It's a mini wind farm, consisting of one to six smaller turbines of approximately 500kW each.
Wind power will play an important part of New Zealand's energy security in the future. Large-scale wind farms are only part of the solution, however, and often garner opposition. A wind cluster has less visual impact and by virtue of smaller size can be located nearer to where the energy is actually used. This is embedded renewable energy generation: an efficient method of generation and transmission that will help New Zealanders meet our electricity requirements and international environmental obligations. Three to six turbines will supply the equivalent of between 600 and 1200 households with electricity. This will go a significant way towards making us self sufficient in energy terms.
The basic idea is that this is owned by the local community who can control it and get the financial benefit of generating energy from the wind on our peninsula. Everyone will have the opportunity to invest even if just a small amount and no one will be able to dominate the project by investing a very large amount. Every investor will get one vote however much they’ve invested, but they'll also get a fair and stable return on their money.
The basic structure will be a co-operative company which builds and then owns and operates the wind cluster. This is the contracting party which leases the land, buys the turbines, pays for their installation, monitors and undertakes maintenance, and ultimately sells the electricity generated to a power company. The wind cluster will be profitable and will pay a fair commercial return as dividends to shareholders. And, for those who want, there will be a group buying scheme for electricity back from the power company which will provide a lower cost for the electricity than if buying it as an individual consumer. So, you get a fair return on the money you’ve invested and you get lower electricity prices.
We have not yet chosen a location.
No. Harbour Wind envisages that the chosen turbines will be medium sized (500 kW) machine. Turbine choice will be determined by quoting and site location which often dictates a particular type of turbine.