9 April 2011

The Hurunui District Council has today (Saturday April 9, 2011) publicly notified an application by Meridian Energy Limited to establish a wind farm near Greta Valley.

The resource consent application seeks land use consent to establish, operate and maintain the wind farm in the vicinity of Centre Hill.

The proposed site for the project, known as Project Hurunui Wind, is approximately 66 kilometres to the north of Christchurch.

The proposal seeks to establish 33 wind turbines with a maximum height of up to 130.5 metres within a 34km2 area on the eastern side of State Highway 1 between Omihi and Greta village, along with an operations and maintenance building.

The resource consent application also provides for earthworks including a cut volume of up to 773,000 cubic metres associated with roading, laydown areas, turbine platforms and other ancillary works. An internal road network of approximately 22.2km would provide access around the site.

The applicant suggests the project would potentially generate up to 75.9MW each year, enough energy to supply the annual electricity needs of around 31,000 households.

Submissions can be made on line or in writing. The closing date is Tuesday 24 May, 2011.

Forms are available from any council service centre or library or download from our website.

All submissions must be on a Form 13.

Post or deliver to the Hurunui District Council at 66 Carters Road, PO Box 13, Amberley 7441.

This application was originally lodged with the Council at the end of February but put on hold following the February earthquake that rocked Canterbury impacting on the ability of the Canterbury Regional Council to attention the application within required Resource Management Act timeframes.

ENDS

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