Meridian lodges application for Mt Munro wind farm

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Meridian Energy has lodged its applications for resource consents for Project Mt Munro, a wind farm located about 5 km south of Eketahuna.

The Mt Munro wind farm would have 20 turbines that could generate up to 240 GWh of renewable electricity annually, that’s enough to power 31,000 average New Zealand homes.

Meridian Project Manager Carolyn Wylie thanked the community for their input during the project’s consultation phase, including the open days held by Meridian in Eketahuna in October 2011.

“We’ve been talking with the community about this project since July last year. There will be further opportunities to discuss the project, including when we hold more open days in February.”

Mt Munro is located on the boundaries of the Tararua and Masterton Districts, an area well known for its strong and consistent wind resource.

The application is now being assessed by the Tararua and Masterton District Councils, and the Horizons and Wellington Regional Councils. These councils will decide when to call for public submissions.

ENDS

For more information contact:

Michelle Brooker
External Communications
Meridian Energy
021 225 9624

About Meridian Energy

Meridian is New Zealand’s largest electricity generator and currently owns and operates seven hydro stations, four wind farms within New Zealand, and one wind farm in Australia:

  • Manapouri power station and six hydro stations on the Waitaki River in the South Island
  • Te Apiti wind farm near Palmeston North
  • White Hill wind farm in Southland
  • West Wind farm in Wellington
  • Te Uku wind farm in Raglan
  • Mt Millar wind farm, Eyre Peninsula, South Australia
  • CalRENEW-1 solar farm in Mendota, California

Internationally, Meridian has operations in Sydney Australia and San Francisco, California.

Meridian also retails electricity to around 270,000 individual customer connections (including Powershop) throughout New Zealand, which includes households, farms and businesses. It also provides electricity to New Zealand’s single largest electricity user, the Rio Tinto Alcan New Zealand Limited aluminium smelter in Bluff. 

Meridian invests strongly in renewable energy development and has over 1,500 megawatts of Australasian development opportunities in the development pipeline.