Meridian Energy Kicks Off Construction at Ohariu Mill Creek Windfarm

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Perth, Australia)--The Mill Creek Windfarm project in Wellington, New Zealand, began construction in August 2012, and remains on target to generate 59.8 megawatts (MW) electricity on completion. According to the schedule, the windfarm will be put into operation by June 2014, with a 30-month construction period.

The windfarm, which is located in northwest Wellington city in the Ohariu Valley, is being built by renewable energy giant Meridian Energy Limited (Wellington, New Zealand). The windfarm will feature 26 turbines, with a capacity of 2.3 MW each, and will be capable of generating up to 235 gigawatt-hours per annum, enough to power about 30,000 homes.

During 2008, Meridian formed a Mill Creek Community Liaison Group at privately owned farms at Ohariu, to allow the exchange of information and ideas on the proposed windfarm. This attributed to Meridian receiving the resource consents from the government in 2009. This was followed by Meridian's appeal for environmental consents, which were granted in 2011.

Meridian received board approval for $169 million in May 2012, and finalized the equipment suppliers and specialist contractors required for the project in August 2012. Meridian has selected Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) (Munich, Germany) as the technology provider. Siemens currently is supplying and erecting 26 turbines of 2.3 MW each at the windfarm site.

"Ohariu is the ideal location to build Mill Creek, which is estimated to cost an annual average operating cost of NZ$3.3 million (US$2.7 million)," said Mark Binns, CEO of Meridian. Mill Creek will generate electricity at a capacity factor of 46%, which is 15% above the world's average generating capacity of 30%.

Meridian's in-house team is to perform most of the project development. Once built, the windfarm will offset equivalent of 70,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. It also will contribute to the New Zealand government's ambitious renewable energy goals of generating 90% of its electricity from renewable sources by the end of 2025.

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