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Central Wind is a new wind farm proposal located across five privately owned rural properties in the central North Island. The site lies between Waiouru and Taihape, with the smaller settlement of Moawhango lying to the east. Project Central Wind would have 52 turbines with an estimated combined generating capacity of about 120 – 130MW, enough to power up to 50,000 average homes.
The location has all the attributes Meridian seeks in a wind farm site. It has a consistently strong wind resource which would allow the wind farm to operate over a broad range of speeds. It is expected turbines would generate electricity for approximately 90% of the time.
Meridian was granted resource consent for Project Central Wind by the Ruapehu and Rangitikei District Councils and Horizons Regional Council. This decision was appealed though and Project Central Wind is now the subject of an Environment Court Hearing in early September 2009.
A decision is expected within the next 6 months.
The Assessment of Environmental Effects prepared by independent consultants which forms the basis of Meridian's resource consent application is available by clicking on the Resource Consent Application to on the left of this page. A summary prepared by Meridian is also available Central wind
A map outlining the proposed site and positioning of the turbines shows exactly where the wind farm would go.
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