The Makara Guardians Inc. is an incorporated society formed in 1997 to coordinate opposition to proposals to build

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

s near where the members live. Mākara is a rural locality 10 km west of

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

, New Zealand. The Makara Guardians represents some 85% of the families in the Mākara Valley, and consists of around 160 member

Membership is restricted to residents or owners of land in Mākara who support the objectives of the Society and who are aged over 18.

History

The Mākara area has long been favoured as a site for building a

wind farm A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...

. It is located in an area that enjoys reliably high average wind speeds for much of the year. It is close to a major metropolitan area – Wellington, and close to major transmission lines that supply the city with power. The terrain is hilly, with long ridges running 250 – 450 metres above sea level. The

Electricity Corporation of New Zealand The Electricity Corporation of New Zealand Ltd (ECNZ), also known as Electricorp is a New Zealand state-owned enterprise (SOE) formed on 1 April 1987, as a transition entity in the process of deregulating the New Zealand electricity market. Mo ...

(ECNZ) began investigating the area as a site for the development of a wind farm from 1995. It investigated a number of wind farm options ranging from an 8 to 10 turbine, 6 MW wind farm, through to approximately 50 turbines generating as much as 30 MW. ECNZ announced the 6 MW proposal in October 1997. The company also purchased a {{convert, 1000, acre, km2, adj=on block of land in Mākara known as Quartz Hill in 1997. The Makara Guardians opposed this 6 MW development. ECNZ never applied for resource consent, and subsequently shelved the wind farm plans. The company was split up in 1999, with

Meridian Energy Meridian Energy Limited is a New Zealand electricity generator and retailer. The company generates the largest proportion of New Zealand's electricity, generating 35 percent of the country's electricity in the year ending December 2014, and i ...

inheriting the Quartz Hill site. In June 2005, Meridian applied for resource consent for a new wind farm, known as

Project West Wind West Wind is a wind farm located at Terawhiti Station and Mākara, west of Wellington, New Zealand. It is the first wind farm for the capital city, and has a capacity of 143 MW. Construction of the wind farm project began in September 2007 and ...

. It was substantially larger than the earlier ENCZ proposal, consisting of 70 turbines with a total capacity of up to 210 MW. This proposal joined the Quartz Hill site with the neighbouring Terawhiti Station – one of New Zealand's oldest and largest privately owned stations. A key feature of this proposal, from the Guardian's perspective was the siting of some 22 of the 125 metre-high turbines along the top of a long a ridge that looms immediately above the South Mākara Valley, where many of the members live. As soon as Meridian announced the proposal, the Makara Guardians mounted a substantial opposition campaign. On 21 December 2005 the resource hearings commissioners announced their decision, granting the proposal to construct the wind farm at the Mākara site, subject to some construction conditions. Both Meridian and the Makara Guardians subsequently appealed the consent decision to the Environment Court. The court granted resource consent in May 2007. Project West Wind was granted 66 turbines and will now produce approximately 140MW.

References

Makara Guardians web siteMeridian Energy West Wind windfarm proposalResource Consent Application – Project West Wind – Hearing Decision
announcing the Makara Guardians appeal of the Wind Farm Ruling made by the

Wellington City Council Wellington City Council is a Territorial authorities of New Zealand, territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the city of Wellington, the country's capital city and List of cities in New Zealand#City councils, third-largest city by popul ...

and Greater Wellington Regional Council that grants

resource consent for a 70 wind turbine development at Mākara. Environmental organisations based in New Zealand