"Trustpower and its shareholders do not want to have a failure so we have to be very selective and targeted. We did Snowtown because it adds significant shareholder value. It helps us to continue building up a Tauranga company that has grown to become national and then international."
Company chairman Bruce Harker, speaking before taking on the five-minute internal lift ride to the top of one of the 80m turbine towers, said the company could commit to the project because it had the core competencies.
"We understand the market and we understand the technologies and we backed ourselves to be able to manage the project process and do it well," he said. "It's a big investment for us. The only reason we can do it is because there are deep competencies in the management team to actually go through with it. We're trying to earn money and make very good returns to shareholders."
Mr Harker said he expected the project would contribute to about 35 per cent of total annual earnings in terms of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, and bring back close to $75 million in annual revenues to New Zealand.
Andrew Harvey-Green, a senior equity analyst with Forsyth Barr, said: "Overall, the Australian wind farm development is a very strong positive for Trustpower.
"Really there isn't a huge amount of downside." Trustpower and Meridian had been able to move into the Australian wind power space because they had the core expertise to successfully take wind farm development to Australia, he said.
Jeff Connolly, chief executive of Siemens Australia, Trustpower's key partner in Stage 2 of Snowtown, said: "Trustpower is one of the most progressive thinkers in in terms of project construction." Unlike many project developers, Trustpower let its technology partner get on with doing what it did best, and dealt directly with critical issues rather than standing behind a team of architects, managers and consultants.
"They've got an attitude of, what are we going to do, not an adversarial approach, and that's very refreshing."
South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill said renewable energy was a key economic priority for the state, which had already exceeded its current target of 33 per cent of energy production from renewable sources. Other policy elements included forging international relationships to bring in capital and innovative technologies, and providing a first-class regulatory regime so that projects such as Snowtown could have a speedy and certain path to development.
"I think you're seeing all those things play out here in this project," he said.
"A lot of institutions have had to come together and co-operate. It's really been a Rolls Royce process. This is one of our most significant projects."
-Trustpower met the cost of David Porter's visit to Snowtown.
