Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

LEAD STORY: Huge new wind farms for Bay

Hawkes Bay Today
15 Apr, 2005 08:17 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Peter Gaston
Two huge wind farms, costing nearly $500 million and generating enough electricity to power 150,000 homes - the equivalent of three cities the size of Napier and Hastings combined - are planned near Te Pohue, about 40km north of Napier.
The bigger of the two, Hawke's Bay Wind Farm Ltd,
will lodge an application for its $300 million project, producing enough electricity for up to 95,000 homes, with the Hastings District Council next month.
Its shareholders include Hawke's Bay businessman Andy Lowe, Wind Farm Developments and Tararua Wind Farm landowner Hall Block Resources Ltd.
The smaller 120MW farm, which would supply electricity to 55,000 homes, is being developed by Hawke's Bay-based lines company Unison, in partnership with Hydro Tasmania.
Unison will begin talking to Te Pohue residents on Tuesday and Hawke's Bay Wind Farm has organised an open day for residents at the Te Pohue Community Centre on April 27.
Wind Farm Developments director Alistair Wilson said the proposed farm would be on a 2500ha site across Waitara, Maunganui and Rock stations on the Titiokura summit.
Sixty to 80 turbines, producing up to 240mW of electricity, were planned.
Studies had confirmed the site on the Maungaharuru Range, mostly north of Titiokura summit, offered an excellent wind resource and was also close to the dual 220kv electricity transmission lines bringing electricity from Wairakei to Hawke's Bay.
The consent process could take up to nine months and construction up to a further year, meaning the farm would begin supplying power to the national grid by the end of next year or early in 2007.
The wind farm will not dominate the skyline to the same degree as Meridian Energy's Te Apiti development at Ashhurst. Only portions of the wind farm will be visible from State Highway 5.
Maunganui Station owner Reece Whitelock said the proposed wind farm was a significant boost for the Te Pohue community and offered employment opportunities.
During the construction phase up to 40 people will work on the project and when it was operating it would require six to 10 permanent maintenance staff.
Unison chief executive Ken Sutherland said the company had been interested in establishing a wind farm north of Te Pohue since 1995, but was not prepared to identify its site yet.
"We want to discuss it with residents first," he said. Its proposed 120mW development would staged, with the first phase involving 16 turbines, generating 48mW.
He expected the final feasibility work, including confirmation of wind readings from an 80m test mast, will be completed within the next year.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today
|Updated

Villa Maria adds cancer warnings to wines sold in Ireland

Hawkes Bay Today

Family ties as Joe Helmore art features in HB auction

Premium
Opinion

Elastic is anything but trivial: Wyn Drabble


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Villa Maria adds cancer warnings to wines sold in Ireland
Hawkes Bay Today
|Updated

Villa Maria adds cancer warnings to wines sold in Ireland

Labels state there’s a direct link between alcohol and fatal cancers.

17 Jul 07:05 PM
Family ties as Joe Helmore art features in HB auction
Hawkes Bay Today

Family ties as Joe Helmore art features in HB auction

17 Jul 06:00 PM
Premium
Premium
Elastic is anything but trivial: Wyn Drabble
Opinion

Elastic is anything but trivial: Wyn Drabble

17 Jul 06:00 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP