The next stage of the Tuki wind farm will be unknown until the end of the year. Wind Power met with Hepburn Shire Council last week, after mounting community concern about the proposal. There has been community speculation over whether the proposal will go ahead at Tuki and how many turbines it would involve.

Windflow chairman Barrie Leay strongly criticised Meridian Energy and other state-owned electricity generators on Tuesday for ignoring his company's turbines and spending more than $1 billion importing European turbines. However, Meridian Energy spokesman Alan Seay said the company's engineers had looked closely at Windflow's turbines, but they unanimously agreed they were not suitable. ...Windflow's 0.5 megawatt machines were not big enough, and Meridian's engineers had concerns about the noise generated by the two-bladed design, Seay said.

The proposed development at Rotokawa is part of a significant geothermal expansion programme being undertaken by MRP in conjunction with its Maori partners and includes three other geothermal sites at Mokai, Kawerau and Nga Tamariki. The second Rotokawa power station, owned jointly with the Tauhara North No 2 Trust and to be called Nga Awa Purua, will be built close to the existing one and will connect into existing 220kV transmission lines directly over the field. The station is expected to generate an average of 1100 GWh annually and provide reliable base-load energy that is not sensitive to climatic variations. ...The new Nga Awa Purua power station will generate the same amount of energy as a 400MW wind farm and require much less transmission capacity.

...he also noted that there was a two-year waiting list for the turbines to be delivered due to the surging global demand for wind turbines and shortage of manufacturing capacity. This is one reason Wel is seeking a 10-year term longer than usual to give effect to any consents that are granted. It also means Wel can't determine exactly what machines will be used at the site, because they will be subject to price and availability.

The Project Hayes site, which received consent from the Central Otago District Council, is located to the south of Ranfurly on the Lammermoor Range, about 70 km north-west of Dunedin. The consent decision allows for the full proposal of 176 turbines generating up to 630 megawatts ...Dr Turner expressed concern that the HVDC link between the North and South islands is being poorly managed. "Not only is the charging regime unfair to South Island generators, it disadvantages new South Island generation projects - making them more expensive at the very time South Island security of supply is under real generation pressure.

"A German company has announced plans to build one of the largest wind farms in the world near Broken Hill in far western NSW. The company, called Epuron, says the $2billion wind farm could produce enough clean power for 400,000 homes. But confusion over clean energy targets set by state and federal governments is threatening to derail the plan." ...Strange, that such an ambitious project by a global player in the wind-power industry could be announced and in jeopardy at the same time. It should be more likely that such a company would get everything in place before making such a large announcement. ...Was this an opportunistic gambit to win promises of financial support from the major parties during the federal election campaign? Or a ploy to try to get the states and the Commonwealth to integrate their incentives and targets for renewable energy? Or both? Whatever, it didn't please the NSW Government.

The government called for proposals to supply the wind power for the $1.7 billion plant. It is anticipated that 75 wind turbines will be needed to power the plant when it is operating at maximum output of 250 million litres of fresh water each day. ... "Wind power is far more expensive than other renewable energy or even coal and the NSW taxpayers have a right to be suspicious of the minister's claims," Mr Hartcher said. "How much extra will Sydney residents, who are already facing higher water bills, going to have to pay to power the desal plant?".

The government might decree all new electricity generation be renewable and not thermal, but the new boss at NZ Oil & Gas (NZOG) is gearing up his company to find more gas to fire thermal power stations. He has hired five top geo-scientists and a commercial manager from overseas as the core of a new 17-strong development team for the New Zealand-listed oil explorer. "Sure, the new emphasis on renewables could cast a cloud on our activities, but there will still be times when the lakes aren't full and wind turbines stop turning," he said.

THE wind energy industry has called for the overhaul of the electricity grid to favour renewable energy. ..."Rather than demand that renewable energy work within existing regulations under the National Electricity Market, perhaps the grid rules could be altered to more effectively deal with wind energy," Roaring 40s managing director Mark Kelleher said. ...But Shane Breheny, chief executive of Powercor, Victoria's largest electricity distributor, does not believe grid companies stand to gain from a revamp. ..."Distributed generation (electricity that is not sourced from centralised coal-fired power stations) can be beneficial to grid operation, but only if it is not intermittent."

The cold reality for the Australian sector is that, despite the initial optimism of MRET, barely 1,000 MW of wind power will have been installed by the end of 2008. This capacity will enable farms to supply only around 3,200 gigawatt hours of power to consumers out of a demand exceeding 200,000 GWh. ... The key to the wind energy sector achieving much stronger growth in the next decade is an energy policy that recognises and rewards value in a carbon-constrained electricity supply environment.

Dr Williams argues that those calling for carbon-emission cuts of 25 per cent by 2030 do not understand what it would cost. "We would need an extra 4500 two-megawatt wind turbines, 20 biomass generators, 30 new gas-fired base-load power stations and 12 best-of-breed coal-fired plants," she says. "It would require $60 billion in new infrastructure costs to build these." Instead, she advocates replacing old coal-fired power plants with new ones, rather than "squeezing everything you can out of old assets" and looking at energy resources that have not been considered. "What the council seeks is more investment in research, particularly in the sectors that it makes sense to invest in," she says. "Investment needs to be made in technology that can produce viable returns."

An Auckland power supply company is trialling tiny wind turbines that can fit on the rooftops of homes or businesses, allowing them to generate their own power. Vector is testing 10 micro wind turbines in Wellington and Auckland in a bid to find new sources of renewable energy, before deciding future options.

A climate change expert has urged Australia to step away from the development of clean coal technology for power generation in favour of natural gas and nuclear energy. Jesse Ausubel, director of the Program for the Human Environment at the Rockefeller University in New York, has also bagged renewable fuels like solar and wind power saying while they may be renewable they were not really environmentally friendly. Mr Ausubel said he believed the push to develop clean coal technology would ultimately fail - because of the high cost involved and the problem of dealing with toxic waste products like sulphur and mercury.

Dr Tim Finnigan at the University of Sydney has formed a company, BioPower Systems, to commercialise the technologies. The wave energy system is called “bioWave” and has long, vertical blades that sway back and forth. Dr Finnigan says that it, “Is the only wave energy system that captures a wide swath of incident wave energy without using a large rigid structure. It is also the only such device that absorbs energy over the full water depth and continually self-orients with the wave direction”.

Manawatu’s Te Apiti windfarm is having equipment problems two years after commissioning, but Meridian Energy says it is a normal shakedown of new kit. Chief executive Keith Turner said a range of problems had occurred, including gearbox problems, where the bolts had not been tightened properly by the maker.

Energy Minister Francis Logan has announced plans to build three state-of-the-art, cyclone-proof wind turbines at Coral Bay at a cost of $9.6 million. The 275kw turbines are expected to supply 40 per cent of Coral Bay's energy needs by the end of 2007, and will involve new technologies developed in Western Australia. "The power system will use Verve Energy's technologically advanced control systems and low-load diesel generators which maximise the use of wind energy," he said. "It will also involve the use of wind turbines that can be lowered in the event of a cyclone.

STATE Liberal leader Ted Baillieu has rejected Labor claims he is a "greenhouse sceptic", while mounting a pre-election push for less emissions and cleaner coal. With the environment shaping as a key issue in the lead-up to the November 25 poll, Mr Baillieu yesterday said a Liberal government would set up a greenhouse gas emission fund to foster new investment in low-emission technologies. He said power generation technology was more crucial to Victoria's growth than biotechnology.

THE GIANTS of Australia's wind energy industry make a person feel very small. Stretching up 135m from base to tip, the V90 turbine tower is the biggest in Australia, a massive structure that weighs in at 400 tonnes when complete. Twenty-five towers are being erected at Studland Bay to complete the second stage of Roaring 40s' Woolnorth wind farm.

“It’s not damage, it’s wear and tear the sort of thing you expect with a new plant.'’ Each turbine is 70m tall and has 35m blades. “It’s a major job it’s a big piece of equipment.'’ He said “less than a dozen'’ of the 55 turbines at the site need replacement parts to be ordered from their Danish manufacturer. The damage is to “gearboxes mostly, and a couple of blades'’, which developed hairline fractures.

OSLO, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Wind power could generate almost 30 percent of the world's electricity by 2030 and is growing faster than any other clean energy source, a wind business group and environmental lobby Greenpeace said on Wednesday.