MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: Tilt Renewables Limited (TLT) announced that the first wind turbine has been successfully erected at the Waipipi Wind Farm (WWF) located near Waverley in South Taranaki, New Zealand.

This wind turbine is the largest ever installed in New Zealand, both by generation capacity (4.3MW) and size (130m rotor diameter), and marks the first multi-MW class wind turbine to be installed in New Zealand since mid-2014.

TLT CEO Deion Campbell said, “Tilt Renewables is excited to have reached this milestone at Waipipi and is proud to be again leading the industry, installing the largest turbines ever seen in New Zealand. Our focus on gaining resource consents that can accommodate technology improvements over time, means we can deploy the latest technology and deliver competitively priced renewable energy. As New Zealand’s most credible and proven independent renewables developer, with a pipeline of consented projects, we look forward to contributing further to the Government’s goals of decarbonising the New Zealand economy“.

Construction is progressing well, despite the earlier 5 week disruption of construction activities due to restrictions imposed by the New Zealand Government to control the spread of COVID-19 and the ongoing challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to both the supply chain and skilled personnel movement.

To date, 18 of 31 wind turbine foundations have been poured, the installation of underground 33kV cable reticulation is complete, and all 110kV transmission line poles have been installed. All wind turbine components have been manufactured and have either arrived in or are en route to New Zealand. TLT anticipates achieving commercial operation of the VVWF in 012021, in line with previous expectations.

When complete, the WWF will be TLT’s largest single asset in New Zealand, consisting of 31 x 4.3MW wind turbines with a total installed capacity of 133.3MW, and expected to produce annual average electricity generation of 455GWh, enough for around 70,000 homes.

The wind turbines are manufactured by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) who is also providing a comprehensive 30-year Operations and Maintenance Agreement, demonstrating just how suitable these machines are for this site.

Campbell further noted, “With its distributed, flexible hydro generation, plus base load geothermal generation, New Zealand can definitely move closer to 100% renewable electricity generation, potentially attracting large energy intensive industries and enhancing the value of exported products. This is a unique position that the country should take full advantage of”.