New Zealand’s second largest wind farm is fully operational

New Zealand electricity company Meridian Energy says the country’s second biggest wind farm, the 176 megawatt (MW) Harapaki facility on the country’s North Island, has begun full operations.

The Harapaki wind farm was delivered within a month of its originally scheduled completion date and inside the $NZ448 million capital forecast. It consists of 41 SWT-DD-120 turbines from Siemens Gamesa.

Capable of generating enough electricity to power the equivalent of 70,000 homes – the equivalent of most of nearby Hawke’s Bay – the Harapaki is located north of Napier in the Maungaharuru Range.

“We’re now right in the middle of winter and every bit of generation helps,” said Guy Waipara, Meridian’s general manager for development.  

“Harapaki has been generating since last November and was around 90% capacity at 30 June, but reaching full capacity means this wind farm is doing everything it can to help maintain security of supply.”  

Wind energy currently accounts for only 6 per cent of New Zealand’s electricity generation, according to the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA).

And though this is anticipated to increase over the next few years – with several wind farms under construction or in various stages of development – current wind energy capacity sits at just over 1GW. The biggest wind farm is the 220 MW Turitea project near Palmerston North.

New Zealand has plans to build out its wind energy capacity to generate 20 per cent of the country’s electricity by 2030, and potentially as much as 34 per cent by 2035.

The country is also exploring the potential development of offshore wind farms, with the government announcing in 2022 the development of regulatory settings to enable investment in offshore renewable energy.