A board of inquiry hearing into the Turitea Wind Farm application begins today at the Travelodge. It is scheduled to finish on September 2.

State-owned power company Mighty River Power has applied to build a 122-turbine wind farm along the Tararua Ranges, in and around the Turitea Reserve.

If successful, it will be visible when driving along Fitzherbert Ave towards Massey University.

The resource consent application is being heard by a board of inquiry, instead of the Palmerston North City Council, after Environment Minister Nick Smith called in the project, because of its "national significance", and appointed the board of inquiry.

Palmerston North Mayor Jono Naylor said he still believed the matter could have been handled locally, but was looking forward to the hearing.

"It's great that it's finally under way. There's been a lot of speculation for a long time about it, and I'm looking forward to the board of inquiry coming to their conclusion so we can move forward with certainty."

The council is among submitters to the board, and has a contractual agreement with Mighty River Power to lease land to the company.

But Mr Naylor was unsure about the benefits of the one-step call-in process, which only allowed for appeal on a point of law.

Submitter Leigh Dome, who opposed the project, said the absence of the appeal option meant all the submitters had been working hard to get their "ducks in a row".

"Me and a lot of other people had to use up a lot of our life in the past few months trying to prepare for this ... We all feel we've got one shot at it."

There was a feeling of relief that the hearing had finally arrived, she said. "It's been dragging out this long, it would be nice to finally get things under way."

The hearing was to begin at 10am today, with applicant Mighty River Power's opening statement first up.

AT A GLANCE

122 turbines on a possible 127 sites.

Each would stand a maximum of 125m tall, from base to tip of the blade (a rugby field is 100m from tryline to tryline). If turbines were the maximum height, 112 would be built.

The wind-farm site would be about 10km southeast of Palmerston North's Square, mostly stretching along a 14km ridge in the northern Tararua Ranges, with turbines in and around the Turitea Reserve.

Driving down Fitzherbert Ave towards Massey University, turbines would be visible along the skyline.

The turbines would range in output from 2 to 3.5 megawatts.

Substations and towers connecting cabling to carry the power to the national grid would also be built.

Ad Feedback Economic estimates from Mighty River Power suggest the wind farm could inject about $500 million into the region, along with 250 jobs.

702 submissions were received by the Environment Ministry, with about 66 per cent in opposition, and 20 per cent in support. The remainder were neutral.

WHAT IS A CALL IN?

Usually, a resource consent application is heard by the local authority, which then makes a ruling, granting or denying the application.

This can then be appealed to the Environment Court.

A call-in fast tracks this process by skipping the local authority stage and sending it straight to the Environment Court or a board of inquiry.

Interested parties can still make submissions, but the decision reached can be appealed only on a point of law to the High Court.

The Environment Minister may call in any application he deems to be of "national significance".

Minister Nick Smith called-in the project in December as part of a policy of fast-tracking large renewable energy projects, which will help New Zealand meet its Kyoto Protocol obligations, which commits the country to 90 per cent renewable energy by 2025.

THE VENUE

The board of inquiry hearing will be held intermittently over two months.

It will held at the Travelodge until August 7, before shifting to Arena Manawatu for the final two weeks.

DATES

• Monday, July 6 Wednesday, July 8.
• Monday, July 13 Friday, July 17.
• Monday, July 27 Friday, July 31.
• Monday, August 3 Friday, August 7.
• Monday, August 24 Friday, August 28.
• Monday, August 31 Wednesday September 2.

TIMES

Hearings will start at 10am on Mondays, and 9am on other days. It will end at 5pm each day. Lunch will be from about 1pm to 2.15pm, with 15-minute breaks at 11.30am and 3.30pm.

The board of inquiry is chaired by Environment Court Judge Shonagh Kenderdine.

The other members are Richard Heerdegen, a consultant and certified RMA hearings commissioner; John Hudson, a landscape architect; Vivian Kloosterman, managing director of VK Consulting Environmental Engineers Ltd; Chris Shenton, who has tribal affiliations with Whanganui, Ngati Apa, Ngati Hauiti, and others.