Meridian Energy will shortly launch development of a new $395 million wind farm in Hawke’s Bay, enhancing New Zealand’s willingness to take action on climate change and promoting the transition of the economy into renewable energy sources.
The Harapaki Wind Farm will be New Zealand’s second-largest wind farm with 41 turbines generating 176 MW of renewable energy, enough to fuel more than 70,000 average households. Construction will take about three years and is projected to generate 260 new jobs.
“Renewable generation is an engine of economic growth for New Zealand. There’s a massive clean energy transformation underway in the New Zealand economy and now is the time to tackle climate action to support Aotearoa accelerate its transition away from fossil fuels. We need to move faster to convert our fossil fuel industries to clean energy, convert our transport fleet to electricity and ensure every new industrial development is powered by clean energy.
“Recent advice from He Pou a Rangi, the Climate Change Commission, clearly signals that New Zealand must ambitiously pursue bold climate goals to achieve net-zero emissions, and this is what getting there looks like. Building more new renewable generation like Harapaki will help us lower emissions, reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and speed up our transition to a productive low carbon economy.”
Neal Barclay, chief executive, Meridian Energy.
