Turitea Wind Farm


Turitea Wind Farm is a wind farm being built by Mercury Energy which, when complete, will become the largest wind farm in New Zealand. Most of the land is located in the Turitea Reserve, near Turitea, in Palmerston North, New Zealand. The project was initially planned for 131 wind turbines with a capacity of over 300 MW, while final approval was given for 60 turbines.
The wind farm is proposed for both land owned by the Palmerston North District Council and surrounding private farm land. In 2005, and following a competitive bid process, the Council selected Mercury to develop the project.
Construction of the Northern stage, consisting of 33 turbines, began in October 2019, with commissioning expected in early 2021. Construction of the Southern stage of 27 turbines will follow.
Work on the wind farm was halted when the country went into lockdown in March 2020.
The Transformers of 135 MVA 220/33kV is supplied from CG Power Systems Indonesia, a factory located in Bogor, Indonesia.

Consent process

Mighty River Power applied for resource consents for 131 turbines in 2008, and later applied to the Environment Minister for the project to be called in under the Resource Management Act. The call in process can result in faster processing of major projects, but in this case it coincided with the 2008 election and change of government. The Palmerston North City Council decided to continue with processing of the application, despite Mighty River Power's application for call-in.
In December 2008, the Minister for the Environment, Nick Smith, directed that the project be called in and the Board of Inquiry invited submissions and commenced sitting in 2009. The hearing adjourned for a period in 2009, to enable Mighty River Power to redesign the proposal, reducing it to 104 turbines. In 2010, the Board resumed the hearing, with a draft decision in February 2011 permitting 61 turbines.
In 2011, the Board issued its final decision, approving a wind farm of 60 turbines, up to 3MW each. In October 2011, Mighty River Power stated in its annual report that the Turitea Wind Farm was not likely to be economically viable before 2015.