News - Wind Farm will Boost Regional Economy
The proposed Mt Cass wind farm will provide substantial benefit to the regional economy during construction and over the long-term, according to figures released by MainPower today.
An economic impact study of the proposed wind farm shows it will add up to $38 million to the regional economy’s gross domestic product during the two to three years of construction.
“This study confirms the economic benefit to the region of the wind farm,” commercial manager, Todd Mead said.
“It’s a project that will support jobs and provide a direct boost to a range of local and regional businesses involved in construction, engineering, transport and business services. And of course there will be a flow-on effect from that to other businesses.”
The study also shows that, over the 25 year life of the windfarm, the regional economy’s GDP will be better off by between $152 and $316 million (depending on which turbines are selected for the site).
It is estimated that the equivalent of between 220 and 376 job years will be created regionally during the construction period.
Mr Mead also said that while the economic benefits were important, there were other significant positive outcomes from the wind farm.
“We have a vision of energy self-sufficiency for our region and the Mt Cass wind farm will be an important step towards achieving that. We are also looking to use our region’s renewable resources for electricity generation and this will contribute to the fight against climate change and to achieving New Zealand’s goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
Mr Mead also said that while the benefits of the wind farm were clear, as with any development there were impacts that needed to be considered and managed.
“We’ve been doing a lot of consultation with the community and the feedback is generally very positive,” he said. “There are of course some concerns around things like visual, ecological and noise impacts.
MainPower understands these concerns and we believe ownership of the Mt Cass ridge will provide us with an opportunity to improve the natural habitat and address the ecological concerns.
We accept that some people are concerned about the visual effects although we have been heartened to hear and read positive comments from many people who live near wind farms (from the USA, Europe and Palmerston North). We are confident that noise will not be a significant issue on this site given the distance to the nearest dwellings is around 1.5 kilometres.”
Mr Mead said another benefit of the wind farm is that because there is currently no generation in the North Canterbury region and the electricity from Mt Cass can be used locally, there will be reduced energy loss on the New Zealand transmission system. These “efficiency gains” are valued at between $950,000 and $2.1 million per year.
Wind Farm Extension
MainPower has been in talks with the owner of a property adjacent to the planned wind farm site and is hopeful of securing agreement for a further small extension of the proposed windfarm. This extension marks the limit of what MainPower will be seeking resource consent for.
The extension will accommodate another two large turbines (125 metres at the highest tip point) or 13 small turbines (47 metres at the highest tip point), producing up to an additional 6.5 MegaWatts of electricity (or enough electricity for 2,000 homes). With this extension, the wind farm could produce up to 69 MegaWatts of electricity or enough power for 24,000 houses (see table below). Click here to see new photo simulations of the wind farm.