A plan to build a windmill cluster near Warrington is a step
closer to going ahead, after the trust behind it raised more
than $8800 to erect a testing tower.
Blueskin Energy Project manager Scott Willis said the trust
had exceeded its target of raising $8200 to install a 30m
wind tower, which would allow it to carry out precise testing
at its proposed wind turbine site on Porteous Hill.
''We are absolutely over the moon,'' Mr Willis said.
The tower's owner, TrustPower, had earlier offered use of the
tower free of charge, but the fundraising was needed to
install it and pay for new equipment used to measure wind
speed.
The trust planned to lodge a resource consent to install the
tower today and hoped to have it up by the end of February.
Mr Willis said wind figures taken from the tower would
confirm data taken from a smaller 10m tower, which had been
up for about two years.
These ''more precise'' figures would be important when
sourcing funding for the project.
The trust used the ''crowdsourcing'' website PledgeMe to
raise money to put the tower up. About 100 people had given
money by the time the fundraising effort finished yesterday.
The trust plans to erect up to four turbines on Porteous Hill
at a cost of between $5 million and $6 million.
vaughan.elder@odt.co.nz
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