Focus on Wind Power in New Zealand

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In New Zealand, wind power generates a small but rapidly growing proportion of the country’s electricity, as the country makes increasing use of its outstanding wind resources. Currently, wind supplies around 4% of New Zealand’s electricity needs, but the predictions are that this will reach 20%  by 2030.

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The Windflow 500 (photo above and below) is New Zealand’s only locally designed and manufactured wind turbine sited at Brooklyn.

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Brooklyn Wind Turbine

New Zealand had an installed wind generation capacity of over 600 MW.  Wind Farms now provides enough  electricityto meet the needs of 180,000households, or approximately 4% of the country’s electricity demand.

The country has  excellent wind power resources due to its position astride the stream known as the Roaring Forties,resulting in nearly continuous strong westerly winds over many locations, unimpeded by other nearby landmasses at similar latitude.  However occasional high weather systems can settle across both islands which result in no wind at all. One recent study found that using just  1% of total available land for wind farms would produce approximately 100,000 gigawatt hours per year.This would be roughly two times the current annual electricity consumption of New Zealand.

As with many countries, wind farms and turbines generate a wide range of opinions from outright opposition to widespread acceptance. Opposition is due to the usual complaints about noise, aesthetics and ecological factors. A Palmerston North landscape designer launched a petition in 2008 calling for a moratorium on wind farm developments until stricter national policies are in place, including minimum distances from housing, maximum saturation levels and protection for certain environmentally important (or just iconic) areas.

There is a major wind farm at Te Uku near Raglan, New Zealand. It has a capacity of 64MW using 28 wind turbines. Construction was completed in March 2011,at a cost of $200 million. The farm covers an area of approximately 200 hectares (2.0 km2

Resource consent was granted in May 2008 and appeals were resolved by November 2008. Construction of the wind farm began in 2010. The wind farm was officially opened by the Prime Minister in February 2011 and became fully operational on 10 March 2011.

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Te Uku Wind Farm

 

Two huge wind farm approvals totaling 1,400 MW (1.4 GW) should bring New Zealand closer to its target of 90% renewable electricity by 2025. The nation of four million people already gets more than three quarters of its electricity from clean energy already: Geothermal and hydropower have long supplied the majority of New Zealand’s power, but hydro is at a natural limit.

That means growing wind from its current 615 MW to around 3,000MW.  These two approvals are a significant step forward, supplying nearly half of that at a total of 1,400 MW. The two large utility-scale wind farms are rated at 860 MW and 540 MW.

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A Siemens West-Wind 1 Turbine Farm in New Zealand