Background

The site for Turitea is approximately 10 kilometres south-east of Palmerston North primarily along a 14-kilometre ridge in the northern Tararua Ranges. In 2010, Mercury was granted consent for 60 turbines and in May 2023 the wind farm was officially opened and commissioned with an installed capacity of 221 MW. The project was built in two stages, being the North section and the South section. The north section comprises 33 x 3.6MW Vestas turbines with a total capacity of 119MW and an annual average generation of 470GWh. The south section added a further 27 Vestas turbines with a total capacity of 103MW. The total wind farm has an average annual output of 840GWh. The electricity generated will meet the annual electricity needs of approximately 118,000 average homes.

More information

Final Board of Inquiry decision into Turitea wind farm proposal.

Draft report and decision of the Board of Inquiry into the Turitea wind farm proposal.

Board of Inquiry information on the Ministry for the Environment's website, including evidence, reports and hearing transcripts.

Minister for the Environment's announcement regarding the call in of Turitea.

Location

To see where the wind farm would be sited, change the view to satellite and zoom in.