New Waikato Wind Farm

Reprinted with permission from ACP Media. (Farm Trader)

Contact Energy Chief Executive David Baldwin recently provided details of a new wind farm the company is developing on farmland to the south of Port Waikato.

The wind farm will be known as Hauauru ma raki, meaning northwest wind.

Baldwin says the proposed wind farm was strategically important as it was located in the North Island and close to major load centres of Hamilton and Auckland.

He said the final size of the wind farm was yet to be determined, but it has the potential to be up to 650 megawatts (MW) depending on a number of factors, including landowner agreements and resource consenting.

We've been developing this project together with Wind Farm Group over the course of 2007 and have been pleased with the response to this project from landowners and other stakeholders.

Hauauru ma raki is nationally significant both in terms of meeting New Zealand's growth in demand for electricity and for the development of clean, renewable electricity for current and future generations, he said.

If the full 650MW capacity of the project was developed, the project could produce enough electricity to power approximately 250,000 homes and help avoid the production of around 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere per annum.

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