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Year in Review 2022-23

For the membership year April 2022 to March 2023

The outlook for wind energy can only be regarded as exceptional. There are an unprecedented number of wind farms under construction and an exciting pipeline of development activity for both onshore and offshore wind.

Of particular note is that the Climate Change Commission and Transpower forecast Wind Energy meeting up to 28% of total demand with a capacity of around 6,500 MW by 2050. Clearly the industry is looking at a sustained build programme to support decarbonising of the energy sector.

This scale of required electricity infrastructure development is unparalleled in New Zealand’s history and a key challenge in meeting such a large growth forecast will be ensuring policies across the energy sector, climate change and environmental domains align to support new build activity.

The wind industry itself also needs to position the sector to support the projected growth with a  pipeline of consented projects ready to be built as demand increases. The sector does face significant challenges with uncertainty over whether the final form of resource management system reforms will be enabling and a global environment with accelerating demand that faces both labour and material shortages and cost increases.

In this review we look back over the past year, update the domestic and international outlook, provide an overview of NZWEA’s activities, priorities for 2023 and an overall summary.

The Association’s strategy is to focus on three key areas:

  • Leveraging New Zealand's emissions reduction imperative to enable the energy transition to renewables, particularly wind energy.
  • Optimising wind energy’s position and ensuring the regulatory environment supports wind farm development.
  • Expanding the opportunity for wind energy development to enable community and industrial projects including wind's integration with other technologies.

The importance of renewable electricity generation to enable decarbonisation of the wider energy sector is unquestioned as is the need to act with urgency.

The imperative to have a resource management system that recognises the national importance of renewable electricity generation and enable transmission has been well articulated by the industry. At this time it remains to be seen whether the current reforms will be an enabler.

The level of renewable investment activity has significantly accelerated. With the right policy settings, the extensive economic renewable resources in Aotearoa New Zealand can be developed to support the forecast growth in electricity demand.

Click link below to read the 2022 / 23 year in review report.