New Zealand planning consolidated process for wind and geothermal

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, March 21, 2007. The government of New Zealand may fast track several applications for renewable energy facilities, including a ‘consolidated call-in process’ for wind and geothermal projects that would allow a pool of projects to be considered by the same decision-making panel.

A ‘call-in’ is an existing process under the Resource Management Act that can be used to provide a shorter and more cost-effective consent process while respecting the need to balance national and local issues, energy minister David Parker told the New Zealand Wind Energy Conference. The attempt to accelerate approvals is designed to help reach the goals of the draft New Zealand Energy Strategy.

The consolidated call-in process would not guarantee the outcome for any particular project but it would, “on balance, be likely to speed up the decision-making process, increase the quantity of consented sites, and establish de facto benchmarks for environmental performance,” Parker explains.

The draft strategy would “provide clear direction on the future of our energy system, maintain high levels of security and reliability at competitive prices, maximise how efficiently we use our energy to safeguard affordability, economic productivity and our environment, maximise the proportion of energy that comes from our abundant renewable resources, reducing our GHG emissions and promote environmentally sustainable technologies,” he says. “Given the need for the world to reduce GHG emissions and the likelihood that emissions will carry an economic cost to our country in the future, it is vital that we alter the basis of our growing energy emissions.”

Last year, the renewable energy industry reported global investments of US$38 billion and deployed 182 GW of capacity. “Wind energy is a central component of that investment with deployment increasing by 24% to 59 GW; this is an extraordinarily strong market and I hope that New Zealand will increasingly become a part of it,” he notes.

“We are lucky that we have such a good renewable energy resource in this country,” he says. “It’s a resource that enables us to get about 70% of our current electricity requirements from renewable sources such as hydro, geothermal and wind, about the third highest percentage among developed countries.”

Wind energy provides 2% of green power in New Zealand with 170 MW of capacity, of which 150 MW is complete and another 1,500 MW approved or in the consent process. “The future looks promising, but much more still can be done to make the most of our resources,” he adds.

“Much has been said publicly about the issues around consenting renewable projects” including windfarms and “there will always be criticism ... but the process is absolutely necessary” and local effects must be taken into account,” he adds. “The public need to have confidence that the system is fair and a robust process is better for all renewable energy in the long term.”

“The potential for development is significant” with a total of 6,500 MW identified across eight regions, including 3,600 MW of potential wind energy, excluding sites with wind speeds below 7.5 metres per second which would be considered a good wind resource in Europe, he explained. “If only a third of this total potential was developed, it could meet our electricity growth for the next ten years.”

The transition to sustainable energy sources “will be cheaper here than in almost any other country in the world,” he later said in a speech to the Aotearoa Wave & Tidal Energy Association. “Marine energy is an emerging technology with a tremendous potential for wide deployment in New Zealand, given our vast marine energy resource, as well as around the world.”

Prototypes have been developed and deployed in other countries and New Zealand needs to be prepared to test the ability of each type of marine technology to withstand the rigours of a harsh environment. The government has allocated NZ$8 million for deployment of marine generation devices, with early priority to be given to small-scale deployment near remote offshore islands or coastal communities which currently rely on expensive diesel generation.

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