Wind Hydrogen Ltd is back in the headlines, apparently buying development rights to the proposed Mt Gellibrand wind farm near Colac – which adds to a lot of proposals but not a single turbine as the company goes about seeking investors to pay for its acquisitions of various potential projects.

Wind Hydrogen does have a website now but that doesn’t disclose the company’s ownership beyond a vague: “Wind Hydrogen Limited (WHL) is an unlisted public company, with shareholders including the company’s founders, key board directors and executives, and a limited number of private and institutional investors.”

Looking at the board, the only likely source of serious money is Peter Bartter, chairman of Bartter Enterprises, alias Steggles. Co-founder and managing director, Richard Pritchard, is an engineer “who is also a former Adviser at Macquarie Bank”. Given MacBank’s success, that sounds rather good, but we wonder if it really just means he was a stockbroker, ie, a private client adviser and technical analyst.

As we’ve mentioned before, booms create opportunities for new companies to raise speculative capital for speculative projects. That’s all good stuff, but there’s a need for a sceptical eye to be run over those seeking millions of other people’s money.

Somehow or other Wind Hydrogen already has one Crikey subscriber reader offside:

“Wind Hydrogen Ltd hasn’t built a single turbine, hasn’t any takers for their potential power in Australia or the UK and are connected to Jack Green through Obelisk Capital, known to Green investors as Jack Sh-t…”

Never mind; the main media companies just lap it all up apparently without asking a single question. The Fairfax report, like the Oz effort, seems to have come straight from the press release.