Five southern local authorities will be involved in deciding
if a large-scale wind farm near Wyndham will go ahead.
Wind Prospect CWP (NZ) Ltd, which wants to construct a $400
million wind farm in the area, had hoped to lodge its
resource consent application by the end of June, but project
manager Shirley Ferguson said that had been delayed.
The company was waiting for final designs on a switching yard
device which would connect the wind farm to Transpower's main
transmission line between Clinton and Gore.
She did not know how long that would take, or when the
application would be filed.
The company would be lodging one "overall package" with the
five councils - Southland District Council, Environment
Southland, Gore District Council, Clutha District Council and
Otago Regional Council - which would be involved with the
consent process.
The company also confirmed it would not be asking the
Ministry for the Environment to "call in" the project, which
could have led to the Government deciding consent.
Instead, it will follow the usual process of calling for
submissions and holding a hearing.
Ms Ferguson expected the Southland District Council would be
the lead authority and all five councils would convene a
joint hearing.
A venue for this would be decided by the Southland authority.
She hoped the hearing would be held in a venue that was
easily accessible for submitters but until submissions were
in and officials studied them, no decisions would be made.
Ms Ferguson expected there would be a delay between the
councils receiving the application and its public
notification.
"It [the application] will be a big bundle of information and
I expect the councils would need some time to digest it
before they notify the application," she said.
Big wind farm
• Area: 6sq km
• Turbines: 50Output: 150MW
• Average households supplied: 65,700
• Turbine tower height: Up to 80m
• Where: 26km southeast of Gore and 15km east of
Wyndham
• When: Depending on when resource consent application
lodged.
• The applicant, Wind Prospect CWP (NZ) Ltd, hopes to
have it operational by mid-2012.
Bookmark/Search this post with:
A name, residential address, and (preferably residential) telephone number is required from readers who comment on ODT Online. These details will not be visible to site visitors.