Harapaki wind farm project update

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Harapaki wind farm project update

17 July 2023
Meridian Energy has today announced an update on the construction progress of its Harapaki wind
farm in Hawke’s Bay.
In February 2023, Cyclone Gabrielle caused widespread and extensive damage to East Coast regions
of the country. The site experienced damage to access roading and impacts to the civil construction
programme. The transmission grid in Hawke’s Bay also suffered significant damage and the need for
substantial repairs to State Highway 5 have delayed the transport of turbine componentry to site.
Waka Kotahi have advised that completion of the necessary repairs on State Highway 5 mean the
transportation of componentry can now begin and Siemens Gamesa expect this to start from 20 July
2023.
Meridian Chief Executive Neal Barclay says the company is excited to reach this important milestone.
“Cyclone Gabrielle created some significant challenges for this project, just as it did other projects,
assets and communities. We are thankful for the work of Waka Kotahi in repairing State Highway 5
and Transpower on repairs to the grid enabling substation commissioning, together with our project
team and contractors, for getting us in a position to move componentry to site so we can move
forward with turbine installation.”
“As a result of this remarkable team effort, we have only lost three months and Harapaki is now
expected to produce first power in October 2023 and achieve full power in September 2024,” says
Neal Barclay.
Meridian does not currently expect the delay caused by Cyclone Gabrielle to have any significant
impact on the project capital costs of $448 million and an update will be provided as part of the
company’s annual results announcement in late August.
Once operational, Harapaki’s 41 turbines will produce 176 MW of renewable energy, which is
enough to power over 70,000 average households. The project also features a number of
sustainability innovations.
Before ground was first broken at the site in 2021, reviews of the wind farm’s civil design reduced
the amount of concrete and steel to be used by 30 per cent. Meridian estimates a further 10,000
tonnes of CO
2
e have since been saved through ongoing actions to drive down carbon emissions
during the construction of the wind farm. These include minimising the amount of rock aggregate
being imported to the site from Napier and Taupo, adjusting the wind farm’s road network to
minimise earthworks, using piles instead of concrete foundations for turbines, minimising waste and
encouraging the use of car-pooling and electric vehicles on site.
“With the building and construction sector currently accounting for 20% of the country’s emissions,
reducing the embodied carbon in large-scale projects will be necessary for Aotearoa to achieve its
goal of net zero emissions by 2050,” says Neal Barclay.

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“Aotearoa New Zealand has a huge task in building new renewable energy sources over the next
generation. It’s going to be really important that the country works together to keep the carbon
produced during construction as low as possible. We’re sharing what we’re learning at Harapaki and
we’re hoping it will flow through to the rest of the industry.”


ENDS
Neal Barclay
Chief Executive
Meridian Energy Limited

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