LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME


[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]

Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

Get weekly updates
RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Stripe

Donate via Paypal

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Wind power blows in Wairarapa 

Credit:  Gerald Ford, Wairarapa Times-Age, www.times-age.co.nz 9 August 2011 ~~

Power enough to drive 370,000 homes is still blowing in the North Wairarapa wind, says an electric company with plans for a huge wind farm.

Genesis Energy last week applied for resource consents for Castle Hill Windfarm – to be based on a large hilltop site that straddles Masterton and Tararua districts.

The wind farm would be New Zealand’s largest by a considerable margin. It involves up to 286 wind turbines, potentially producing 860 megawatts of electricity. According to Genesis this is equivalent to that consumed each year by 370,000 average New Zealand homes.

Four local government bodies must sign off on the project because of the unique location of the Castle Hill site.

In addition to being on the boundary between Masterton and Tararua district councils, Castle Hill also bridges the regional councils of Greater Wellington and Horizons Manawatu-Wanganui. Each must provide approval under the Resource Management Act 1991 and each council’s regional or district plan.

Genesis Energy chief executive Albert Brantley said the company is developing a portfolio of “new electricity generation options”.

If commercially viable, these projects would provide opportunities for Genesis “to grow and renew its generation assets” over the next 10 years.
The district plan for Tararua, which has significant wind energy development already, makes specific provision for wind farms.

Its policy balances two aims:

“To recognise the local, regional and national benefits” of wind farms and other renewable energy.

To fix, minimise or avoid “adverse effects on the environment” of wind farms.

These are listed as involving “amenity values, landscape ecology, noise and traffic”, with the conclusion that wind farms “may therefore be inappropriate in some locations”.

The existing Tararua Wind Farm – currently New Zealand’s most productive – is located on 700ha of private sheep and beef farming land high in the Tararua Ranges.

It has 103 turbines, each with three 23.5m blades, and 31 large turbines each with three 45m blades.

It has a total capacity of 160 megawatts.

Source:  Gerald Ford, Wairarapa Times-Age, www.times-age.co.nz 9 August 2011

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Contributions
   Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)
Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI M TG TS G Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook Wind Watch on Linked In

Wind Watch on Mastodon Wind Watch on Truth Social

Wind Watch on Gab Wind Watch on Bluesky