A group of farmers near Walkamin, on the Atherton Tableland, has come out against a proposed wind farm near their properties at Mt Emerald. Yesterday, about 10 growers met Tablelands Regional councillors and Dalrymple MP Shane Knuth at a property near the proposed site.

The Land and Environment Court has rejected an appeal against a wind farm development in the southern New South Wales village of Taralga. Handing down the judgement this morning, the chief judge of the court, Justice Preston, said a wind farm was a difficult concept for some people to accept. "The insertion of wind turbines into a non-industrial landscape is perceived by many as a radical change which confronts their present reality," Justice Preston said in his ruling. "However, those perceptions come in differing hues. To residents, such as members of Taralga Landscape Guardians Inc (the Guardians), the change is stark and negative. It would represent a blight and the confrontation is with their enjoyment of their rural setting." "To others, however, the change is positive. It would represent an opportunity to shift from societal dependence on high emission fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. For them, the confrontation is beneficial – being one much needed step in policy settings confronting carbon emissions and global warming." "Resolving this conundrum - the conflict between the geographically narrower concerns of the Guardians and the broader public good of increasing the supply of renewable energy - has not been easy," he said. However, I have concluded that, on balance, the broader public good must prevail." RES Southern Cross plans to build 62 wind turbines near the village of Taralga. It was originally to be 69, but the company failed to secure the consent of the landowner where the turbines would have been placed.

Fledgling power generator New Zealand Windfarms has confirmed a joint venture with two Australian partners for what it hopes will become a 97 turbine project in the northern Tararua Ranges.

A $3 billion Australian finance company, Allco, says its New Zealand subsidiary is considering whether to appeal against constraints on its proposed windfarm in the Tararuas. Allco Wind Energy NZ (AWE) was last night granted approval to build a windfarm in the Tararua Ranges on the overlap of the Manawatu and Horowhenua districts, but on a much smaller scale than it had hoped. The company's technical director, Bernhard Voll, said today that it was looking at the details of the decision and considering whether to appeal the resource consent granted for just 75 of the 127 turbines it had sought.

A new assessment group says Tasmania's wind farms are not as controversial as the ones interstate. The Australian Council of National Trusts (ACNT) and the Australian Wind Energy Association (AusWEA) are working together to create a national plan for wind farm development. The coalition will assess the impact of wind farms on the landscape and community attitudes about the infrastructure. Study team director Mike Scott says Tasmanian wind farms are not a politically charged issue. "Farms that you have at the moment have been located in areas that aren't highly publicly accessible," he said. "That's probably the reason why they haven't become a hot issue so far."

“It’s not damage, it’s wear and tear the sort of thing you expect with a new plant.'’ Each turbine is 70m tall and has 35m blades. “It’s a major job it’s a big piece of equipment.'’ He said “less than a dozen'’ of the 55 turbines at the site need replacement parts to be ordered from their Danish manufacturer. The damage is to “gearboxes mostly, and a couple of blades'’, which developed hairline fractures.

An appeal against the Te Rere Hau wind farm extension on the Tararua Range has been withdrawn. The withdrawal means embattled New Zealand Windfarms can start the extension, involving up to 56 turbines, immediately.

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.

Now staff at Canterbury University reckon they have got a better way using technology and international weather data. Professor Andy Sturman says the data is run through a computer and combined with the local topography to give wind direction, strength and variability.

Just 80 of the Blayney Shire's 6,600 residents showed up to a town meeting to discuss the proposed $200 million Flyers Creek wind farm project on Monday night. A majority of the 80 people in attendance are opposed to the wind farm in live in close proximity to where it will operate.

The Power and Water Corporation says it has received four expressions of interest from parties hoping to build a wind farm at Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.

Apart from The Sisters, two proposed wind farms, at Chepstowe and Pykes Hill, are currently seeking approval. No new applications for wind farms have been made since the November election, but Mr Guy said the industry's predictions of a wind farm exodus to more friendly states was false.

The long awaited Community Information day conducted in Scone by development group Pamada, did little to diffuse tensions over the proposed Kyoto Windfarm set to be constructed on the outskirts of Scone. ...Many questions were repeatedly met with, ‘the right answer to that, is I don't know', by Pamada Founder and Director Mark Sydney. The response only seemed to anger residents as they were forced to ask, ‘well if you don't know, then who does?' ...Likewise, another comment suggested the decision to place turbines atop the mountainous ranges over Scone was to act as a billboard for the government's support of green energy.

Under normal circumstances, New Zealand has electricity to burn. But get a combination of factors such as that which occurred in June, and we are running close to our limits. .....The main limitation with wind generation is that the wind must be blowing. Wind power has to be carefully integrated with other forms of generation.

Some residents of Auckland, New Zealand, have been complaining about a mysterious and uninterrupted hum haunting the country's largest city. The low-frequency noise is audible only to a small number of people. But for some, it is so bothersome that they have put their homes up for sale or have started taking anti-anxiety medication.
Editor's Note: To listen to the 'Auckland Hum', visit NPR's website via the link provided below.

Consumers could face larger bills, as energy companies invest billions of dollars in new projects, according to industry experts. Geothermal sources and wind farms are good options for some companies, while other suppliers insist coal-fired plants and natural gas powered production are more efficient and reliable.

A recent report published by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has said large wind farms such as proposed here are not the way forward for New Zealand, the significant adverse impacts are avoidable by harnessing wind power using smaller clusters of small turbines servicing remote towns, and this will be better for the country. Unfortunately this report was published just after our hearing was completed.

A contentious wind farm proposal for The Sisters has been rejected by Victoria's planning tribunal, leaving deep divisions in the small dairying community. In a rare ruling against the burgeoning green energy sector the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal upheld Moyne Shire Council's refusal of a planning permit for the multi-million-dollar project.

Moyne mayor Jim Doukas yesterday welcomed the company's decision abandoning its plans, saying: "It's finally come to rest." Beef farmer Neil Blain described the wind farm company's decision to withdraw as "brilliant".

Thieves apparently targeting copper wire at the Tararua wind farm have brought 31 turbines to a halt, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and risked electrocution, TrustPower says.