Papers from the conference speakers have now been uploaded and can be accessed by clinking on the links below..
Monday 14th April
Delegates could chose to tour the Mill Creek Wind Farm Project in the afternoon and then attend the conference’s exhibition opening.
Tuesday 15th April
At 8.50am the conference was underway with our first plenary session, featuring the following keynote addresses:- Michael T Eckhart, Managing Director of Citi Corporate and Investment Banking, on 'Global Investment in Renewable Energy'.
- Dr Jenny Riesz, from the Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets at the University of New South Wales presented ‘Wind as the New Base Load’.
- Manuela Huso, from the US Geological Survey examined ‘The Impact of Wind Energy on Wildlife’.
- Chris Karamea Insley, from the Climate Change Iwi Leadership Group, discussed ‘Renewable Energy, Climate Change and Maori Development’.
Following the plenary, the conference split into three streams: "Investment and Strategy", "Operations & Maintenance and Health and Safety", and "Wind & Wildlife".
Investment & Strategy Stream
First up in this stream is a panel titled "Strategy and investment in wind energy and the electricity sector" This panel featured Mike Eckhart, Kobad Bhavnagri, Jenny Riesz, Chris Insley, Paul Ravlich (Siemens), Doug Goodwin (Transpower), Nick Lewis (Woodward Partners) and Ben Gerritson (Castalia).
After lunch was a session entitled "The Market and Wind". This featured:
- Jenny Riesz, University of New South Wales - "Market Design for Integrating Wind"
- Stephanie Cook, TrustPower - "Integrating Wind and Hydro: A Mahinerangi Case Study"
- Heidi Heath, Transpower - "System Operations Update: HVDC Operation, Ancillary Services, Dispatch Gate Closure"
- Mark Purcell, DNV-GL - "Making the Business Case: The State of the Art in Energy Assessments"
The final session was "Drivers and Opportunities: Influencing the Growth of Wind" with:
- Stephen Drew, EnerNOC - "Future innovations that will increase the value of wind"
- Philip Wong Too, DNV-GL - "The NZ Wind Energy Outlook"
- Ann Smith, carboNZero - "Making Carbon Zero the Next Stage: Electricity Certification in NZ"
- and more...
Health & Safety and Operations & Maintenance Stream
The first session after the plenary concentrated on "Operations and Maintenance" and featured:
- Chris Buller, Sinclair Knight Merz - "SMART Applications, Asset Tracking & the Wind Industry"
- David Horsfall, AH Gears - "Enhancements through Design for Gearboxes and Yaw Drives in Wind Turbines"
- Ian Lees, Trustpower - "Broken at the Age of 15!"
The afternoon was taken over by two "Health and Safety" sessions, with:
- Tom McDaniel, Siemens - "Human Performance and Wind"
- Alan Cooper, WorkSafe - "New Regulations, Future Enforcement and WorkSafe"
- Russell Thomas, Meridian - "Theory into Practice"
- Lyn McCurdy, UCOL - "Training the Next Generation of Wind Technicians"
- Phil Hokianga, Vertical Horizons and Ian Boslem, Siemens - "GWO Certification: What Does It Mean?"
- Nathaniel Janke-Gilman, Meridian - "Wind Turbine Safety Rules"
- Scott McLeod, Crane Association - "What Makes a Good Lift Plan?" (presentation available from Ceridwyn)
Wind & Wildlife Stream
The Wind and Wildlife stream ran for the rest of the day and featured:
- Di Robertson, Boffa Miskell - "Falcon Productivity at White Hill Windfarm"
- Emma Bennett, Elmoby Ecology - "Using Dogs in Wildlife Research"
- Ian Smales, Biosis - "An Overview of the Biosis Collision Risk Model"
- Manuela Huso, USGS - "Estimating Bird and Bat Fatality at Wind Farms: How Far We’ve Come, Where We Have Yet to Go"
- Aaron Organ, Ecology and Heritage Partners - "Brolgas and Wind Farms: Recent Knowledge Gains, the Interim Guidelines and Key Future Issues"
- Cindy Hull, Hydro Tasmania - "Indirect (Disturbance) Impact of Wind Farms On Birds: Can It Be Measured?"
- Nick Graham-Higgs, NGH Environmental - "Earless, Legless, Homeless?: An Exploration of Mitigation Measures to Reduce Impact to Threatened Reptiles and Grassland at the Boco Rock Wind Farm"
- Mark Venosta, Biosis - "Mitigating Potential Impacts to Brolga at Proposed Victorian Wind Energy Facilities"
- Ian Boothroyd, Golder Associates - "Wind and Water: Impacts of Windfarms on Freshwaters in New Zealand"
Political Platform
The sessions were followed by a political panel entitled The Future of the Electricity Sector, Renewables and Wind Energy in New Zealand. Speaking at this session were:
- Minister of Energy - Hon Simon Bridges
- Labour Spokesperson on Energy - David Shearer
- Green Spokesperson on Energy - Gareth Hughes
The day finished up with the ever popular conference dinner – a great way to network and further discuss what was heard during the day.
Wednesday 16th April
Wednesday began with a plenary session on the factors (from investment to health and safety) that will ensure a safe future for wind and featured:
- Kobad Bhavnagri, Head of Australia at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, about ‘Change on its way - the future of the global energy sector’.
- Tom McDaniel, Global Manager Zero Harm and Human Performance for Siemens, examined ‘Enhancing Safety, Quality, and Reliability, while Achieving Measurable Results’.
After the plenary, the conference split into three streams: "Experience in Other Countries", "Technology Development" and "Engaging Communities and Officials".
Experience in Other Countries Stream
- Mike Allen, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade - "They're from New Zealand, they're good at renewables"
- Jim Pearson, TrustPower - "Lessons from across the ditch"
- Blair Walter, Aurecon - "Getting projects across the line in Africa and Asia"
- Bruce Forsyth, ISSL - "Industrial Site Services around the globe"
Technology Development Stream
- Ben Inkster, Parsons Brinckerhoff - "Using Remote Sensing to Reduce Wind Energy Uncertainty"
- Tony Rovers, Meridian - "Power Performance using Sodar"
- AJ Robotham, AUT - "Vertical Axis Wind Turbines - Are We Any Better Informed?"
- Jon Olson, Siemens & Paul Botha, Meridian - "Performance Upgrade of Operational Wind Turbines"
Engaging Communities and Officials Stream
- Wyatt Page, Massey University - "A Semi Empirical Field Investigation into the Relationship between LA90 and Laeq Wind Turbine Sound Level Descriptors in New Zealand"
- Malcolm Alexander, Local Government NZ - "Local Government Relations"
- Fiona Crichton, Auckland University - "Infrasound and the Nocebo Effect" (presentation available from Ceridwyn)
- Ken McAlpine, Vestas - "Act on Facts"
After lunch, the sessions continued in three streams: "Medium Scale Development", "Grids and Distribution" and "The Fuel, Forecasting and Extremes":
Medium Scale Development Stream
- Tom Cameron, Energy 3 - "Dominion Salt Case Study"
- Andrew Curtis, Irrigation NZ - "Powering Irrigation with Wind"
- Daniel Akinyele, Student - "Distributed Wind Power Generation In New Zealand's Local Electricity Network"
- Scott Willis, BlueSkin Bay - "Community Wind and the Market"
Grids and Distribution Stream
- Quintin Tahau, Transpower - "Demand Response Initiative"
- Nigel Purdy, Unison - "The Future is SMART"
- Hatem Alzaanin, Student - "Integrating Wind Power with Domestic Demand Response to Increase the Value of Wind in New Zealand"
- Nihal Kularatna, University of Waikato - "Supercapacitors: Traditional vs Non Traditional Applications and their Potential for Energy Management in Wind Energy"
The Fuel, Forecasting and Extremes Stream
- Christian Peake, DNV-GL - "Assessment of Extreme Gust Wind Speeds at Sites which Experience Tropical Cyclones"
- David Charlton, Meridian - "Recent Storm Events in NZ"
- Megan Briggs, Alstom - "Extreme Winds in the Asia Pacific Region"
-
Devin Kilminster, MetService - "Using Probabalistic Forecasts in Decision Making"
The day ended with project updates from Meridian Energy, Trustpower and others, followed by the post-conference reception.
You can download a copy of the full programme.