Contact Energy was granted consent through the Fast-track Approval Act last week to build a 55-turbine wind farm in the Slopedown area near Wyndham — the biggest wind farm in the country.
It follows the Kaiwera Downs wind farm’s second stage being constructed near Mataura for Mercury Energy.
Transpower grid development executive general manager Matt Webb said as of yesterday Transpower, which owned and controlled the national grid, had 11 inquires to connect onshore wind generation to the grid in the Otago/Southland region.
‘‘This includes Transpower’s new Kaiwera substation near Gore to connect the second stage of Mercury’s Kaiwera Downs wind farm to the power system.
‘‘Physical works there are substantially complete and this project is now in the commissioning stage,’’ he said.
‘‘Once it has been fully integrated into the power system later this year, stage two of the wind farm will lift installed capacity from 43MW to 198MW — enough electricity to power around 73,000 homes each year.’’
Of the 10 other inquires to connect onshore wind generation in the region, four were in the application or investigation stage, he said.
‘‘We have delivered concept assessments for three of the others; the remaining three have not yet progressed beyond inquiry stage ...’’
The projects in the investigation and delivery phase, along with more across the country, would be another step forward in New Zealand growing and electrifying, he said.
‘‘Transpower has a critical role and is working at pace to speed up our connection and commissioning work across the country.
‘‘The strong pipeline of projects signals confidence that there will be enough power for our growing communities and for big industrial users to electrify their operations.
‘‘We continue to work closely with our lines company partner in Southland, PowerNet, to ensure we can continue to reliably deliver electricity where it’s needed, when it’s needed and to enable growth in the Southland region.’’
Another project under consideration is the Kaihiku wind farm, a partnership between Pioneer Energy and Contact Energy.
Its site is about 7km from Clinton and 12km from Balclutha in South Otago, with a capacity of 300MW, enough to power about 135,000 households.
The Jericho Wind Farm in Fiordland will consist of eight turbines up to 210m high,
with a total capacity of 35MW.
Kākāriki Renewables is planning a 346MW wind farm in central Southland.
