Manawatu Wind Farms

Having lived in Palmerston North for over 4 months now I have gotten quite used to our unique view of looking out and seeing a series of wind turbines scattered across the ridge lines to our east. In fact with the changing of colour of the trees and the blue sky in the background this makes a spectacular photo. But it was only recently that I decided I should learn a little more about the wind farms.

I had originally thought there was just one wind farm here but in fact there are three in existence and another being build but the role of all of them is the same – to harvest energy from the wind. One of the benefits of energy produced this way is that there are no greenhouse gas emissions and it is often referred to as “clean” energy.

The Te Rere Hau wind farm is located in the Tararua Ranges and has 97 turbines each with a tower height of 30m. Nearby the Tararua wind farm, also in the Tararua Ranges, is New Zealand’s largest wind farm with 134 turbines each with an incredible tower height of 65m. In this area there are average wind speeds of 34 km per hour and the energy generated from all of the turbines at Tararua farm is 161 megawatts with an average output of 620,000 megawatt hours. What makes the Tararua Ranges so popular for wind farms is the fact that not only are there high wind speeds but that they are fairly consistent. This region is said to be in the top 5% of wind sites worldwide.

The Te Apiti wind farm is located north of the Manawatu Gorge and was the first wind farm in New Zealand to supply power to the national grid. This area is considered to be quite windy, even by international standards, as the gorge acts like a wind funnel. This farm has 55 turbines with 75m towers and is open for the public to view. Bree and I went to visit it and it was fun to stand by the turbines and watch them turn. The blades are quite high above you but it feels like they might hit you and the sound they make is amazing.

All of these wind farms are relatively new with Tararua in 1999, Te Apiti in 2004 and Te Rere Hau started in 2006. Several of these have consent to build additional turbines and there is a proposal in place to build the Turitea wind farm in the Tararua Ranges but there has been opposition to this and the original application for 122 turbines has been reduced. As these turbines are located close to private homes there are concerns relating to visual effects and noise.

New Zealand has around 16 wind farms scattered across the country and from this supplies approximately 4% of their annual electricity generation. Although there are still impacts from wind energy production the environmental footprint tends to be smaller than some of our other energy generating options. As for the visual impacts, I think that is a matter of opinion. I don’t know that I would want a turbine in my backyard but seeing them up in the ridge line is really quite stunning. If they were on every ridge line I would probably change my tune! But for Bree and I the turbines have come to signify Palmerston North and when we are returning from a weekend trip and see the turbines in the distance we know we are almost home.