Wind - PM Plugs Wind Power, As Meridian Gears Up For New Projects
13 June 2007
New Zealand Energy & Environment Business Week

After commissioning the 29-turbine, 58MW White Hill wind farm in Southland, SOE Meridian Energy is now working on its final business case for the 66-turbine Project West Wind at Makara, which last month got the green light from the Environment Court. Meridian CEO Keith Turner is flying to Europe next week for negotiations with a preferred turbine supplier. Turner says he is "optimistic" the project's economics (earlier described as borderline) will stack up, even though the estimated cost has risen significantly from the time the SOE first sought resource consent.

Helen Clark who officially opened the White Hill wind farm near Mossburn last week noted the project had enjoyed strong community support. She has been a strong supporter of wind projects and spoke of Meridian's "tremendous leadership" in promoting renewable sources of generation. She says this commitment to renewable energy "is right in line" with the Labour-led Govt's aspirations for NZ, "We value the energy sector's contribution to making a sustainable future possible."

The PM notes the draft NZ Energy Strategy which has been out for consultation sets out a vision of moving to 100% renewable energy for base-load generation. She says wind power has a big role to play in realising the vision. When Labour came to power in 1999, only 3 wind energy projects were running with a total capacity of 35.8MW. Today there is a total of 328.8MW either operational or under construction which is over 9 times as much. Projects with a capacity of another 1660MW have been applied for or received resource consent. Meridian with 148MW installed and another 795MW either consented or under the consent process should have 943MW of wind farm capacity available by the end of the decade.

While the White Hill wind farm received strong community support,
Meridian has encountered opposition for its much bigger Project Hayes in Otago from notable figures like Anton Oliver and Graham Sydney. But Meridian believes it also has strong support within Otago, with surveys showing 75% of the people support the project. Meridian's planners are convinced the economics of wind farm generation will move in its favour when the Govt's cap-and-trade emissions regime for greenhouse gases is introduced, which will involve penalties for generation from fossil fuels.