Meridian Energy begins construction on wind farm in New Zealand

Meridian Energy has started the construction work on the 26 turbine Mill Creek wind farm in the north west of Wellington City, New Zealand.

The cost of the project is estimated to be at N$169m ($136.4m) and an additional N$3.3m ($2.6m) is likely to be spent on an average on the operating costs.

The Mill Creek wind farm will be spread on 18km2 area of private land and will use Siemens’ 2.3MW turbines to produce 235GWh of electricity every year to sufficiently power about 30,000 average New Zealand homes annually.

Meridian Chief Executive Mark Binns said the company has a pipeline of development options in the country.

"Mill Creek will make a valuable contribution to our renewable generation portfolio and is another example of renewable energy meeting the country’s future energy needs," Binns added.

The Mill Creek site has an advantage of strong and consistent wind speeds, according to the company.

The company applied for resource consents, which were granted by the Wellington and Porirua city councils and Wellington Regional Council, and by Environment Court.

New Zealand-based Meridian Energy is an integrated renewable energy company.