Locations

Those who want to argue that wind is only a "niche technology" may want to check out this map of wind resources and possible developments from TransPower. This was produced for the Wind Energy Conference six months ago, and it's already significantly out of date. In particular, since it was produced, resource consents have been granted for a further 120 MW of turbines (at Te Rere Hau and Mossburn), and Trustpower's "Tararua area" proposal has grown to 120MW and is now in the process of applying for resource consent. By way of comparison, New Zealand's electricity demand growth - the amount of new generation we need to install each year to "stop the lights from going out" - is estimated at 150 MW a year. On past and present performance then, we're meeting 80% of that demand growth from wind alone.