Wind Power News: New Zealand
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These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted.
Meridian and Historic Places Trust cozy up
Ensuring the Best Outcome’: How Meridian, New Zealand’s Energy Juggernaut, Makes its own Rules.
In its fact sheet on the proposed hydro dam for North Westland’s Mokihinui River, we are promised that ‘Meridian would work with the Historic Places Trust to ensure the best outcome for the Mokihinui sites.’ What teachers of grammar will recognise here as the future conditional tense—what Meridian Energy would do—profoundly betrays the worldview of a juggernaut increasingly interfering with the autonomy …
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Trust withdraws opposition
The New Zealand Historic Places Trust has withdrawn its opposition to a huge Otago wind farm, saying it lacks the funding to fight every battle.
The Crown entity had an interest in two Environment Court appeals against Meridian Energy’s Project Hayes proposal, a 176-turbine wind farm to be built 30km south of Ranfurly. Six weeks before the hearing was to start, the trust pulled out, outraging Central Otago branch members.
Trust chief executive Bruce Chapman said the …
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Wind farms: powering future or destroying past?
‘Powering our Future’ or Destroying our Past? The Otago Wind Farms
The region of Otago is in a state of significant upheaval over the giant turbines of Meridian’s Project Hayes and TrustPower’s Mahinerangi Wind Farm.
Both wind farms have been given interim consent. Both decisions are being appealed in court by a variety of NGO groups whose members include well-known personalities such as Anton Oliver, Grahame Sydney, Brian Turner and Marilynn Webb. Central Otago District Council, which …
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TrustPower alters wind farm stance
TrustPower has abandoned its envelope approach to the Mahinerangi wind farm and has indicated where turbines will be sited.
But the power company still wants to decide how many turbines it will erect at the site.
At the Environment Court hearing on the wind farm in Dunedin yesterday, TrustPower counsel Les Taylor told the court the company’s approach had been amended to reflect specific locations for the proposed turbines.
Each of a maximum 100 turbines would be sited …
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Countdown to a power crisis
Snowflakes tumbling along the Old Dunstan Road hint at a long winter to come. Here, 700m up on the northern fringes of Central Otago’s Lammermoor Ranges, is giant state-owned power company Meridian Energy’s latest bid to produce enough electricity to allow South Islanders to enjoy a more secure power supply.
Flurrying snow marks out small eddies but there’s little real wind up here today on the 200sq km site where Meridian plans to spend $1.5 billion …
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Turbines turn into hot topic
Meridian Energy says Windflow Technology’s turbines are too small and noisy and that is why it has shunned the New Zealand technology.
Windflow chairman Barrie Leay strongly criticised Meridian Energy and other state-owned electricity generators on Tuesday for ignoring his company’s turbines and spending more than $1 billion importing European turbines.
However, Meridian Energy spokesman Alan Seay said the company’s engineers had looked closely at Windflow’s turbines, but they unanimously agreed they were not suitable.
“We said at …
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Most turbines on grass, court told
TrustPower will site more than 80% of the turbines for the Mahinerangi wind farm on exotic pasture land, and has called a rival power company’s proposed condition ‘‘nonsense’’.
At the Environment Court yesterday, the focus returned to the land after a week’s hearing on transmission issues, with the appeal against the wind farm by the Upland Landscape Protection Society resuming.
Ecologist Dr Ruth Bartlett said only four wind turbines would be planted on land covered with snow …
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Bottleneck issue raised in 2003
Contact Energy had asked the national grid operator as far back as 2003 to investigate a power bottleneck, the Environment Court was told yesterday.
The power company also insisted yesterday it was not its role to buy transmission equipment and it had other priorities.
Contact Energy market and dispatch manager Boyd Brinsdon said the company had asked Transpower in July 2003 to investigate options on the bottleneck at the Roxburgh dam substation.
But it was advised by the …
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Wind will play significant part, court told
Wind power will play a significant part, possibly up to 1300MW, in the country’s future energy needs, but the coal-fired Huntly power plant will still be in limited service by 2025, the Environment Court heard yesterday.
Ministry of Economic Development energy and communications director Stuart Calman told the Environment Court, Government policy was to have 90% of the country’s energy produced by renewable resources by 2025. He was presenting evidence for the whole of the Government …
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Emissions-scheme rethink urged
Government plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could have severe environmental side-effects unless urgent changes are made, a new independent assessment shows.
The Government has been told to rethink the use of electric vehicles, the introduction of mandatory biofuels and the length of time before farmers are brought into its emissions trading scheme (ETS).
Labour late last year introduced legislation enabling the scheme, along with new rules limiting the amount of electricity produced from non-renewable sources and …
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