Palmerston North has the weight of Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) behind its bid to get national standards for wind farm developments. Yesterday, the final day of LGNZ's annual general meeting, the Palmerston North City Council's remit calling for support for a set of national guidelines was passed.

Greater Wellington Regional Council today welcomed the announcement by Puketiro wind farm developer RES New Zealand that it did not require access from Paekakariki Hill Road to its proposed site through Greater Wellington's Battle Hill Farm Forest Park.

More than one million cubic metres of rock, clay, silt and topsoil will be moved to create the Turitea Wind Farm if the project gets the go-ahead. The ground would make way for the foundations of up to 121 turbines and 33 kilometres of new access routes. ...The hearing resumed this week after a break of nearly three weeks.

Wind turbines could interfere with the communications system that runs Tasmania's power supply. Transend has warned Hobart City Council that a plan to put wind turbines on top of the ANZ building in Elizabeth St could affect its microwave communication system.

Green investors can be easy prey for opportunists hoping to turn a quick profit, rather than make a lasting difference. Matthew Kidman, portfolio manager at Wilson Asset Management, which invests heavily in smaller companies, says the clean energy industry has "done itself no favours".

There are fears the spinning blades of a planned wind farm near Wellington could interfere with signals from a nearby aircraft radar, putting planes at risk. The multimillion-dollar Long Gully project south of Brooklyn would have 25 two-bladed turbines, each 30-metres high, and produce a total of 12.5 megawatts enough to power 6000 homes.

Westwind Energy says it can compulsorily acquire land for powerlines to connect Mt Mercer Wind Farm to the grid. The Courier spoke to WestWind general manager Tobias Geiger after concerns were aired by a Navigators landholder, annoyed that contractors had surveyed his paddocks and not approached him.

The imminent decision regarding the $2 billion Project Hayes wind farm could shape energy policy nationally, Central Otago Mayor Malcolm Macpherson said. ...Detractors believe the farm, if built, could have serious consequences for the visual landscape in a remote part of Central Otago. If rejected, energy firms will have to think about the future viability of wind farms on a national scale, he said.

Five southern local authorities will be involved in deciding if a large-scale wind farm near Wyndham will go ahead. Wind Prospect CWP (NZ) Ltd, which wants to construct a $400 million wind farm in the area, had hoped to lodge its resource consent application by the end of June, but project manager Shirley Ferguson said that had been delayed.

The Kakanui Mountains in North Otago are being investigated by a new company for a wind farm to generate electricity. Waitaki Wind, set up recently by former Meridian Energy Ltd chief executive Keith Turner and former Waitaki mayor Alan McLay, is negotiating with landowners on the Kakanui Mountains to get access to start monitoring, according to evidence at the Environment Court yesterday.

Former Waitaki mayor Alan McLay and former power company chief executive Keith Turner have set up a company to investigate the potential of new wind farms. They are the sole shareholders and directors of Waitaki Wind, registered to look at areas in the central South Island for wind farms.

South Australia must be careful about becoming too reliant on wind power, the Essential Services Commission has warned. ...By the end of next year capacity would exceed 1000MW - equivalent to nearly a third of peak demand. ...Mr Walsh said while capacity was high, wind farms generally only delivered about a third of that on average over a year and could only be relied on for about 10 per cent of their capacity to meet peak demand.

Trustpower has failed in its bid to have more than $30,000 in costs awarded against a group that dropped an appeal against the company's plans for a big wind farm ...An Environment Court ruling, released yesterday, ruled no costs should be awarded against the Upland Landscape Protection Society which had lodged an appeal against TrustPower's planned $400 million wind farm at Kaiwera Downs, near Gore.

Ambiguous language has left Palmerston North City Council scrambling to meet a tough deadline if it wants Local Government New Zealand to support national guidelines for wind farms. The council had applied to have a remit included on LGNZ's annual meeting agenda, calling for a national policy statement on wind farms.

In a statement to the stock market on Wednesday, Infigen said it had settled on the terms for acquiring Babcock's Australian and New Zealand wind energy projects and its US wind asset management business. "The total consideration for these acquisitions is $23.5 million," Infigen said in a statement.

The company behind a proposal to build a multi-million dollar wind farm on the New South Wales Monaro admits it has been negligent by not consulting the shire council. The Cooma-Monaro Mayor, Vin Good says C-B-D Energy Limited hasn't made contact about its Shannons Flat wind farm project.

The Marlborough Environment Centre has decided against appealing the resource consent granted for a Ward wind farm to the Environment Court, after agreement was reached to reduce the turbine size to two-thirds of its initial height. ..."So our point of view is we will have less landscape effects," Mr Browning said, though he still had concerns over the visual impact of turbines in general.

Changes in the exchange rate are making wind farm proposals uneconomic and relying on them to meet the growing demand for electricity in this country was unwise ...The recent substantial drop in the New Zealand dollar had "adversely affected the commercial viability of all proposed wind farms and would have made many, if not all, uneconomic at the current exchange rate," economic consultant Philip Donnelly, of Christchurch, said.

Approval has been given for Australia's biggest wind farm to be built near Broken Hill in New South Wales. Almost 600 turbines will generate enough electricity for more than 400,000 homes. A forest of giant turbines will emerge from the red dust of the Australian outback near the isolated town famous for its lead and zinc mining.

Contact Energy's warning underlying profit this year could fall up to 33 per cent because of lower wholesale electricity prices came with a sting - those prices could stay low all year. Contact Energy's shares fell 13c to $5.67 continuing a slide of more than 20 per cent this year. ...In January, Contact warned the unusual mix of operating conditions would see earnings before interest, tax, deprecation, amortisation and financial instruments would fall by 20-23 per cent for the full year.