Government-owned Meridian Energy is close to commissioning its NZ$200 million, 90MW Wattle Point wind farm in South Australia, while listed player TrustPower is finalising details of a NZ$300 million investment in two windfarms, also in South Australia.
TrustPower's two projects were the 40MW Myponga, south of Adelaide, and the 135-180MW Barunga, which business development manager Rodney Ahern said were likely to be presented to the TrustPower board for final approval in May.
Ahern said wind power had become more economic and attractive in Australia after its government required electricity retailers to buy up to 2% of the energy they sold from renewable sources from 2009.
It helped make wind economic because wholesale power prices in Australia were lower than in New Zealand due to the Aussie abundance of cheap coal-fired power. A wind generator was likely to get 7c-8c per kilowatt hour for wind power in Australia, including certificates.
In New Zealand, carbon credits from the government were not worth as much as renewable energy certificates, but overall New Zealand wholesale electricity prices were higher.
Meridian external relations manager Alan Seay said Meridian was investigating an investment in a western Victoria windfarm of up to 200 wind turbines. The company had decided to terminate an investigation into an 80MW windfarm near Dollar in southern Victoria.
