October 8, 2011
New Zealand

Wind plan worries

Matt Stewart, BusinessDay.co.nz, www.stuff.co.nz 8 October 2011

Resistance is building to the massive $1.6 billion Castle Hill Wind Farm project in north Wairarapa.

A hearing for the project is likely to be held next month, with 66 of 101 submitters opposing Genesis Energy’s resource consent application.

The 30,000-hectare wind farm is the biggest to have gone through the resource consent process.

Castle Hill, 20 kilometres northeast of Masterton, could produce enough energy at peak generation to power 370,000 homes for a year if Genesis’s plans are approved by Greater Wellington Regional Council, Horizons Regional Council, Tararua District Council and Masterton District Council.

During construction civil works such as roads could create 185 fulltime jobs and, once operating, the farm would need between 10 and 40 staff.

Alfredton farmer Dave Nelson is the spokesman for Castle Hill Wind Farm Community Action Group, which represents landowners in affected areas surrounding seven proposed turbine clusters in Pongaroa, Tiraumea, Alfredton, Bideford, Makuri, Tinui and Rongamai valley.

The group has lodged a submission addressing environmental, social and safety concerns and canvassed individual landowners to do the same.

He said the group’s aim was to make sure concerns about the project were “avoided, mitigated or remedied”.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/10/08/wind-plan-worries/