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White Hill wind farm

White Hill wind farm is located in Southland, New Zealand.

The wind farm’s 29 wind turbines can generate up to 58 megawatts of electricity. The 29 wind turbines at the White Hill wind farm generate enough electricity each year for about 22,000 average New Zealand homes.

White Hill is the second wind farm Meridian has built in New Zealand, and the first in the South Island. Three local schools planted time capsules in the base of a wind turbine. Each year the children visit their turbine to learn about wind energy and see their time capsule.

Why build a wind farm here?

The White Hill wind farm is located on a section of forestry land in Southland, south-east of Mossburn. Southland has strong natural winds that are ideal for power generation.

The wind at White Hill has very good speed and consistency for wind farming, by both national and international standards.

Meridian widened 14 kilometres of existing tracks and constructed 10 kilometres of new access tracks for the 400 tonne crawler crane that installed the turbines.

We took special care of the local ecology during construction. We fenced off significant areas, and saved topsoil and red tussock for replanting later.

Key dates

  • 2006 Construction begins
  • 2007 White Hill fully operational

Meridian Power Up community fund

Our Power Up community fund supports local projects in the areas where we have wind farms and hydro stations. It’s one of the ways that we recognise the importance of local communities to our operations.  

 

Apply for Power Up