Wind Power News: New Zealand
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 and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch.
Battle joined against Wairarapa wind farm
Wairarapa Maori landowners are vowing to fight construction of a Meridian Energy wind farm near Eketahuna. The power company has sought resource consent to build the Mt Munro Wind Farm, made up of 20 turbines standing 130m tall over a 700h area on three privately-owned farms. Mt Munro is on the boundaries of the Tararua and Masterton districts, an area known for strong and consistent wind, and the proposed wind farm would be a few kilometres north of the Pukaha . . .
Billion dollar Wairarapa wind farm hearing ends
The fate of a billion-dollar wind farm project in North Wairarapa now rests with a three-man panel of commissioners who yesterday wrapped up a week-long resource consent hearing in Masterton. Commissioners Roger Lane, Philip Milne and David McMahon have reserved a decision on whether to grant consent to Genesis Energy for the Castle Hill Wind Farm project that would be the largest in New Zealand. The last of a long line of submissions against the project was heard yesterday, along . . .
Wairarapa wind farm offer falls flat
Genesis Energy has failed to sway local communities from opposing a massive wind farm plan despite dangling a financial carrot. The power giant this week offered a $750,000 deal as a way of compensating the people of townships such as Alfredton, Castle Hill and Tinui for problems associated with construction of the $1.6 billion Castle Hill Wind Farm that could not be otherwise mitigated. But residents said the sticking point was that a proposed community trust would only be established . . .
Consent bid for Eketahuna wind farm
Meridian Energy has sought resource consent for a 20-turbine wind farm near Eketahuna. The Mt Munro wind farm could generate up to 240 GWh of power annually, enough to supply 31,000 homes, said Meridian Energy project manager Carolyn Wylie. The company had already conducted community consultation about the project, which included an open day in Eketahuna in October. Another will be heard next month. “We’ve been talking with the community about this project since last July,” Ms Wylie said. Mt . . .
Project Hayes: It simply didn’t stack up
Save Central, the umbrella group representing many of those opposed to Meridian Energy’s plan to build a giant wind farm in Central Otago, isn’t claiming the corporation’s decision to abandon the scheme as a victory. Instead, Save Central welcomes Meridian CEO Mark Binns’ “prudent commercial decision” as being in the best interests of not only Meridian, but also Central Otago and the nation. Meridian claimed the Lammermoor Range offered a wind resource superior to that of many international sites and, . . .
Power companies undeterred by Project Hayes decision
In the wake of the Project Hayes decision, it is business as usual for Contact Energy, weighing up options for hydro development on the Clutha River, and Pioneer Generation, looking at small-scale wind farms. Meridian’s decision to shelve its planned $2 billion wind farm on the Lammermoor Range in the Central Otago has had little impact at this stage on Contact and Pioneer’s plans. Contact Clutha hydro project manager Neil Gillespie said the hydro plans were “at a completely different . . .
Project Hayes: counting the costs
The extent to which Meridian Energy’s ditching of its controversial Project Hayes wind farm has been met with mixed reactions by even ardent environmentalists gives some clues as to the complexity of the energy issues the decision anticipates. On the one hand, while many people who are not otherwise particularly “green” have been able to appreciate, and react against, the visual pollution the wind farm on the Lammermoor Range would have represented, other environmentalists who believe staunchly in renewable energy . . .
Costs mounted up for all the parties
All parties involved in the battle over Project Hayes agree on one thing – it has been an expensive exercise. The six-year campaign has taken a toll personally and financially on participants, say both opponents and supporters of the wind farm planned for the Lammermoor Range, which has now been shelved by its backer, Meridian Energy. Meridian has spent $8.9 million on the $2 billion project, while environmental groups and individuals involved in the various resource consent and legal proceedings . . .
Meridian drops Project Hayes
Six years after it announced plans for a controversial $2 billion wind farm on the Lammermoor Range and after spending $8.9 million on the project, Meridian Energy has pulled the pin on them. Meridian chief executive Mark Binns said yesterday it was a “prudent commercial decision” to drop Project Hayes, as the company had other higher-priority projects. The latest chapter in the drawn-out wrangle over whether the southern hemisphere’s largest wind farm should go ahead took the project’s opponents by . . .
Questions over wind farm court battle
While celebrating Meridian’s ditching of plans for the Project Hayes wind-farm in Central Otago, environmental groups are questioning the why they had to face such a long, drawn out court battle. Meridian has decided it has other projects it would rather focus on than the farm it had planned for Central Otago’s Lammermoor Range. Founder of Save Central, Graye Shattky, says an original Environment Court decision to withdraw consent should have been final. However, the High Court upheld an appeal . . .
