Click photo to enlarge
Peter Dowling.
Central Otago power company Pioneer Generation hopes to
know by Christmas whether it will be allowed to build a wind
farm on one of the highest points in South Otago.
At a two-day Clutha District Council resource consent hearing
this week, the company presented its plan to erect nine 75m
turbines on a 15ha site at Mt Stuart, 14km inland from
Milton.
Pioneer chief executive Peter Dowling told the Otago Daily
Times yesterday that if consent was granted, the company
would spend $10 million to $15 million installing turbines to
feed between 5.5 and 6.5MW of power into the local
distribution network.
Mr Dowling said the turbines would be about half the size of
those TrustPower intended to erect on its site at Mahinerangi
and would be imported from Europe.
They would be similar in size to the three the company was
operating at its Horseshoe Bend site near Roxburgh.
Mr Dowling believed it was premature to talk about timing
plans.
"We haven't got to that stage yet, to be honest.
"We need to get the consent first and then it will just
depend on how quickly we can source turbines, and the
economics - which are dependent on exchange rates."
The company had not yet decided if it would use new machines
or second-hand ones.
"There's a lot of what's called repowering going on in Europe
where they are taking out the 600-750kW machines and putting
in bigger machines."
The hearing received 15 submissions and council planning and
environment manager Murray Brass said the most common
objection was about visual, landscape effects.
Concerns were also raised about noise, traffic and the effect
on the community.
The hearing panel, chaired by Canterbury farmer and
Environment Court commissioner Roger Tasker, visited the site
after the two-day hearing and also inspected the Horseshoe
Bend site.
Mr Dowling said Pioneer was in a "different part of the
market" from the "major players" like Meridian and
TrustPower.
"What we're looking at is the smaller sites up to five to 10
machines . . . connected to the local distribution network
rather than the national grid.
"There are a number of farmers around, or land owners, who've
expressed an interest in having a small number of turbines on
their land and perhaps even having a share of ownership.
"It's just an opportunity we see and are trying to follow
through on."
- mark.price@odt.co.nz
