New Zealand - Wind turbines 'not suitable'

Until then, it will continue to place orders overseas, spokesman Alan Seay said yesterday. Meridian was keeping an eye on the work of Christchurch listed company Windflow Technology, but for its newest project, the proposed 210 megawatt farm at Makara near Wellington, it needed much bigger turbines than Windflow's 500 kilowatt units. "If there were suitable turbines available in New Zealand, we would consider them closely, but there's not. We'd certainly use New Zealand-made components or equipment if it met our requirements."

Windflow chief executive Geoff Henderson said he did not expect generating companies to place orders for the two-bladed turbine his company was developing for at least two years. "Until we have a track record, they are going to keep buying foreign machines and spending hundreds of millions out of the New Zealand economy. At some point we expect to sell because we have a better mousetrap," he said. Windflow and its spinoff, New Zealand Windfarms, would continue to prove the worth of its turbines at the 250 hectare Te Rere Hau wind farm near Palmerston North, he said. The prototype turbine at Gebbies Pass near Christchurch, which was blown apart by wind in March, was also being rebuilt. Windfarms received confirmation yesterday of its resource consent to operate 97 turbines at Te Rere Hau after appeals were recently settled with neighbours. Chief executive Chris Freear said it intended building five Windflow turbines on the site this summer. It hoped 50MW would be generated when the farm was finished by the end of 2008.