50 joint venture between Hydro Tasmania and Chinese Light and Power -- employs 54 Tasmanian staff plus contractors. ...Sixty turbines will be erected at Cape Portland and a new transmission line will connect the wind farm to the Tasmanian electricity grid at Derby.

Babcock & Brown Ltd.'s fight to avoid becoming Australia's next victim of the credit crisis may depend on convincing bankers that it can sell assets in a market where others have failed. Babcock slumped 51 percent in Sydney trading since Nov. 6, when ABN Amro Holdings NV analyst John Heagerty said the owner of wind farms and real estate may breach loan agreements next year. ...Babcock said June 16 it was "confident'' the wind assets would be sold this year -- an assumption Heagerty said may prove too optimistic. "The sale of Babcock's wind assets is likely to be postponed further given the difficulties for the acquirers in obtaining financing,'' he said.

Wind farms are blowing land values off course, slashing property tags by up to a third in some areas and lifting others by as much $50,000 per turbine. A new study shows the presence of wind turbines significantly influence land values - but it's not all bad. The study co-incides with a new push by the Federal Government to speed up the building opf wind farms across Australia. Ballarat-based value Alan Hives said there had now been enough sales of property featuring or near wind farms to draw some conclusions of their impact on property values.

The group behind what is said to be Australia's first community-owned wind farm says the global financial crisis has affected fundraising for the project. Hepburn Wind wants to build two turbines at Leonard's Hill near Daylesford. It has spent the past three months trying to raise $5 million from investors, but it has only received share applications worth $2 million.

Greenpower users will be double billed if changes to the new greenhouse gas reporting system are not made, says University of Adelaide climate change Professor Barry Brook. This could cause the GreenPower national accreditation scheme to "implode" when an emissions trading scheme is introduced in 2010. Professor Brook said the almost 750,000 households and businesses using GreenPower nationally would be penalised once an emissions trading scheme was introduced as they would be paying extra to buy power from renewable sources.

Unreliable renewable generation contributes to high spot prices. "The flaws in the policy to ban new thermal power stations are being graphically illustrated by current high electricity spot prices," said Ralph Matthes, Executive Director of the Major Electricity Users' Group (MEUG). "Yesterday provisional spot prices at Haywards averaged 19 c/kWh. These are extremely high prices reflecting relatively tight supply. Yet there was no security of supply risk yesterday, just generators pricing their output to reflect current and possible future scarcity. The existence of unreliable and intermittent renewable generation such as wind did not mitigate the high spot prices. ..."Yesterday the Te Apiti wind farm had peak generation of approximately 30 MW. Installed wind turbine capacity at Te Apiti is 90 MW. Average wind generation for the whole day from Te Apiti was approximately 12 MW. Just when we need as much supply as possible to cover known outages and hence put pressure on spot prices, wind has been missing.

Investing in a Te Uku wind farm is as risky as buying an apartment in Auckland. ...Mr Gallagher presented calculations which showed a rate of return of 1.1 per cent on the wind farm. "If the wind energy is just 4.1 per cent less than forecast then the project changes from a marginal investment to a rejected investment proposal." He said a more effective investment for Wel would be to spend $200 million installing 70,000 heat pumps in Waikato homes.

Mr Gallagher's research underpinned by interviews with 85 tourists, selected at random on Raglan streets in January and February suggests visitor numbers would plunge from the current upward trend into decline, with most accommodation providers, tourism activities or attractions hit by the wind farm. ...The company found Raglan would go from a position of having "net word-of-mouth" of 75 per cent positive feedback from visitors to having a net word-of-mouth of 84 per cent negative. "In other words visitors would tell their friends to stay away.

Victorian Nationals Energy spokesman Peter Hall has called on the Government to acknowledge that windfarms devalue properties surrounding the land on which they are sited, and to review planning guidelines to reflect the drop in value. Mr Hall said that irrefutable proof of property devaluation was contained in conditions attached to a recent planning permit issued by South Gippsland Shire Council. The condition, attached to a permit to subdivide land adjoining the proposed Bald Hills wind energy facility, requires future land owners to be advised that "residents on the lots may experience detrimental amenity affects arising from the facility such as noise, blade glint and blade flicker." ..."The Government's renewable energy policies should be targeted at those renewables that have less negative environmental impacts such as solar, geothermal and bio-fuels," Mr Hall concluded.

The government's new plans to get power from sustainable sources are being slammed by some business leaders. The government says it wants "wind and water power" rather than coal and gas energy but the business leaders say it is not necessarily the cheaper option. ... "Sometimes frankly it doesn't rain and the wind doesn't blow and if that's going to be the case what are going to do to keep the lights on come 2025," O'Reilly says. And despite the government's claims renewable energy will be cheaper for all of us in the long term, the cost of a carbon emissions trading scheme alone is likely to increase power bills and there's no hard evidence windfarms can combat that.

A proposed wind farm in the Ahipara gumfields is still undergoing investigation by the Department of Conservation. Meridian Energy applied for a concession from DOC in 2006 to develop a wind farm on the Epakauri conservation area.

The State Government has commenced a 15 week consultation process on its renewable energy strategy, after economic modelling revealed the costs of reaching its target of 15 per cent renewable energy by 2020 would exceed $1 billion. More than $1 billion will need to be invested in renewable energy in Western Australia if the State Government is to reach its target of 15 per cent renewable energy by 2020, new data has revealed.

Meridian has sent letters to its 2500 Marlborough customers informing them of the rise, which follows annual price rises by other electricity suppliers Trustpower (8.1 percent in June) and Contact Energy (nine percent in July last year). Genesis Energy public affairs manager Richard Gordon said he could not recall any recent price rises and the company did not have any plans to do so for at least a year. Meridian spokesman Alan Seay said electricity increases were never good news but that the price rise was necessary and reflected the overall cost of supplying electricity......Mr Seay said the considerable price increase in Marlborough was attributable to increasing demand in the South Island, where dairying and viticulture were flourishing. As a result, Meridian was investing money into new hydro schemes and wind farms in Wellington and Central Otago.

Proposed wind farms at Yendon and Elaine would dominate the landscape and reduce property values, a community group has claimed. Spokesman for the Lal Lal and Landscape Elaine Action Group John McMahon expressed concern at the size of both the proposed wind farms and turbines. "It is a very, very large project, (with) up to 79 turbines. It's very big, and these turbines are enormous."

Wind power companies offering farmers lucrative contracts for turbine sites are driving a wedge between some country communities as neighbours are forced to "pay up or put up" with noise disruption and possible health problems. Three farmers involved with new wind farms told Rural News that power company negotiators tell farmers there will be no potential noise or health problems from turbines, in spite of contrary evidence from international researchers. One farmer says he signed up for 14 turbines, to earn $140,000 per year for 40 years, after being told by the power company that the turbines would be "ecofriendly". Now he thinks he should have done more research.

A $250 million wind farm planned for rural Victoria will help "drought-proof" struggling farms, the company behind the project says. The Victorian government on Thursday signed off WestWind Energy's plan to build a 160-megawatt wind farm at Mt Mercer, 30km south of Ballarat.

WIND power is behind an economic boom in the state's Mid North, which is reaping millions for local drought-affected communities. The first turbine at AGL's wind farm at Hallett is about to be switched on and 44 others are under construction. In one of the worst years for local farmers in history, construction of the $230 million project has provided communities with a much needed alternative source of income.