Genesis wins carbon credits for wind farm extension

1.45pm

State power company Genesis Power, owner of the massive coal-fired Huntly Power Station, has been awarded carbon credits for a 5 megawatt expansion of its Wairarapa wind farm, Associate Energy Minister Harry Duynhoven said today.

Genesis has plans for up to 16 new turbines that will more than double the capacity of the Hau Nui facility.

The company also has plans for Auckland's first wind farm on the Awhitu peninsula which has also won credits, or emission units, from the Government.

The Kyoto Protocol carbon credit system, in simple terms, means that if a "dirty" industry wishes to discharge carbon dioxide it has to get credits from a "clean" industry -- one which has gained them by either absorbing carbon dioxide (forestry, for example) or by replacing a carbon dioxide-producing process with one that doesn't (wind or hydro power replacing thermal generation, for example).

The Hau Nui extension was expected to start generating electricity later this year, and depending on the resource consent process, the planned 19MW Awhitu wind farm could start generating next year, Mr Duynhoven said in a statement.

- NZPA