January 20, 2012
New Zealand

Questions over wind farm court battle

NZ City, nzcity.co.nz 20 January 2012

While celebrating Meridian’s ditching of plans for the Project Hayes wind-farm in Central Otago, environmental groups are questioning the why they had to face such a long, drawn out court battle.

Meridian has decided it has other projects it would rather focus on than the farm it had planned for Central Otago’s Lammermoor Range.

Founder of Save Central, Graye Shattky, says an original Environment Court decision to withdraw consent should have been final.

However, the High Court upheld an appeal by Meridian against the Environment Courts rejection of the wind farm.

“Once the Environment Court handed down its decision to withdraw consent, then I think it’s highly questionable that we should’ve been forced to pursue the matter through the High Court and then back to the Environment Court.”

Mr Shattky says the news Meridian’s dumping the project is not a surprise, but a huge relief.

“The credit for this situation in our apparent victory is due very much to all those supporters right around New Zealand who have supported us and maintained our determination to see this through to the end.”

He believes there should be a public inquiry into the rationale behind the original resource consent being granted.

Meanwhile the Wind Energy Association is confident there are plenty of other wind farm plans, and the loss of Project Hayes isn’t a huge deal.

Association chief executive Eric Pyle says it’s not a huge blow.

“It’s about Meridian looking at a whole range of initiatives and a whole range of projects and identifying there are now more projects that will produce cheaper power.”

Mr Pyle says wind energy may seem like it’s constantly controversial, but it’s not always.

“Some wind farms have gone through the process very easily and they’re the ones you don’t hear about and they’ve gone through very successfully, I think it’s a new technology that people are still learning about in New Zealand as well.”

He says the Association will keep pressing the message that wind is one of the cheapest forms of generation in New Zealand.

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There’s relief in Central Otago today, after resource consent for a windfarm on the Lammermoor Range was refused by the Environment Court.

Environment group Save Central has been fighting the Project Hayes wind farm since Meridian first applied for resource consent in 2006.

Spokesman Graye Shattky says the news Meridian’s dumping the project is not a surprise, but a huge relief.

“The credit for this situation in our apparent victory is due very much to all those supporters right around New Zealand who have supported us and maintained our determination to see this through to the end.”

Mr Shattky believes there should be a public inquiry into the rationale behind the original resource consent being granted.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/01/20/questions-over-wind-farm-court-battle/