New Zealand Wind Energy Association

The Wind Energy Association today welcomed the announcement by Meridian Energy that it intends to proceed with its West Wind project in Wellington as a further sign of the important role that wind energy will play in meeting NZ’s electricity requirements.

NZ Wind Energy Association (NZWEA) Chief Executive Fraser Clark said the decision demonstrated that wind energy could compete directly with other sources of electricity.

He said that with no fuel costs, carbon-free wind generation would make an important contribution both to New Zealand’s energy security and also to our efforts to respond to global concerns regarding climate change.

“New Zealand has an excellent wind resource and our wind farms typically perform around twice as effectively as the global industry average”.

“Despite this wind resource, wind energy provided only around 1.5% of our total electricity requirements in 2007 - a level that sees us lagging behind even developing nations such as India”.

“2007 was a record year for the installation of new wind energy capacity. New projects such as West Wind show the future for wind energy in New Zealand is increasingly positive,” Mr Clark said.

This year will see New Zealand’s installed wind energy capacity reach 320 MW, an increase of over 150 MW from 2006. A further 46 MW is expected to be completed next year, with West Wind adding a further 140 MW.

A number of further wind energy projects ranging in scale from 1.8 MW to 630 MW are currently at various stages of the consenting and development process across the country.

Notes

1. The related announcement from Meridian Energy can be found here.