Mighty River Power’s proposal for a wind farm at Turitea
Mighty River Power Ltd has lodged resource consent applications to construct, maintain and operate a wind farm in the Turitea Reserve and adjoining farmland near Palmerston North. The Minister for the Environment, Hon Nick Smith, has called in the applications and referred them to an independent Board of Inquiry.
The proposed Turitea wind farm comprises up to 122 wind turbines. It would traverse public and private land located within the Manawatu-Wanganui Region, Palmerston North City and Tararua District.
The role of the Board of Inquiry is to consider submissions on the proposed wind farm, hold public hearings and make a final decision. The Board will be chaired by Judge Craig Thompson and the Board members are Richard Heerdegen, John Hudson, Chris Shenton and Vivian Kloosterman.
Location of the proposed wind farm
The proposed Turitea wind farm would be located along an approximately 14 kilometre stretch of the Tararua Ranges, approximately 10 kilometres southeast of the Palmerston North city centre and approximately 11 kilometres west of Pahiatua.
The proposed wind farm site is located both within the Turitea Reserve and on adjacent private properties. The site is generally located in an area bounded by Kahuterawa Road, Greens Road, Turitea Road, Pahiatua Aokautere Road, South Range Road, Makomako Road and Hardings Park. Access to the site is available via South Range Road and Greens Road (via a private farm driveway).
See the map (PDF, 478 KB) indicating the exact location of the proposed wind farm, including the turbine zones, transmission lines, substations, roading, laydown areas, spoil disposal areas, concrete batching plant locations and in-stream works.
Submissions
Submissions closed on 23 February 2009. The Board has received 702 submissions on Mighty River Power’s proposed Turitea Wind Farm.
A Summary of Submissions report (PDF, 1.1 MB) has been prepared.
Electronic copies of all submissions are available to download.
The submissions were originally received by the Minister for the Environment and then provided to the Board in accordance with the Resource Management Act.
Evidence
Mighty River Power’s evidence has been circulated to all parties.
Hearing procedures
The Board’s hearing procedures (PDF, 674 KB) are available. These procedures describe how the Board intends to conduct the hearing and includes the key dates for evidence exchange. These key dates are summarised below – please refer to the procedures for full details.
- Submissions closed on 23 February 2009. A Summary of Submissions Report has been prepared.
- Applicant provides evidence to the Board
| Applicant to provide evidence to the Board | 1 May 2009 |
| Submitters to provide evidence to the Board | 22 May 2009 |
| Applicant’s rebuttal evidence | 5 June 2009 |
| Reports prepared by expert witnesses | 19 June 2009 |
| Notice of wish to cross examine witnesses | 26 June 2009 |
| Hearing begins | 6 July 2009 |
Further information
- Public notice
- Notification Information sheet
- Minister’s direction to call in the proposal
- Biographical information about the Board of Inquiry
- Minister’s media release: Minister decides board of inquiry best process for Turitea wind farm proposal [19 December 2008]
- Submissions called for on Turitea wind farm proposal
- For more information about call-ins see Ministerial intervention on proposals of national significance under the Resource Management Act.
Contact details
For further information please contact Caroline van Halderen, Project Co-ordinator for the Board. Please note that these are new contact details.
Phone: 0800 836 666
Mobile: 027 2118249
Email: turiteacallin@mfe.govt.nz
Caroline van Halderen
FreePost Call-In
Ministry for the Environment
PO Box 10362
Wellington 6143
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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