The Roaring 40s Renewable Energy company says it will listen to community opinions as it finalises a proposal for a wind farm near Kyneton. An application has been lodged with the Federal Government for a 34-turbine wind farm on agricultural land at Sidonia Hills. If the Government deems it would have minimal impact on plants and animals, the company will seek state planning approvals. The company's Josh Bradshaw says it will work closely with the Macedon Ranges Council. ...Susan Fox has an historic farming property overlooking the site. She says the wind farm would devalue the whole area, while a few properties would benefit financially. "I don't know where the powerline will run because there are two houses on this property and the powerline runs between the two," she said.

TrustPower has considered about 50 sites in the southern region for wind farms, but has only come up with two viable locations, the Environment Court heard yesterday. TrustPower major projects manager Deion Campbell told the court the company had advertised in rural publications for farmers to contact them if they thought they owned land which would be suitable for a wind farm. ...Government policy will have little bearing on the decision made by the Environment Court over the Mahinerangi wind farm. ...Judge Jeff Smith said the Environment Court was not a creature of Government policy. There were Government departments which had political objectives, but they were not recognised by parts of the Resource Management Act. The court was also not bound by national standards, unless they were written into law.

The Upland Landscape Protection Society will not give up its fight against the Mahinerangi wind farm, despite losing its attempt to have an appeal hearing adjourned yesterday, and revealing it has insufficient funds to call any evidence. ...The society had filed an application in the Dunedin High Court last week, seeking a judicial review of the decision to allow the wind farm, maintaining the public was misled over the effects of the proposed wind farm on the environment. It also wanted an adjournment to secure more funds, so it could employ counsel. Mr Carr was told yesterday the society had received $30,000 from the Environment Legal Assistance Fund, but he said, in a later interview outside court, the society needed $500,000 to mount a proper appeal.

An application to adjourn an Environment Court hearing over a 200-megawatt wind farm at Lake Mahinerangi, near Dunedin, has been rejected. One of the appellants is the Upland Landscape Protection Society, which wants to overturn resource consent for the wind farm, 40 kilometres inland from Dunedin. ...The case will be followed by another appeal against a much bigger wind farm in the area, a 650-megawatt project planned by Meridian Energy.

Dunedin-based Upland Landscape Protection Society filed a judicial review with the Dunedin High Court on Wednesday saying the decisions by three councils to publicly notify TrustPower's Mahinerangi wind farm and state power company Meridian's Project Hayes were flawed. The society says the Otago Regional and Central Otago and Clutha District councils failed in their statutory obligation to have adequate or sufficient information about the proposals before public notification.

... at the close of seven days of evidence for and against the $380 million project, hearing panel chairman David Pullar adjourned the hearing until next Friday to allow any matters that may arise to be dealt with. At that time, if all parties were satisfied, the hearing would be formally closed. ...After hearing all the evidence, the only issue not disputed was that the Kaiwera Downs wind farm would be huge. With 83 turbines, it would be TrustPower's largest wind farm to date and, at 145m tall, the turbines would be highest in use in New Zealand. Even the site is large, a 2658ha development envelope 10km to the east of Mataura. Visual and noise pollution, both during development and when it was operational, for those living and working near the wind farm were the two major concerns raised.

A researcher is looking at outflanking the mounting tide of "nimby" protests over the siting of windfarms by making it possible to moor the turbines out at sea. "Wind turbine progress has been hindered in New Zealand mainly by complaints from residents about noise and the visual impact on outstanding landscapes," said Auckland University engineering researcher Hazim Namik. But offshore windfarms could resolve all of these issues. "The further they can be placed offshore, the better the winds and the less visual and noise impact they have on communities," he said.

TrustPower was yesterday accused of trying to bribe Kaiwera residents opposed to its multi million-dollar wind farm. Residents did not hold back as they voiced their opposition to the project and criticism of the way the company has treated them. Allan Woodrow, who farms next to the wind farm site, said the first he learned about the proposal was at a public meeting. At the meeting a former senior TrustPower employee "told me, if I don't like it, sell up and move on", Mr Woodrow said. ...Leanne Heaps, who would see 29 turbines and 10 blade tips from her home, said TrustPower had failed to offer any real compensation. "(It had) only made some very insulting and miserable offers, always with the bribe that you would have to remove your objection." If the wind farm was for the good of the nation then why was it at the bottom of the South Island and not where the majority of the nation lived, Mrs Heaps said.

Residents of the open, rolling hills of Kaiwera yesterday argued that the visual impact of the huge turbines proposed for the Kaiwera Downs wind farm would be like having Manhattan at their back door. Collectively and individually residents of the area strenuously voiced their opposition to TrustPower's proposed 83-turbine wind farm within a 2568ha site in their district. ...Wind farms should be built closer to the more populated main centres and heavy industry, such as the windy hills of Canterbury. "There is no doubt in our mind there is a selective morality, when it comes to where wind farms are placed, by the powers that be," Mr McFadzien said. The group and individuals made submissions highlighting the project's adverse effects on their lifestyles and livelihoods caused by noise, dust, traffic and, most importantly, the visual pollution of turbines.

Moorabool Council will write to the Federal Government supporting a national wind-farm code. The decision came after WestWind Energy submitted a planning application for 40 wind turbines at Yendon and 24 at Elaine. The letter, to Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett, will aim to prevent wind farms being "constructed against the wishes of the community". The council could have little influence over approval for the Yendon/Elaine wind farm.

If more turbines aren't consented, the Motorimu wind farm won't be viable. This was the message from Hugh Rennie QC, counsel for Motorimu Wind Farm Ltd, during day one of an Environment Court hearing at the Convention Centre in Palmerston North. The hearing, expected to take three weeks, is to consider an appeal by the wind farm over an independent commission's decision to consent 75 turbines, 52 fewer than the requested number.

Sidonia Hills is one step closer to wind energy after the State Government planning department rejected an Environmental Effects Statement on a 34-turbine wind farm. Tasmanian group Roaring 40s lodged an EES referral to the planning department in January this year for a 3700ha farm that could supply the Kyneton area with clean electricity for 25 years. ...Landscape Guardians president Bruce McGregor said he was "not surprised." "We're not happy. We will fight against wind farms tooth and nail," he said.

Windpower Maungatua is seeking public input into the wind farm development, hopeful it will be ready to apply for resource consent by June, Windpower director and project manager Dave Tucker said yesterday when contacted. ‘‘We will commission a number of experts to consider a variety of matters including landscape, visual, ecological, traffic and noise effects. It is more important to discuss the proposal with the people who live and work in the community,'' Mr Tucker said in a letter sent during the weekend to about 50 interested parties.

"With 2,000 people affected in only five kilometres, it's probably the largest effect on neighbours of any project proposed thus far in Victoria," he said. "And there are something like 27 wind projects either operating, approved or waiting approval just in the south-west corner of Victoria."

West Wind Energy has lodged its planning application for a wind farm at Lal Lal, south of Ballarat. ...A planning panel will now be set up and a decision may not be made until next year. Project manager Grant Flynn says the size of the Lal Lal proposal has been reduced from 79 turbines to 64 to take locals' concerns into account.

Until Meridian Energy lodges their application for their Mill Creek wind farm, a proposition to erect turbines in Ohariu Valley, the Makara Ohariu Community Board can only sit and wait. Late last month residents of the Ohariu community attended the board's monthly meeting raising their interest on Meridians Mill Creek wind farm proposal. The proposal involves the erection of thirty-one turbines, each 111 metres high, located on privately owned farm land in the valley. Board chair Ruth Paul says there were a number of residents that presented their concerns about the impact of the wind farm but there were also residents in support of it.

Romantic notions about wind energy have taken a severe buffeting at the Ngaruawahia hearing into Wel Networks' proposal to build a $200 million wind farm near Te Uku. Over the next few weeks commissioners Michael Savage, John Hudson, David Hill and Graham Ridley will rule on Wel's application for resource consent for 28-turbine wind farm on the Wharauroa Plateau. But regardless of the outcome of their deliberations and perhaps those of the Environment Court further down the track strident opposition to the Te Uku project has already done much to undermine wind power's image as our favoured squeaky clean alternative to fossil fuels.

AGL Energy Ltd (AGL) says it has acquired rights to build a third wind farm in South Australia. The new farm will be at Mount Bryan (Hallett 3), approximately 200km north of Adelaide. Hallett 3 is expected to have a capacity of up to 90 megawatts and will be located around 15km from two other farms currently being built by AGL, the 95 megawatt Brown Hill (Hallett 1) wind farm and the 71 megawatt Hallett Hill farm (Hallett 2).

Goulburn MP Pru Goward said last month that residents were only told about the change on January 31, giving them just two weeks to object to the formal proposal. The Taralga Landscape Guardians residents group alleged the Department knew about the proposed modification in November 2007, and deliberately kept those details from them.

Wel Networks' proposal to build a $200 million wind farm at Te Uku will almost certainly end up in the Environment Court. The hearing into the 28-turbine project, which began on November 19, finally wrapped up in Ngaruawahia yesterday, with four commissioners chaired by Michael Savage now charged with ruling on Wel's application. But the battle lines in this saga have become so firmly drawn it will be a major surprise if their decision whatever it may be is not appealed to the Environment Court.