Waverley wind farm step nearer
Catherine Groenestein
A massive, $325 million windfarm with up to 48 turbines is set to go ahead in South Taranaki next year – more than a decade after it was first mooted.
Tilt Renewables and Genesis Energy have announced a partnership to develop the wind farm – Taranaki’s first – on 980 hectares between Pa¯tea and Waverley. It could be open by mid 2020.
Tilt Renewables now owns the right to build the Waverley wind farm and resource consent was granted in July 2017. The project was first suggested in 2007.
The two companies were finalising a long-term power purchase and services agreement and construction could begin early in 2019, Tilt Renewables CEO Deion Campbell said in a statement.
‘‘Tilt Renewables is very pleased to be establishing a strategic relationship with Genesis, benefiting from our complementary capabilities to deliver more renewable energy to New Zealand.’’
The company owns and operates eight wind farms in Australia and New Zealand with an installed capacity of 636 megawatts.
Genesis CEO Marc England said the 100 megawatt wind farm would add extra capacity to meet growing demand, rather than replacing thermally-generated electricity from plants like its oil and gas-fired Huntly Power Station.
It would also increase the proportion of New Zealand’s electricity that is generated through renewable sources.
‘‘The challenge of renewable sources of energy like hydro, wind and solar, is that if the water doesn’t flow, the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine, there’s no electricity so something else has to be there to back it up,’’ England said.
‘‘One of the reasons we like this site is that it has different wind patterns to other areas with windfarms, so it will better balance the supply of renewable electricity.
‘‘The people in Waverley are helping to create some security of supply in New Zealand.’’
Most of the wind farms in New Zealand are in the Palmerston North area and when the wind was blowing they were all on, and all off when it wasn’t, he said.
England said Genesis was committed to helping New Zealand transition to a low carbon future.
‘‘At 85 per cent, New Zealand already has the third highest renewable electricity generation in the OECD and electricity generation makes up just 4 per cent of New Zealand’s total carbon emissions. The signing of these terms is an important step on our path to increasing renewable electricity.’’
‘‘The electricity sector will play a critical role in the decarbonisation of higher emission sectors such as transportation and industrial processing. This exciting project will play a role as we meet predicted increases in demand for renewable energy,’’ says England.
New Zealand already has 17 operating wind farms with a capacity of 690 megawatts.