Having just had consent declined for a $550 million wind farm near Dannevirke, Contact Energy has another fight on its hands over an even bigger project in the Waikato. Contact has applied for consent to build a $1.2 billion 540-[mega]watt capacity wind farm with 150 turbines along the coast from Port Waikato to Raglan.

The fate of a small wind farm, planned for one of Clutha's highest points, is still up in the air.

The wind power industry faced two disappointments last week as bids to gain approval for wind farms were turned down. New Zealand Wind Energy Association chief executive Fraser Clark said it was a blow to see the two projects declined, The Dominion Post reported.

Ratepayers will be lumped with hefty bills if proposed changes to the Resource Management Act go ahead, the Palmerston North City Council is warning. The council has spent $475,000 on the call-in for the Turitea Wind Farm, and says moves to make call-ins easier mean more councils will face similar bills. But Environment Minister Nick Smith said councils should not spend that much, and could choose not to submit.

Consent for the planned 65-turbine wind farm on the Puketoi Range, about 10km north-west of Dannevirke, was turned down by a decision panel yesterday. The 150-metre tall wind turbines would have loomed the largest in New Zealand. ...in their refusal of the consent, the commissioners said there were "plainly potential adverse effects of some significance, which are not fully understood."

A wind farm planned for a "nationally outstanding" North Canterbury landscape has been rejected. ...Commissioners Paul Rogers, Paul Thomas and Dean Chrystal said a wind farm on the ridge between Mt Cass and Totara Peak would be "inappropriate", because it would degrade an outstanding natural feature of national significance. Environmental groups yesterday called the decision a win for conservation.

The submissions are in, and people are speaking out against the proposed Turitea Wind Farm. The Ministry for the Environment has received 655 submissions about Mighty River Power's proposal, which Minister Nick Smith called-in to a board of inquiry late last year. Of those, 66 per cent opposed the wind farm, while only 20 per cent supported it.

An application to build a wind farm near Napier has been declined for the second time by the Environment Court because the site is spiritually significant to Maori. The Hawke's Bay-based powerline company Unison applied to add 34 turbines to 15 already approved for a site on Te Waka Range near Te Pohue, on the Napier-Taupo Road.

A wind farm project, selected by the Labour Government to be fast-tracked through the resource consent process, has been turned down by the Environment Court. The proposed 34-turbine wind farm near the Te Waka Range in Hawke's Bay was rejected in a court decision yesterday, lines company Unison company said. The company refused to say why the court had turned down its proposal, but chief executive Ken Sutherland said on the basis of this decision a legislative change would be needed for such schemes to succeed in the future.

MP Helen Goodman has spoken to members of an action group set up to fight a plan to build a wind farm yards from their village. The Bishop Auckland MP spent an hour walking round Bolam, near West Auckland and looking at the proposed site with members of the Bolam Area Action Group (BAAG). Npower Renewables is currently undertaking a report into the possibility of erecting up to seven 125 metre tall wind turbines to the north west of the tiny village.

Department of Conservation officials are being told to ensure greater transparency occurs within the organisation, after details of a controversial agreement were allegedly kept confidential. A negotiation document between Doc and Meridian Energy on the electricity company's proposed $2 billion Project Hayes wind farm drew criticism of Doc last week when details came to light almost two years after the agreement was made.

At an extraordinary city council meeting yesterday afternoon, councillors voted unanimously to submit on the resource consent application. The submission informs the Board of Inquiry considering MRP's application that the council will engage experts to carry out a full investigation into the effects of the wind farm, covering numerous topics, including landscape and visual impact, noise, and social impact. City lawyer John Maassen will present the evidence at the hearing.

The company behind plans for a small wind farm on Clutha's highest point is reconsidering the venture and expects to confirm within a month if it will continue to push ahead with the nine-turbine development. Christchurch-based NZ Windfarms Ltd has asked the Clutha District Council to put its Mt Stuart wind farm resource consent application on hold for a month while it considers a possible response to the 14 submissions received. All but one of those submissions oppose the company's plans and came from neighbours.

Meridian Energy has been given the go-ahead for its 52-turbine wind farm between Taihape and Waiouru. But a local lobby group is vowing to keep up the fight against the contentious development. Gill Duncan, spokesperson for the Rangitikei Guardians, said the group was likely to take its concerns about the Central Wind Project to the Environment Court.

Emeritus professor Alan Mark, of Dunedin, gave evidence about the hurdles of revegetating native snow tussock at an Environment Court appeal hearing for the Project Hayes development yesterday. Prof Mark said trials of revegetation on site had so far produced less than satisfactory results, and he was concerned about whether it was possible to appropriately rehabilitate areas damaged during a five-year construction of the wind farm.

A public interest group has withdrawn its appeal against a large-scale wind farm near Gore, but the power company behind the $400 million project says the New Zealand exchange rate needs to improve before construction can start. The Upland Landscape Protection Society's decision clears the way for the Eastern Southland wind farm, one of two such developments planned by TrustPower.

Landscape gardener and campaigner Jan Dixon hopes to gather 1000 signatures for a petition which asks the Government to consider halting all building of wind farms until national rules can be set. Mrs Dixon says though the Resource Management Act gives some protections, it only takes into account individual projects and not the effects that multiple developments will have on an area over time.

Wind farm building should halt until New Zealand has national guidelines about wind turbines, says Palmerston North woman Jan Dixon. She's starting a petition to the Government to plead for national guidelines on: * Minimum distances turbines can be from houses * Maximum saturation of an area's skyline * "Iconic" areas where wind turbines shouldn't be built. Until these guidelines are established by the Government, she wants a moratorium on wind farm developments.

Spanish energy company Union Fenosa has begun consultations over its plan but residents are fearful and say they are having trouble getting accurate information. Berrybank farmer Graeme Keating said affected residents felt in the dark. "We can't get any information from the company or from the Corangamite Shire,'' he said. "We are trying to get organised to fight this.''

Truescape Ltd computer simulation specialist Tony Coggan, of Christchurch, was made to defend his methods of collecting and presenting images, when appearing as a witness in an Environment Court ...Upland Landscape Protection Society counsel Ewan Carr, who also represented himself and appellant Gaelle dit-Piquard, said the simulations were arranged to make the turbines look smaller than they would be.