#1) Wind made up 5% of New Zealand’s electricity supply in 2020
The Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment updates statistics on electricity generation every three months and publishes it in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
Based on this information, the proportion of electricity supply from wind power was about 5% of the total generation for the year, which equalled 43,187 gigawatt hours.
To view the page on which this information is hosted, click here, or alternatively, directly download the spreadsheet by clicking here.
#2) Wind has made up about 5% of New Zealand’s electricity supply since 2015
The Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment updates statistics on electricity generation every three months and publishes it in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
Based on this information, the proportion of electricity supply from wind power has averaged about 5% since 2015.
To view the page on which this information is hosted, click here, or alternatively, directly download the spreadsheet by clicking here.
#3) Coal and gas made up about 19% of New Zealand’s electricity supply in 2020
The Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment updates statistics on electricity generation every three months and publishes it in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
Based on this information, the proportion of electricity supply from coal equalled about 5% in 2020, and natural gas 13.7%.
To view the page on which this information is hosted, click here, or alternatively, directly download the spreadsheet by clicking here.
#4) Wind output would have to increase by 400% to remove coal and gas from the electricity sector
Based on reference points #2 and #3 above, for wind generation to be able to have any chance of matching and displacing all fossil fuel generation, the 19% slice of the electricity pie would have to be filled by 19% wind (or round up to 20%), an amount four times greater than the current 5%.
#5) Number of wind farms operating and under construction in NZ as of 2022
According to information on the New Zealand Wind Energy Association’s website, there are 23 separate wind farms in New Zealand, but not all are connected to the national grid.
Information on these wind farms can be found on a page on the New Zealand Wind Energy Association’s website – the relevant page is available here.
#6) Wind farm growth from 2005 to 2015
The period of greatest growth in wind farm construction took place between 2005 and 2015. This is demonstrated on the New Zealand Wind Energy Association’s website, shows that the commissioning of wind farms between 2005 and 2015 added 521.87 MW of capacity to New Zealand’s electricity supply – more than half of the capacity that has come online since 1996.
This information can be found on the New Zealand Wind Energy Association’s website, available here.
#7) Graph showing growth in generation from wind and other sources
The Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment updates statistics on electricity generation every three months and publishes it in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
The graph showing the growth in geothermal and wind generation and a decline in natural gas and coal generation is informed from data in these spreadsheets.
To view the page on which this information is hosted, click here, or alternatively, directly download the spreadsheet by clicking here.
#8) Waipipi wind farm comes online in 2021
Tilt Energy’s Waipipi wind farm in South Taranaki came online in mid-2021, the newest addition to New Zealand’s fleet of wind farms. An article on its opening can be found on Stuff’s website here.
#9) Turitea wind farm turbines began generating in October 2021
Construction began at Mercury Energy’s Turitea wind farm near Palmerston North in 2019. When completed the farm will have 60 turbines in total – 33 in the “northern” section, and 27, in the “southern” section. As of October 2021, the northern section had 23 turbines operating and feeding the national grid, according to an article published on Stuff’s website – the article is available in full here.
#10) Turitea wind farm applications for resource consents lodged in 2008
Mighty River Power (now known as Mercury Energy) lodged applications for resource consents for construction of the company’s Turitea wind farm near Palmerston North in 2008. The full description of the application can be found on the Environmental Protection Agency’s website, by clicking here.
#11) Turitea wind farms consents “called-in” by environment minister
In 2008 Mighty River Power (now known as Mercury Energy) lodged its resource consent applications for the construction of the company’s Turitea wind farm near Palmerston North. In December that year, the environment minister at the time, Nick Smith, “called in” the application, passing the decision to an independent board of inquiry, taking the matter out of the hands of the local councils due to his deeming it as a project of national significance. A New Zealand Herald article outlining some of the controversy
#12) Number of turbines at Turitea wind farm halved by the end of the consenting process
When Mighty River Power applied for resource consents for Turitea Wind Farm in 2008, the initial application for consents was for 121 turbines. According to the New Zealand Wind Energy Association’s website, the farm will have 60 operational turbines upon completion, based on a table of operating farms available here.
#13) Delays in process of establishing Turitea wind farm
Construction of Mercury Energy’s Turitea wind farm began in 2019, and some 23 of the planned 60 turbines were feeding the national grid as of October 2021 according this Stuff article, but the completion of further areas of the wind turbine was facing delays in late 2021 and early 2022, particularly the southern section as of early 2022, according to this Stuff article.
#14) Variance in size of New Zealand’s wind farms
A table of wind farms on the New Zealand Wind Energy Association’s website outlines the different sizes of the operating wind farms, showing the range of wind farms from small to large. This table is available on the association’s website, here.
#15) Identified potential for about 80 wind farms in New Zealand
In 2020, the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment published a report (written by Roaring 40s Wind Energy Ltd) on the potential wind energy resource in New Zealand. The report identified up to 82 potential onshore wind farms in New Zealand and found the full potential of New Zealand’s wind farms could have an annual generation equal to about 41,800 gigawatt hours per year. This can be found on page 26 of the full report, available here.
#16) Wind’s potential to double New Zealand’s electricity supply
New Zealand’s electricity generation in 2020 was 43,187 gigawatt hours (see reference #1 on this page), and as is noted above in reference #15, the potential output of all the identified potential wind farms is about 41,800 gigawatt hours.
#17) Consenting difficulty outlined by New Zealand Wind Energy Association
This quote, attribute the New Zealand Wind Energy Association, can be found on page 5 of an inquiry on the Natural and Built environments bill drafted by the New Zealand Wind Energy Association. The document can be found in full here.
#18) New Zealand Wind Energy Association stresses foreseen difficulties in Natural and Built Environments Act
This quote is sourced from the New Zealand Wind Energy Association’s 2020/21 year in review briefing. The comment is made on the 4th page of the document below the “resource management system reform” heading. The document can be found in full here.
#19) Existing consented wind capacity in New Zealand
According to information on the New Zealand Wind Energy Association’s website, there will be capacity of 1,045 MW when Mercury Energy’s Turitea wind farm is fully online – this information can be found here. On another page of the website, one that lists all the wind farms for which consents have been granted but remain undeveloped or in the pre-construction phase, there is a consented 2,076 MW capacity – this information can be found here.
#20) Capacity that would be in place if all consented wind farms were built
As can be inferred from the above, the total capacity that would be achieved if the consented farms (mentioned above) would amount to 3,121 MW.
#21) New Zealand Wind Energy Association says not all consented wind farms will be built
On the New Zealand Wind Energy Association’s website, the organisation outlines the fact that not all wind farms with consents will be built, mainly due to market reasons. This information can be found here.
#22) Market uncertainty caused by New Zealand Battery Project
The New Zealand Wind Energy Association has outlined in two of its annual briefings – known as “the year in review” – that there is potential for both the closure of the NZ Aluminium Smelter at Tiwai Point and the construction of a pumped hydro storage facility at Lake Onslow through the New Zealand Battery project. On page 2 of the 2020/21 year in review (available here) the organisation noted the NZ Battery Project has created market uncertainty for the wind energy sector, and in the
#23) Climate Change Commission’s forecast wind generation growth
On page 91 of the Climate Change Commission’s draft advice document, the forecast growth for electricity generated from wind energy is shown to be about 13,800 GWh – the full document can be found here.
#24) Wind generated electricity equal to about 2,282 GWh in 2020
The Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment updates statistics on electricity generation every three months and publishes it in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
Based on this information, electricity generated from wind power was shown to be about 2,282 GWh in 2020, about 5% of the total generation for the year, which equalled 43,187 gigawatt hours.
To view the page on which this information is hosted, click here, or alternatively, directly download the spreadsheet by clicking here.
#25) New Zealand Wind Energy Association calls Climate Change Commission’s forecast “challenging but achievable”
In the New Zealand Wind Energy Association’s submission on the Climate Change Commission’s advice, it called the forecast 13,300 GWh of wind energy electricity generation by 2034 “challenging but achievable” – this quote was from point 33 of the organisation’s submission, on page 4 of 6. The full submission can be found here.
#26) Growth rate of 180 MW per annum
The New Zealand Wind Energy Association told the Climate Change Commission that to meet the commission’s forecast output of 13,300 GWh in wind energy electricity generation by 2035, the generation capacity of wind would need to grow by 180 MW a year every year to 2035. This comment is made in point 33 of the organisation’s submission to the Climate Change Commission, on page 4 of 6. The full submission can be found here.
#27) Transpower’s forecast increase in wind generation and capacity
Transpower, the state-owned enterprise that owns and operates the national grid, in 2020, published its document Whakamana I Te Mauri Hiko-Empowering our Energy Future, outlining the required growth in electricity generation in coming decades and what generation sources will provide it.
The document forecasts the output of wind generation to grow from 2,100 GWh in 2020 to 8,900 GWh in 2035 – this is based on Figure 9 on page 33 of the document (though terawatts are the units used).
This document can be found in full here.
#28) Growth rate of 153.3 MW a year under Transpower forecast
Transpower, the state-owned enterprise that owns and operates the national grid, in 2020, published its document Whakamana I Te Mauri Hiko-Empowering our Energy Future, outlining the required growth in electricity generation in coming decades and what generation sources will provide it.
The document forecasts the generation capacity to grow from 600 MW (0.6 GW) to 2,900 MW (2.9 GW) by 2035. This works out to growth of 153.3 MW per year between 2020 and 2035.
This document can be found in full here.
#29) Wind’s total contribution to New Zealand’s energy supply in 2020 was 0.9%
The Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment releases its annual energy balance tables in line with the annual Energy in New Zealand reports.
The data tables for the 2020 year show that it 2020, wind energy accounted for 8.30 PJ in the total primary energy supply of 868.68 – equal to about 0.9%.
The page on which this spreadsheet is hosted can be found here, and the spreadsheet itself can be directly downloaded here.
#30) New Zealand’s total energy supply by source
The Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment releases its annual energy balance tables in line with the annual Energy in New Zealand reports.
The graph showing New Zealand’s total primary energy supply by source in 2020 is sourced from these balance tables in the spreadsheet.
The page on which this spreadsheet is hosted can be found here, and the spreadsheet itself can be directly downloaded here.
