They ran a tender process to build and operate the wind farm and chose Meridian, which owns and operates four wind farms in NZ and two in Australia, because of its expertise in building wind farms in New Zealand, Australia and Antarctica.
Meridian general manager markets and production Neal Barclay says the project is Meridian's tenth wind farm that it has developed or purchased.
"We expect it to be one of the most productive in the world.
"Wind patterns at Mill Creek mean that we expect we will get twice the energy out of the turbines compared to that of the average global wind farm," he says.
The project reached first power in May and full power (when all the turbines are generating) is expected by late September. The turbines generate electricity in wind speeds of between 14km and 90km per hour, and together will generate 59.8MW of electricity (2.3MW each), enough to power around 30,000 New Zealand homes.
"Mill Creek also further diversifies Meridian's hydro and wind portfolio.
"Having wind farms also means if it's blowing in the North Island we can use wind and less South Island water from our lakes to generate electricity when we need it most.
"Mill Creek also further illustrates Meridian's commitment to renewable generation and reinforces our view that wind energy is the leading technology in New Zealand's renewable future.
"And it's not only New Zealand's future. Last year the equivalent of 600 Mill Creek wind projects were built around the world - enough to power all of NZ's electricity needs one and a half times over."
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