Contact Energy said its plan to build a 55-turbine wind farm at Slopedown in Southland will deliver a significant piece of infrastructure that generates renewable electricity and provides positive employment and economic outcomes.
The company has chosen to take the project through fast track legislation, introduced during the Covid 19 pandemic. Fast tracking considerably shortens the consent process with a panel inviting submissions from those it thinks are affected parties.
Contact Energy's application for the project was published by the Environment Protection Authority this week.
The large wind farm was set to produce between 250-330MW, enough power for 110,000-150,000 houses.
It would have between 160-240 jobs during construction and there would be 10-14 fulltime roles once the wind farm is up and running.
Contact Energy said it had an estimated spend of $230 million-$280m within the New Zealand economy during construction followed by an estimated spend of $8m-$12m per year on operations, of which more than half would be spent locally on resident staff, contractors and other suppliers.
The new wind farm in Southland would only be built if the developers see potential to earn a return on their investment in that location.
Much depends on the future of NZ Aluminium Smelters and its contractual supply arrangement for power from Manapouri.
The smelter accounts for about 13% of New Zealand’s electricity consumption, and if it were to close Southland would have a large surplus of electricity generation.
That would require either new energy-using industries in the region or increased grid capacity to export power from the region to the North Island.
The smelter has indicated it was planning to stay open at the end of the year subject to power price negotiations.
Contact Energy said the wind farm would also support businesses’ confidence in investing in decarbonisation.
The wind farm had potential to increase the amount of electricity generation in Southland that would be available for supporting local industries, in particular those that are transitioning away from reliance on fossil fuels, or adding to the supply exported to other regions.
It had followed best practice when consulting on the new wind farm in Southland.
The application included a section from Contact Energy on its engagement with the community.
Regardless of the resource consent pathway taken, Contact said it wanted to be a good neighbour and in this instance it includes providing clear and accurate information, as well as equal opportunity for the community to learn about the project and provide feedback.
Another benefit of increasing wind generation in Southland would be in reducing calls on supply from further up the grid with associated transmission losses.
Southland had been a net importer of power 25% of the time over the past five years, so adding generation capacity in Southland should reduce the frequency of displacing power from much further north, the report said.
