Tararua doubles its puff

By CHRIS DANIELS

Energy company TrustPower yesterday commissioned 55 wind turbines at its Tararua wind farm near Palmerston North, New Zealand's largest.

The project more than doubles the number of turbines from 48 to 103, which will produce 68 megawatts of electricity. New Zealand's largest thermal station at Huntly can generate 1000 megawatts.

TrustPower's North Island group manager Deion Campbell said the farm was rated one of the best in world, because it generated at 46 per cent of its capacity.

Though this would now drop to 43 per cent with the installation of the new turbines, this was still much higher than other wind farms around the world. Some in Europe generated only between 8 per cent and 10 per cent of their capacity.

The project cost $60 million, with 70 per cent of this spent on the Danish-built turbines.

Energy Minister Pete Hodgson used the occasion to announce an expansion of the Government's carbon credits scheme, first used in last year's Budget.

He said the response to last year's offer of four million carbon credits had been excellent, with 15 emission-reducing projects including the Tararua farm receiving them.

In next week's Budget, another six million credits will be offered, to be taken up and possibly traded by owners of projects that help reduce CO2 emissions.

Hodgson said the credits were not subsidies, but a way to put the cost of CO2 emissions into a project.