Prolonged negotiations between the small Makara community and the electricity giant Meridian Energy have failed to reach agreement on a central issue: noise. The two sides have been having monthly meetings for a year and a half.

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

Up to $150,000 of ratepayers' money will be spent developing a policy for wind farm development in Palmerston North. But the policy won't be finalised until a board of inquiry rules on Mighty River Power's (MRP) proposed Turitea Wind Farm. Yesterday, the Palmerston North City Council's planning and policy committee agreed to wait until after the board of inquiry process to finalise guidelines, which would be adopted into the district plan.

Days after consent for a farm near Dannevirke was denied last week, commissioners appointed by the Hurunui District Council also rejected a plan for a wind farm on Mount Cass in North Canterbury. MainPower is planning to build a $200 million wind farm on the site and commissioners Paul Rogers, Paul Thomas and Dean Chrystal spent three weeks during November and December carrying out site visits and hearing evidence.

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.

Commissioners appointed by Hurunui District Council have rejected a wind farm planned for a "nationally outstanding" North Canterbury landscape. ...MainPower planned to build a wind farm worth up to $200 million on Mt Cass, east of Waipara. 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 called the decision a win for conservation.

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.

Contact Energy's plan to build the largest wind turbines in New Zealand near Dannevirke has been blown away by electricity commissioners, who have turned down the power giant's application to erect 65 of the turbines. Contact lodged a joint application to Tararua District and Horizons Regional Councils to erect the wind farm on a 3600 ha site in the Waitahora valley south east of Dannevirke, with the hearing into the case wrapping up last month.

Tasmanian company Roaring Forties has been given the final Commonwealth approvals for its planned windfarm at Musselroe Bay in the state's north-east. The news comes as Hydro Tasmania conducts a review of the company's operations.

The board of Babcock & Brown's wind energy offshoot is resisting attempts to have it effectively wound up after its largest shareholder called for the fund to sell all its European, US and Australian assets. The Children's Investment Master Fund (TCI), a London-based hedge fund, has argued that the ASX-listed Babcock & Brown Wind Partners Group (BBW) should opt to liquidate itself as the best way to close the gap between its ailing share price and the value of its existing wind farm and development right assets.

The Children's Investment Master Fund, or TCI, a UK-based hedge fund which holds more than 14 per cent of BBW, called for the fund to sell its non-core assets in Germany and France and to also test the market for the sale of its remaining US and Australian wind farms. BBW said its directors welcomed its largest shareholder's views.

Photographs taken at Meridian's West Wind project above the Makara coastline show how sediment has been overflowing from the construction site. The photos were taken by marine environmentalist Jim Mikoz, who wrote an article in the NZ Fishing Coast to Coast magazine with the headline: The dirt behind wind turbines.. your fishing is at serious risk. In response to the article, Meridian wrote a letter to the editor stating that there would be no mud runoff into the sea from its construction site.

Meridian Energy is investigating building a wind farm on a site of historic importance to Maori, near Bluff. Invercargill City Council resource management officer Judith Christie said the council had recently granted Meridian resource consent to erect a wind monitoring mast on Flat Hill, about 5km northwest of Bluff.

Tooborac residents fear a proposed wind farm will make their fire-prone village even more unsafe after a turbine caught fire in South Australia. The turbine burnt scrub near Port Lincoln last month at the height of a prolonged heatwave. Tooborac, about 20km from Lancefield, has been earmarked for a 70-turbine wind farm for more than five years by Transfield Services.

Construction of Mt Mercer Wind Farm has been delayed, with the Federal Government yet to set its renewable energy targets. Proponents West Wind Energy were to begin construction of the 64-turbine wind farm late last year. But general manager Tobias Geiger said the project had been affected by the uncertainty of what the new renewable energy laws would bring.

The Member for Kiama, Matt Brown, has come out against wind farms in the Kiama area, less than a week after the Premier named the New South Wales south coast as one of five areas targeted for wind projects. Premier Nathan Rees announced at last Friday's job summit the south coast is one of five areas with the potential for generating wind power and he wants to see such approvals streamlined.

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.

The major backers of a $50 million Dunedin wind farm have ended participation in the project, but its southern founders are adamant they will continue and seek other financial backers. The future of the proposed 50-turbine 25MW Mt Maungatua wind farm development - located on a ridge behind Mt Maungatua above the Taieri Plain - appears in doubt.