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The Harapaki Wind Farm is 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 ...
project in the
Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay () is a region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region is named for Hawke Bay, which was named in honour of Edward Hawke. The region's main centres are the cities of Napier and Hastings, while the more rural ...
region of
New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
. Construction began in June 2021 and was completed in 2024. As of 2024 it is the second-biggest wind farm in New Zealand.


History

In 2006, Hawke's Bay Wind Farm Ltd was granted resource consent for a 75 turbine, 225 MW wind farm at Titiokura. The same year
Unison Networks Unison Networks Limited (Unison) is an electricity distribution based in Hastings, New Zealand. Unison owns and manages the electricity lines network in the Hawke's Bay, Rotorua and Taupō regions. The service area covers 12,000 km2. The ...
was granted consent for a 15 turbine, 45 MW development. Both consents were upheld by the Environment Court in October 2006. A proposed expansion of Unison's project was rejected by the Environment Court in 2009. In 2010 Hawke's Bay Wind Farm Ltd was purchased by
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 ...
. Unison's consent was purchased in 2011, and the sites combined. In August 2019 Meridian sought interest from potential contractors for the wind farm's construction. Construction was expected to begin in 2020, but was delayed due to the possible closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. In February 2021 Meridian announced that construction would begin later that year, and would take approximately three years. Site preparation began in mid-2021. The first turbines arrived in Napier in March 2023 and transportation of components to the wind farm site began in July 2023 when State Highway 5 had been sufficiently repaired following the damage caused by
Cyclone Gabrielle Severe Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle was a powerful and destructive tropical cyclone that devastated parts of the North Island of New Zealand and affected parts of Vanuatu and Norfolk Island in February 2023. It is the costliest tropical cyclone ...
. The wind farm began generating in November 2023 and reached full capacity in July 2024.


Location

The wind farm is built on the Maungaharuru Range, near the Titiokura Summit, about 34 km northwest of Napier Airport. The altitude of the range is approximately 1300 metres.


Operation

The wind farm uses 41
Siemens Gamesa Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, S.A. was formed in 2017 in a merger of Siemens AG, Siemens' Wind Power division with Gamesa Corporación Tecnológica, S.A.; it is a Spanish-German wind engineering company based in Zamudio, Biscay, Spain. The co ...
4.3 MW turbines, measuring from base to hub with a rotor diameter of . Electricity is supplied to the national grid via a new substation on Transpower's Redclyffe-Whirinaki-
Wairakei Wairakei is a small settlement and Geothermal activity, geothermal area 8-kilometres (5 mi) north of Taupō, in the centre of the North Island of New Zealand, on the Waikato River. It is part of the Taupō Volcanic Zone and features several nat ...
220 kV transmission line.


See also

*
Wind power in New Zealand Wind power constitutes a small but growing proportion of New Zealand's electricity. As of November 2023, wind power accounts for 1,059 MW of installed capacity and over 6 percent of electricity generated in the country. New Zealand has ab ...


References


External links

*
Harapaki Wind Farm
at New Zealand Wind Energy Association website {{Portal bar, New Zealand, Weather, Renewable energy Wind farms in New Zealand Buildings and structures in Hawke's Bay