Peter Gaston
An electricity windfarm could be built on the Titiokura Saddle, about 35km north of Napier on the Napier-Taupo Highway.
Regional electricity lines company Unison is expected to seek a resource consent for test masts before the end of the month so it can carry out wind tests on the site.
Unison's
commercial manager, John Nichols, said it was the first step in a feasibility study of the site, likely to take up to a year.
The company, as Hawke's Bay Power, undertook limited investigations of the site in the late 1990s and later purchased a small parcel of land along the top of the saddle. When it bought the land it was considering a windfarm capable of producing fewer than 10 megawatts. (10,000 single-bar heaters).
To make the project commercially viable, Unison would need to significantly enlarge the area and was in discussions with neighbours.
Mr Nichols said in the last two years the Government had removed restrictions on how much electricity lines companies could generate from renewable energy sources like wind, greatly increasing the scope of any new project.
"The resource consent application was a signal that we were seriously looking at the opportunities for wind power in the region," he said.
The company was working with overseas technical advisers and there was interest in the project from international and New Zealand companies.
However, Mr Nichols said the project was still in its infancy and the application for the resource consent for the wind test towers was merely a first step.
The success of the $100 million Meridian Energy windfarm at Te Apiti, near Ashhurst had given the project new impetus. Since the first of the 106m-high turbines at Te Apiti was commissioned, the farm had broken world generation records. Its 55 turbines have been recording load factors of almost 50 percent, nearly double the world average generating capacity of 25 percent.
Te Apiti was expected to produce sufficient power for 32,000 homes but in reality it was closer to 50,000.
* Power of the wind - Page 7
