A decision to go ahead with an $150 million wind farm near Glen Innes has prompted Tenterfield Shire Council to promise it will do everything it can to consult with the community before any similar industry is approved in Tenterfield. The Glen Innes announcement has sparked criticism the NSW Government has ignored community concerns.

Commissioners considering an extension to the Te Rere Hau wind farm have requested more information about changes to the Tararua District Plan. ...The hearing adjourned a week ago. The council released decisions on submissions to the proposed district plan earlier this month.

Small wind farm developer New Zealand Windfarms intends to install the turbines of Windflow Technology on an extension to its Manawatu wind farm despite their dispute over whether they are "fit for purpose". NZ Windfarms was at a resource consent hearing in Palmerston North last week, seeking to install 56 Windflow 0.5 megawatt two-bladed turbines on an extension to its Te Rere Hau wind farm in Manawatu.

Project Hayes was a 630 MW windfarm proposed for an upland plateau in Central Otago in the South Island of New Zealand. An appeal to the Environment Court has resulted in a judgement revoking the consent ...The 350 page judgement was delivered after nine months of deliberation by the Court. The judgement acknowledged the outstanding value of the landscape and loss of this value if the windfarm was built. The other major component of the decision revolved around the magnitude of the economic benefit to people and communities from building this windfarm compared to alternatives. The court was very critical of the lack of economic analysis.

The spectrum of opinions about Acciona Energy's 96-turbine wind farm planned for sites south and east of Mortlake bubbled to the surface yesterday at a community information day. Landholders who had been approached by the Spanish-based firm to host the turbines mingled with vehement critics adamant the 130-metre-high towers would destroy the landscape.

The Environment Court's rejection of the $2 billion Project Hayes wind farm needs to be tested in the High Court, says former Meridian chief executive Keith Turner. Dr Turner is disappointed the Environment Court last Friday denied a consent for Meridian's proposed wind farm because of concern about its impact on Central Otago's landscape. He said the area had been called "a hellhole" by locals because it was so windy and barren.

New research shows developers cannot count on "the silent majority" as necessarily supporting a project. While there was a perception that only "stroppy naysayers" put in submissions on resource consent applications and the silent majority was probably in favour, a University of Otago study into wind farm developments showed that was not true, Dr Janet Stephenson said last week. Instead, non-submitters were equally likely to oppose or support a proposal.

Wind farm developers trying to get consent for schemes are frustrated by a constant "raising of the bar"and the Environment Court decision against Project Hayes last week contains more worrying elements, a national wind energy group says. New Zealand Wind Energy Association chief executive Fraser Clark was disappointed with the decision and said it would hinder the development of other renewable energy schemes.

Jubilant opponents of the wind farm have hailed the decision as a victory for the "small guys". Appellant John Douglas said it showed what could happen when community groups stood up for what they believed in. "It's also a slap in the face to show companies they have to respect what's in the district plan and the criteria in the Resource Management Act."

"It was an inappropriate scheme in an inappropriate place and I always felt that the bench would recognise that." That was Project Hayes appellant Grahame Sydney's reaction yesterday to the Environment Court's decision to uphold an appeal against Meridian Energy's proposed $2 billion wind farm on the Lammermoor Range in Central Otago. In a 350-page decision released to parties yesterday, the court refused consents for Project Hayes.

State-owned Meridian Energy's $2 billion Project Hayes wind farm proposal has been rejected in the Environment Court, dealing a savage blow to the wind power sector. The parties were handed a 350- page decision yesterday, which upheld the appeal against an earlier consent from local councils for the project. Environmental groups are claiming a "comprehensive victory" against the Central Otago project. ...An electricity industry source said the Environment Court "slammed Meridian".

A collection of humble plants clinging to 600 million-year-old rocks on a distant mountain range and a small dragon given to promiscuous sex under a hot sun have forced planners to redraw the map for the southern hemisphere's biggest wind farm. The discovery that spinifex - normally an inhabitant of the red dirt plains below - is living on sediment probably deposited in the last Ice Age and has red mallee and gum coolibah trees for neighbours is so strange and rare that the Silverton wind farm designers have moved 153 turbines from some of the windiest ridges.

The Environment Court has upheld an appeal against Meridian Energy's proposed $2 billion 176-turbine Project Hayes wind farm. The decision represents a startling "David and Goliath'' victory for the conservation groups who fought to preserve the landscape in a remote part of Central Otago. Consents for the project were declined in a mammoth 350-page ruling by the Court, published today.

The $150 million, 26-turbine Glen Innes Wind Farm project has been approved by the NSW Department of Planning, despite a campaign by some neighbours for a 2km setback and an ongoing State Parliament inquiry into rural wind farms. ...Due to "unacceptable visual and noise impacts" one of the 130m turbines was removed from the plan, Ms Keneally said.

Meridian Energy's boss has given Martinborough hints of a company backdown over a proposed wind farm. More than 150 residents met this week as opposition mounts to the company's proposal for a 45-turbine wind farm near a protected hill range. Chief executive Tim Lusk, who lives in Martinborough with wife Lesley, joined residents as the concerns were aired this week.

More than 150 Martinborough residents have vowed to fight against Meridian Energy's plan to build a wind farm near a protected ridge of hills after attending a public meeting in their town hall on Tuesday night. ...Residents living near existing or proposed wind farms in Makara, Ashurst and Taihape said the reality of living by wind farms was vastly different and worse than what they were told to expect during the consultation processes.

A group of Waikato land owners say Contact Energy's behaviour has been disgraceful over the handling of its proposed $1 billion wind farm planned for the region. Contact Energy is holdings its annual meeting in Wellington today, and a group of land owners plan to tell the directors of the company about their outrage over the Hauauru ma raki wind farm.

Protest is mounting against Meridian Energy's push for a big wind farm near Martinborough. Residents, fired up since Meridian made public its plan for a 50-turbine farm near a ridge known as Nga Waka O Kupe, have called a public meeting next week. Vineyard owners and local iwi are among those opposed. ...With opposition growing and calls for a united front to shut down the plan, Meridian is now urging opponents against "knee- jerk reactions".

A proposal to classify the Tararua Ranges behind Horowhenua as an outstanding natural landscape is opening up a wind farm debate among landowners. Under the Horowhenua District Council's proposed District Plan change, 22 wind turbines, each about 65 metres tall, would not get resource consent to be built in the ranges. If the changes go through, buildings and network utilities taller than three metres would be classed as non-complying activities.

State-owned power company Meridian is going ahead with construction of a $200 million, 64 megawatt wind farm near Raglan, in partnership with Waikato's lines company WEL Networks. The new wind farm construction is starting just as Meridian is finishing its 62-turbine project at West Wind, near Wellington. The Raglan project was first announced by WEL 3½ years ago, when it was expected to cost about $140m and involve a 72MW wind farm which it expected to have running last year.