April 14, 2008
New Zealand

Bid to adjourn wind farm hearing fails

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.

It had applied for the hearing to be stopped until the High Court could conduct a judicial review into the granting of resource consent.

In addition, Contact Energy argues that transmission wires from Otago are inadequate and it would have to waste electricity from its dams on the Clutha River if the wind farm, along with another one proposed nearby, proceed.

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.