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Trustpower has sold a parcel of carbon credits from its Tararua wind farm to Electrabel, a European energy company.
The price has not been disclosed but if it was at the sort of price prevailing at the high-quality end of the international Kyoto market, the deal would be worth about $7 million.
Trustpower was awarded the credits - emission reduction units in the jargon - under a now defunct Government programme called Projects to Reduce Emissions (PRE).
The Government awarded the tradeable units to facilitate projects that would reduce the country's emissions of greenhouse gases during the 2008 to 2012 period and which met the "additionality" test - which means that the projects would not have been commercially viable without the income from selling the credits.
At the time, wind farms met that condition. It is unlikely they would now. In all, 7.5 million units were allocated.
On the international carbon market units with a low delivery risk - the risk that buyers will not get the units they expect - command a premium.
"The fact that we are a New Zealand company and have a good balance sheet were factors that assisted us in obtaining a good price," Trustpower trading manager Therese Thorn said.
Belgian-based Electrabel generates about four times as much electricity as New Zealand does, from a mix of nuclear and fossil-fuel plants
The latter give rise to obligations under Europe's emissions trading scheme to which the 228,000 ERUs bought from Trustpower will be applied.
It leaves Trustpower with another 1.1 million to sell.
