Plan for large South Otago wind farm

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Plans for what would be one of New Zealand’s largest wind farms, located between Clinton and Balclutha, were made public this week.

The just-announced, up-to-$900 million Kaihiku Wind Farm in South Otago could feature 73 turbines, reaching up to 215m in height, and produce 300MW.

Alexandra-based Pioneer Energy and renewable energy developer and generator Manawa Energy said their project, 7km from Clinton and 12km from Balclutha, would create enough power for 135,000 households.

The companies said resource consents for the joint partnership project were expected to be lodged with the Clutha District Council and the Otago Regional Council next year.

The project was expected to take four years to complete.

Pioneer Energy chief executive Fraser Jonker said it had been investigating the potential to develop a wind farm on the site since last year.

“It’s an exciting project and we’re very pleased to be combining our local knowledge with Manawa Energy’s deep wind expertise.

“We have several years of historic wind data, confirming the site has a consistent high-quality resource.

“It also has very good access to transmission and great construction characteristics.”

If the project went ahead, early indications were the wind farm would have a capital cost of about $750m to $900m, he said.

A newsletter distributed to neighbours of the proposed project said the project team last year completed discussions with neighbours, desktop studies, wind monitoring and a legal agreement for land use.

The present phase of the project, which could take up to two years, involved community consultation, site investigations and turbine procurement.

A network connection application was submitted to Transpower in March.

Construction and commissioning would take one and a-half to two and a-half years and would include underground cabling, transmission lines and the construction of a substation.

Once operational, the wind farm would connect to the national grid, providing renewable power for at least 30 years.

A decision would then be made to either decommission the site or upgrade the equipment to continue operating.

The project website said it would provide about 10 permanent jobs in the Clutha District.

“Field surveys and assessments are currently under way to inform the project viability and the resource consent application.

“We’re also conducting impact assessments including cultural, visual, noise, ecological, archaeological, construction or transportation impacts.

“In selecting turbines, we’ll take advantage of the technological progress made, meaning fewer, larger, more efficient turbines on site.”

New Zealand Wind Energy Association chief executive Kevin Hart said the wind farm would be about equal in size to one under development by Contact Energy near Slopedown, in Eastern Southland.

They would be first-equal as the largest in the South Island.

In total, wind farms last year made up 7 percent of the country’s total electricity generation – a number that was “certainly tracking up” this year, Mr Hart said.

There were 19 wind farms in New Zealand at present that could produce 1045MW, or just over a gigawatt.

“To paint the picture on what we need to achieve our carbon-zero targets out to 2050 – we took 27 years to build the first gigawatt.

“We need to build six times that amount by 2050 in order to meet those net-zero targets.

“So, quite a big jump, but the good news there is that we do have very, very healthy pipelines for onshore wind.”

There were already about 2.3GW of onshore projects in the public domain; the Kaihiku project would take that to 2.6GW.

There were also 6GW to 7GW in projects under investigation, with five different investors, for offshore wind, Hart said.

– This story was originally published by the ODT

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