Wind in Australia

So far, the competition to be the Southern Hemisphere's largest windfarm has been limited to New Zealand (and the Manawatu at that). Currently, Meridian Energy's Te Apiti holds the title, at 90.8 MW, but it will soon be eclipsed again by Tararua, which then be overtaken by the 210 MW Project Westwind (assuming consents are granted), which will in turn lose to the 270 MW Hawkes Bay Windfarm. But now Australia is getting into the act, with a 329 MW farm planned for MacArthur in Victoria. This cannot be allowed to stand. But fortunately, Meridian has a plan to trump the Aussies: Project Hayes, a massive 630 MW monster in Central Otago.

The Aussies are now having exactly the same sorts of debates about wind farms we have had (and mostly gotten over) in New Zealand. People are arguing that they're ugly, unreliable, noisy, that they kill birds, and that the flicker of their turning blades drives people mad (no, I didn't make that one up). In New Zealand, most of these concerns have been dismissed as spurious, though significant landscape values may still be taken into account. Interestingly, Project Hayes has problems on that front, as it would significantly change the nature of the Central Otago landscape. But that's what the RMA process is for.

Finally, its interesting to note that it costs around twice as much (in dollars per MW) to build a windfarm in Australia as in New Zealand. Given that their wind resource is generally poorer (meaning lower output and hence lower returns), this suggests that wind will not be playing anywhere near the role in Australia's electricity future as it will here.