A planned third wind farm could take the number of turbines dotting Wellington's wind-swept outer hills to more than 140 ...The proposal, which has yet to receive resource consent, would place between 20 and 50 New Zealand-made turbines in Long Gully, which runs south behind the Brooklyn wind turbine in Wellington. State-owned Mighty River Power has signed a deal with New Zealand turbine manufacturer Windflow Technology to provide turbines for the project.

The power company yesterday lodged resource consent paperwork for a 180 turbine wind farm 35km northwest of Huntly. The project was originally proposed to have more than 200 turbines. ...The 540MW capacity wind farm would be spread in nine clusters of 150m high turbines along 40km of remote and privately-owned pastoral farmland. Waikato District Council environmental services group manager Nath Pritchard anticipated the biggest issue would be the sheer size of the proposed wind farm. "For us the biggest issue is the fact it's going to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, wind farm in New Zealand ... that will be a challenge in itself."

Contact Energy today filed resource consent applications for the company's Hauāuru mā raki wind farm. The applications were filed with Environment Waikato, the Franklin District Council and the Waikato District Council. The project is expected to cost more than $1 billion and will be located on around 17,000 hectares of isolated farmland to the south of Port Waikato. At up to 540 megawatts, the wind farm will produce enough renewable electricity to power up to 200,000 average houses.

Electricity grid operator Transpower is investigating ways to harness a surge in renewable energy plans in the lower South Island. ...Previously, Contact has opposed Meridian's proposed Project Hayes windfarm in central Otago on the basis that transmission constraints would restrict how much energy could be sent northwards. It said those constraints would potentially "crowd out" its existing hydro dams at Clyde and Roxburgh, resulting in the spilling of valuable water.

Wel Networks' proposal to build a $200-million wind farm at Te Uku is heading for the Environment Court, with three appeals lodged against resource consent for the project. The appeal period closes this week, but Frank Bellerby, proprietor of Hidden Valley Luxury Retreat, the Te Uku-based Tui G group and Wel Energy Trust candidate Sean Cox have already submitted appeals. ...Tui G spokesman Stephen Frew said Tui G was appealing on 11 grounds. The main grounds were a contention that the consultation process did not meet legal requirements, interpretation of landscape and visual amenity policies, and the project's economic viability.

A promise to unwind gearing and undertake a full review of operations might be sufficient to let Babcock & Brown off the hook with its bankers. It is now looking as if the beleaguered company might have done enough to prevent a formal review being called on its $2.8 billion corporate facility from its bankers. A decision on whether the syndicate of 25 banks initiates a formal review, prompted after Babcock's market capitalisation fell through the facility's $2.5 billion value trigger, is expected within the next two weeks. But it is now looking more likely that this process could be expedited, with an announcement made possibly this week. ...It is understood that assets on the Babcock balance sheet -- predominantly wind farm assets and some infrastructure assets -- might also be sold.

Contact Energy's appeal against the Mahinerangi wind farm has been dismissed but the company is still intending to pursue its appeal against Otago's other big wind farm, Project Hayes. In an Environment Court decision, Judge Jeff Smith said the conditions sought by Contact Energy were inappropriate and unreasonable in that they did not relate to any environmental effect as a result of the granting of consent. Contact Energy did not oppose TrustPower building the $400 million, 200MW Mahinerangi wind farm but wanted a condition imposed to upgrade transmission lines at the Roxburgh substation and lines through to the Waitaki Valley.

TrustPower Ltd., the operator of New Zealand's largest wind farm, fell the most in more than three years in Wellington trading after it said low hydro-lake levels and high spot power prices may cut full-year earnings. The company's power generation since March is almost 25 percent below average, forcing it to buy supplies at spot prices ...TrustPower's generation in the three months "is the worst we've had,'' Chief Executive Officer Keith Tempest said in a telephone interview from Tauranga. "For some of the catchments it's been the worst in their history.'' ...Output at the Tararua wind farm, halved in May, has returned to normal, and the company has warranty cover for any output lost in repairs to 31 3-megawatt turbines the company installed at the nine-year-old site last year, he said. Eighteen of the Vestas Wind Systems A/S turbines have had a faulty gear replaced so far.

Babcock & Brown chief executive Phil Green appears to have kept the financial wolf from the door for the time being, with a presentation to bankers on Monday night believed to have been "reasonably well" received. But it could be a week before Babcock's bankers decide whether to initiate a formal review of a $2.8 billion senior debt facility that the embattled group has with them.

A spokeswoman said B&B was today holding talks with its bankers about the issue. "They start today and they will probably go for a number of days," she said. B&B says it may take its bankers, which include the big four Australian banks as well as European institutions, a while to decide whether or not to go ahead. "A decision may take some time in line with normal banking syndicate processes," B&B said. ...B&B is continuing with planned asset sales, announced earlier in the year, as it de-leverages its balance sheet. B&B expects this week to receive first round indicative offers for the previously announced sale of European wind energy assets.

Western Australia's gas crisis will hit hard this week as more businesses face the decision to shut down and lay off workers because of escalating energy costs, the state government says The WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) has estimated 14 per cent of 83 companies it surveyed recently may halt operations because of the energy squeeze. Apache Energy says it will be two months before gas supplies are partly resumed at its Varanus Island gas plant, where a June 3 explosion cut off one-third of the state's domestic gas supply.

Babcock & Brown Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Phil Green is under increasing pressure to sell European wind farms to stave off a possible debt review, triggered by a share collapse this week. ...A successful sale could trigger a rebound in Babcock's shares, which trade at less than three times earnings after falling 83 percent this year, said ABN Amro Holdings NV analyst John Heagerty. Failure may increase the risk of banks demanding early repayment on A$2.8 billion of debt.

Transpower system operations manager Kieran Devine has revealed that three major farms, located around the Manawatu Gorge, supplied less than 1% of their capacity during peak load periods during each of the past three winters. The three farms generating from wind around the Manawatu Gorge are: Trustpower's Tararua (134 turbines), NZ Wind Farms' Te Rere Hau (104), Meridian Energy's Te Apiti (55). "Either there was insufficient wind at that time, or the current farms are all in the wrong locations and there's not enough wind system diversity," Mr Devine said in an interview with the Taranaki News. "We have real concerns about the large amount of wind generation planned in the lower North Island, because the preliminary information is that they will all have very similar characteristics to the Manawatu farms and that won't help with winter peaks. We'd prefer they were spread around so that when one's up others will be down and it would balance itself out."

Australia's second-biggest home-grown investment bank, Babcock & Brown, has been forced into emergency talks with its bankers following a massive share price plunge that put it in breach of loan agreements. Shares in the company collapsed by 28 per cent yesterday, slicing its stock market value to $2.3 billion in the kind of selling frenzy that in the past year has crippled companies such as ABC Learning Centres and the Allco Finance Group. The plunge forced Babcock into talks with the bankers behind a $2.8 billion loan. ...Last night, as Babcock moved into damage control, the group stood by its forecast of a full-year profit of $750 million and insisted that it could put its share price woes behind it. There is widespread belief that Babcock must move to rein in its high debt levels and re-focus its business model if it is to survive. Mr Lowensohn admitted yesterday that across the group, leverage - the level of debt to the level of equity in the business - would be about 60 per cent. "We will be looking directionally to lower gearing," he said. Three weeks of heavy selling, including shortselling by hedge funds, has halved the company's share price and exposed the covenant on the loan. The trigger was Babcock's market capitalisation falling below $2.5 billion.

National electricity grid operator Transpower has revealed that turbines on the three Manawatu farms have been generating at less than 1% of their capacity during winter evening peaks for the past three years. Bernhard Voll, the technical brains behind the 45-turbine Waverley project for Australian company Allco Financial Group, says this farm will probably perform no differently, because of a lack of wind at winter peak times, but it was a small issue. "Wind farms are not designed to be peaking plants," he said. "The issue is that wind farms displace fossil-fired power generation and contribute to the nation's energy demand throughout the year. Picking on a singular issue of peak demand contribution is misleading."

The much-delayed Bald Hills wind farm in Victoria faces a new hurdle, with opponents threatening a High Court challenge to try to scuttle the contentious project. Ownership of the proposed wind farm - notorious for being rejected because of a perceived threat to the orange-bellied parrot - has been sold to the Australian arm of the Japanese company Mitsui. The proposed cost of the project has blown out to $300million, with the wind farm now scheduled to operate from 2011, five years after former environment minister Ian Campbell caved in and belatedly approved the project.

Opponents to the proposed Tuki wind farm at Smeaton believe the project may not go ahead. Wind Power wants to erect at least 19 turbines in the area. But the Spa Country Landscape Guardians group says the company is failing to answer questions about the project. ...But the company's spokesman, Ross Richards, says little more can be done on the project until the Federal Government reveals its carbon and emissions trading plans.

The South Gippsland residents group has slammed a decision to sell the controversial Bald Hills wind farm project at Tarwin Lower to a Japanese company. ...Tarwin Valley Coastal Guardians spokesman Tim Le Roy said he was disappointed that the Japanese company Mitsui had acquired the wind farm project through its Australian subsidiary. And he expressed surprise Mitsui had not spoken to the residents group yet about its plans. "Our rural landscape is getting sold off to foreign companies," he said. "It just doesn't seem to make sense to sell off our landscapes ... to the benefit of a Japanese trading house."

The much-delayed Bald Hills wind farm in Victoria, notorious for being rejected due to a perceived threat to the orange-bellied parrot, has been sold to Japanese interests. And the proposed cost of the project has blown out to $300million, with the wind farm now scheduled to operate from 2011, five years after former environment minister Ian Campbell caved in and belatedly approved the project. Japanese company Mitsui has acquired 100 per cent of the shares of Bald Hills Wind Farm Pty Ltd, a special-purpose company that held the development rights for the planned 52-turbine project near the southern Victorian town of Wonthaggi. Melbourne company Wind Power Pty Ltd confirmed the deal to The Australian.

Wind Power has denied claims Tuki Wind Farm has "flopped", saying a decision on its future would be made at the end of the year. Wind farm opposition group Spa Country Landscape Guardians member Christian Wild this week said the project had ended and had struggled to overcome strong community rejection. "The project has been unable to gain momentum against increasing community opposition, protected landscapes and what has proven to be an insufficient wind resource at Stoney Rises, where the wind test tower is currently broken," Mr Wild said.