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The Harapaki Wind Farm is a wind farm project in the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand. 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 and fibre optic network company, based in Hastings, New Zealand. Unison owns and manages the electricity lines network and the fibre optic network in the Hawke's Bay, Rotorua and ...
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. 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. 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 The Maungaharuru Range is located 34 km from Napier in the New Zealand region of Hawke's Bay. The name means in ''the mountain that resounded'' in Te Reo MÄori due to the bird population. Maungaharuru is the spiritual mountain of the hapÅ ...
, near the Titiokura Summit, about 34 km northwest of
Napier Airport Hawke's Bay Airport , commonly referred to as Napier Airport, is Hawke's Bay's main commercial airport, serving domestic flights to the main centres of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch as well as smaller centres such as Gisborne, Wairoa ...
. The altitude of the range is approximately 1300 metres.


Operation

The wind farm uses 41 Siemens Gamesa 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 220 kV transmission line.


See also

* Wind power in New Zealand


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