Contact Energy and Wind Farm Group have applied for resource consent for a large wind farm on the west coast of the Waikato, near to the major demand centres of Hamilton and Auckland.
The proposed wind farm would be located along 34 kilometres of coastline, from four kilometres south of Port Waikato to Te Akau, eight kilometres north of Raglan. It is a large wind farm by international standards, with a capacity of up to 540 megawatts and an estimated annual generation of up to 1,600,000 megawatt hours.
The consent application has been “called in” by the Minister for the Environment. This means the application will bypass the consent hearing that is normally conducted by local authorities, and instead be considered by a Board of Inquiry. The application will be considered in line with the relevant district and regional plans and the Board of Inquiry will consider submissions from the public and hold hearings.
Public submissions on on the proposed wind farm closed on 3 November 2008. The Minister for the Environment received 96 submissions, of which 31 were in support, 43 against, and the rest neutral, mixed or not stated. The submissions were originally received by the Minister for the Environment and then provided to the Board of Inquiry considering the proposal, in accordance with the Resource Management Act.
In May 2009 the Board of Inquiry adjourned its hearing into the proposal, to allow Contact time to prepare more detailed evidence relating to the project.
During the adjournment Contact will refine the wind farm design (especially relating to earthworks for the wind farm and transmission lines), undertake further consultation, assessment of landscape effects and monitoring of shorebirds. Contact is to submit the final design to the Board in February 2010, and present new evidence in April. The Board will reconvene in May 2010 to establish the process for proceeding with the inquiry.
The Board of Inquiry is chaired by Environment Court Judge Jeffrey Allan Smith. Judge Smith was appointed to the Environment Court in July 2000, and has presided over a number of hydro and wind energy cases including the appeal of TrustPower’s proposed Mahinerangi wind farm. The other members of the board are Dr Diane Menzies, Ms Gina Rangi and Mr John Lumsden.
More information
- Project information and consent application on Contact Energy's website
- Wind Farm Group
- Information about the call in and Board of Inquiry on the Ministry for the Environment's website
- Submissions to the Minister on the Minsitry for the Environment's website
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