Contact makes little headway on appeal
More than two months after they were turned down from building a large wind farm at Slopedown, any progress Contact Energy have made in moving the project back on the agenda and getting it built appears to be glacial.
The power giant was turned down by a panel set up under Covid-19 Recovery (Fast-track Consenting) Act 2020 and run by the Environment Protection Authority.
The 55-turbine wind farm, on a remote but prominent range of hills near Wyndham, was expected to create up to 240 jobs during construction, and power 150,000 homes when operational.
Contact was "gutted" with the decision which was released in the middle of March and immediately said it would appeal.
It said it had spent $20 million in developing the project and would be prepared to spend more to get the project approved.
The project was turned down because of concerns over the project's adverse effects on indigenous plants and animals — including the critically endangered New Zealand long-tailed bat.
The panel questioned whether the impact could be "properly mitigated" during and after the project.
Under the Act, the only way to appeal was on points of law.
Contact said last week it had filed an appeal to the High Court in April but no date had been set for a hearing.
When the proposal was turned down, the power company said the wind farm was a good project for the district and for New Zealand.
Contact made the decision to re-apply for consent under the updated Fast-track Approvals Act 2024.
It said last week its application was still being assessed.
Contact had been aggressive in wanting to build the wind farm, saying it was one of many renewable projects which the country needed as it strived to help reach the aspirational target set by the Government of 100% renewable electricity by 2030.
The Electricity Authority in a memo last week said hydro storage was likely to remain low, which will push wholesale spot prices up.
However, fuel supply and generation capacity will be sufficient to meet national demand this winter.
Transpower, the national grid operator warned last week there was a higher risk of electricity outages starting in winter 2026.
The national grid operator's draft security of supply assessment predicted an elevated risk of shortages will arrive four years earlier than thought as recently as a year ago.
It found solar, wind and battery storage is not coming online fast enough to make up for dwindling supplies in the country's gas fields.
The assessment found, if every electricity generation project in the pipeline was built, supply would be much more reliable, but Transpower said there was a risk of some proposed solar, wind and battery projects falling over.
stephen.hepburn@alliedpress.co.nz
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