A 28-turbine wind farm near Raglan in Waikato, Te Uku is capable of generating 64.4 megawatts of renewable energy – the equivalent of about 27,000 average New Zealand homes.
Construction began in 2009 and the wind farm became fully operational in 2010. As part of the construction process, 40,000 native plants were planted in two wetland areas on the Te Uku Wind Farm site to help improve water quality downstream.
The Te Uku Wind Farm is located on a working sheep and cattle farm on the Wharauroa Plateau. The area has strong and consistent wind speeds, making it an ideal place for a wind farm.
The terrain in some parts of the site reaches heights of more than 400 metres above sea level, and the wind speed increases as it travels up the land forms.
Meridian built Te Uku in alliance with the local electricity lines company WEL Networks Ltd, which is owned by a community trust. It was the first wind-generation project of its kind undertaken jointly by an electricity generator and retailer and a lines company.
WEL Networks constructed the 25-kilometre, 33-kilovolt transmission line that carries the power from the wind farm to the network and the national energy grid, while Meridian built 26 kilometres of roads to transport the turbine parts to the wind farm.
The turbines were manufactured at two sites: the towers in Korea and the turbine parts in Denmark.
A 600-tonne crane was used to install the turbines. The crane was shipped to New Zealand from Denmark by the KR Wind/NZ Crane Group Alliance especially for Te Uku.
Involving the local community in the development of the wind farm was a high priority for Meridian. Students and teachers from four local schools visited the wind farm during construction, and a community liaison group was set up to discuss issues and be kept up to date on progress.
More than $30 million was invested in the regional economy by on-site employees during the construction process, with nearly half of those working on site being from the Waikato region.
It gets pretty blustery in New Zealand – which is good news for us wind farmers. We have eight wind farms spread from Waikato to Southland, plus the iconic, solitary wind turbine in Brooklyn, Wellington. We’ve also designed and built a wind farm at Ross Island in Antarctica that provides power to Scott Base and McMurdo research stations.
If you’d like more information on one of our wind farms, please email community@meridianenergy.co.nz.
Our Power Up Community Fund supports local projects in areas in which we have generation assets. It’s one of the ways in which we recognise the importance of local communities to our operations.
If you’re based near a Meridian asset and have a project you’d like help with, apply now!
We reckon that by teaching Kiwi kids how we make clean energy, they’ll continue the mahi to keep Papatūānuku in good shape for our future. That’s why we’ve come up with some downloadable education resources that are aligned with the New Zealand school curriculum and have been designed and reviewed by New Zealand teachers.