Monitoring tower installed
Alexandra: The Australian company planning a wind farm in the Cairnmuir Mountains recently installed another monitoring tower near Gimmerburn.
Roaring 40s formerly known as Hydro Tasmania confirmed it was in the early stages of assessing the Rough Ridge site in the Maniototo and had recently installed a wind tower.
Project development manager Richard Mackie said he was unable to estimate the cost or size of the proposed wind farm until further testing was completed.
He said if the wind resource looked promising, the company would investigate any potential ecological and landscape effects, and site access requirements.
“These studies will allow us to determine if the site is suitable for a wind farm. If this is the case, we would then expect to apply for resource consent. The project size would be determined after these studies are completed.”
Mr Mackie said it should also be noted that while wind energy was probably still the cheapest form of new electricity generation in New Zealand, costs were rising due to the increased cost of wind turbines.
Roaring 40s also recently installed a wind monitoring tower on Cairnmuir Hill between Cromwell and Clyde, to determine wind strength.
The $100 million to $150 million proposed wind farm was expected to be about 60MW in size, but that could change as more studies were completed, he said.
It would supply more than 20,000 households with electricity, and was in close proximity to the country’s main transmission system.
Roaring 40s is jointly developing the Okura project in the Hawkes Bay with Unison Networks Ltd and has several projects under way in Australia.
By Aimee Wilson
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Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
