Another wind farm near Palmerston North came a step closer today when a High Court judge ruled in favour of a city council plan to add an additional purpose to its Turitea Reserve.

Another wind farm near Palmerston North came a step closer today when a High Court judge ruled in favour of a city council plan to add an additional purpose to its Turitea Reserve. Palmerston North City Council required the addition to legally allow Mighty River Power to apply for a resource consent to develop a windfarm on the reserve. If it goes ahead, the new wind farm will be the fourth in the area.

A Palmerston North community group has lost a court battle to stop the city council building a 60-turbine wind farm on a reserve. Last year Palmerston North City Council passed a resolution changing the purpose of the Turitea Reserve near the city to include renewable energy generation, which would allow a wind farm to proceed in partnership with Mighty River Power. That decision was challenged in the High Court by the Friends of the Turitea Reserve Society. In a ruling on Thursday, Justice Baragwanath dismissed the society's case, saying the change of purpose was within the council's power and the council had acted responsibly in making it.

The Power and Water Corporation says a proposed wind farm at Tennant Creek, in central Australia, is not a certainty. The corporation's sustainable energy manager, Trevor Horman, says it will depend how competitive the tenders for the project are. He says the wind farm would provide only a portion of the town's energy and it must be reliable. "So there'll be a strong requirement for the tenderers to demonstrate that whatever proposal they put forward won't have an adverse effect on the Tennant Creek power system," he said. "Secondly there's a commercial requirement, we'll be looking to see that the cost of wind generation is not more than the current costs of generation at Tennant Creek."

Resource consents for a wind farm in North Canterbury are expected to be lodged with the Hurunui District Council next month or early September. MainPower wants to build the farm on a 3km ridge running north-east from the summit of Mount Cass, 6km east of Waipara.

The federal Tourism Minister has joined the fight to stop the proposed Smeaton wind farm going ahead in central Victoria. Fran Bailey met the opponents in Hepburn Springs last night. She says wind farms need to be located away from tourism areas and other alternate energy forms like solar need to be considered instead. "I am very concerned about this and I do join with local residents. I do not think wind farms are appropriate in iconic tourist areas and I think that the Hepburn Springs area is one such area," she said.

A company planning a windfarm in the Tararua Ranges will appeal against a decision to restrict the number of turbines it is allowed to build. At a resource consent hearing last month, it was decided to approve only 75 of the 127 wind turbines Allco Wind Energy was hoping for. The company's local project manager, Bernhard Voll, says the decision, made by three independent commissioners, is not in line with the Resource Management Act. He says the appeal has been lodged with the Environment Court , but a hearing date has not yet been set.

Resource consents for a wind farm in North Canterbury are expected to be lodged with the Hurunui District Council next month or early September. MainPower wants to build the farm on a 3km ridge running north-east from the summit of Mount Cass, 6km east of Waipara.

PLANS to build a 13-turbine wind farm west of Purnim received five submissions including three objections from the public.

The first meeting of a group to discuss the Smeaton wind farm, in central Victoria, appears to have achieved little. The community representative committee is debating Wind Power's plans. But the committee's Richard Evans says the company cannot answer questions about how many turbines are involved and where they will be. "We were led to believe we were going to discuss the Tuki wind farm, but it would seem now they want to put wind farms all the way between Smeaton and Clunes, so there could be up to 120 I believe," he said. "I've known this for quite some time and I thought it was absolutely appalling personally."

Katabatic Power Corporation continues to pursue the development of a wind power project on Mount Hays with a public hearing scheduled for seven p.m. on July 23 following the late June application for a zoning bylaw amendment, a case without precedence in British Columbia. "What's unique about this is that it's a wind power project taking place within the municipal boundary," explained Mayor Herb Pond, enthusiastic about the future opportunities the project could bring to the community.

The Lammermoor Range is of district significance, but stops short of being outstanding, according to a confidential landscape report obtained under the Official Information Act. The report was commissioned by the Central Otago District Council and presented by Meridian Energy on the last day of the Project Hayes wind farm hearing last week. Meridian counsel Andrew Beatson said his client had obtained the report through the Official Information Act and thought it surprising the information had been withheld from both Meridian and the hearings panel. It was clearly relevant and the three district council members had already seen it. Mr Beatson said the report showed the Lammermoor Range, the site of the proposed wind farm, to be of above average quality but not of such quality as to be outstanding. This corroborated Meridian's material, which showed the area was of no particular significance, Mr Beatson said.

Allegations of electricity price-fixing and scathing criticism of some wind farm opponents spiced up the final day of the Project Hayes hearing yesterday. The five-week hearing ended with a bang as counsel for Meridian Energy, Andrew Beatson, presented a 115-page report that was heavily critical of submissions from Contact Energy and Central Otago District Council planning consultant David Whitney, who has recommended that consent for the application be refused.

Meridian Energy has strenuously attacked a suggestion that it has a secret expansion plan for its proposed $2 billion Central Otago wind farm. It insists that is not the case. The controversial Project Hayes - to erect 176 wind turbines on the Lammermoor Range, 30km south of Ranfurly - has been opposed by All Black Anton Oliver, poet Brian Turner and artist Grahame Sydney.

There are moves to limit the spread of wind farms in the Cooma-Monaro and Snowy River shires in south-east New South Wales. Jim Litchfield of the landscape preservation organisation, REAL Monaro, says both it and the Cooma Historical Society are calling for prime wind turbine sites to be placed on the heritage register.

A wind farm proposed for a property near Kalbarri, in Western Australia's mid west, will moved to a new site to protect a rare species of orchid. Verve Energy says it has moved the location of two wind turbines 150 metres away on to cleared land where the orchid does not grow.

The company behind a proposed wind farm development near Smeaton has selected the members of its Community Reference Group. Announced Sunday, the group of about 10 people will meet and and liaise with Wind Power about community attitudes towards the project. Wind Power is proposing to build 19 turbines near Smeaton and said the CRG will play an important part in its consultation process. Company director Andrew Newbold said half of the people selected on the panel were members of the Spa Country Landscape Guardians Group. The SCLGG has been strongly opposed to the wind farm proposal.

Anti-wind farm campaigners in Smeaton who say local politicians are ignoring them took the chance to raise their concerns with Ballarat MHR Catherine King on the weekend. Members of the Spa Country Landscape Guardians group discussed their opposition to a proposed 19-turbine wind farm to be constructed in the Smeaton area with Ms King in her mobile office on Saturday. Spa Country Landscape Guardians group spokesman Will Elsworth said the group was hoping Ms King would be able to wield some influence on the issue.

Scotts Road resident Sue Stewart said she was pleased with the decision. "On the whole we're very happy. We're certainly happy that the commissioners recognised there were significant issues." She said the decision to cut the number of wind turbines by 40 percent was a good one, though she would have preferred none at all.

The Environment Court has shaken the foundations of the Motorimu Wind Farm project by slashing the number of turbines by 40 percent, threatening to make the project unviable. Allco Wind Energy technical director Bernhard Voll said it would either appeal the decision, or withdraw its proposal. Allco owns the wind farm company.