WIND power has passed coal-seam gas as a source of angst in the...

WIND power has passed coal-seam gas as a source of angst in the community amid warnings the building of wind farms will have to increase more than threefold to meet the government's renewable energy target.
The warning comes as Origin Energy - which is spending billions of dollars on coal-seam gas projects - reveals the community backlash over wind farms is surpassing opposition to coal-seam gas mining.

Origin's executive general manager of corporate affairs, Phil Craig, said yesterday: "We get more letters of complaint today from local communities and interest groups about wind farm development than we do about coal-seam gas.

While Labor and the opposition are committed to the 2020 target and the Greens want the target increased, Labor's chief whip and former cabinet minister Joel Fitzgibbon has said the target should be cut to give households relief from skyrocketing electricity prices.

Globally, debate is also raging about the cost to consumers because of government incentives for renewables such as wind farms and governments in some nations - particularly in Europe - have slashed subsidies.
Opposition to wind farms has centred on the health impacts of the low-frequency noise generated by turbines.

Last week, protesters descended on Parliament House in Canberra to claim they were "wind refugees" and to back a bill introduced by independent senator Nick Xenophon and Democratic Labor Party counterpart John Madigan that would deny certification to wind farms that exceeded normal background noise by more than 10 decibels.

The only conclusion that Australian share investors could conclude from this is that Infigen's development pipeline must be very doubtful, on top of the fact that, as observed by one attendee at the AGM, Infigen doesn't have the cash to develop it anyway. So, no plans,no cash, no confidence. Public growing weary over directionless Wind Companies and the spin.

What is the future for companies like Infigen?