When the Wind Blows

Meridian Energy have announced plans for a new wind farm at and around Quartz Hill, near Makara. With around 70 turbines planned for the farm, and each one of those three times bigger than the one on Brooklyn, there’s the potential for 210 megawatts of power to be produced – enough for 100000 households, or, more simply, all of Wellington and the Hutt.

While the Makara community seems poised to fight the plan, we here at the Wellingtonist seem to be veering to the side of ‘bring it on!’. The farm will make Wellington energy self-sufficient, it turns one of our perceived negatives (bloody wind!) into a fantastic positive, and $100m will spent locally during construction.

As much as some people might feel the scenery is being destroyed by the monster wind machines, other people will likewise think they’re something they might want to go and see. They are, after all, quite pretty. Really. And seventy skyscraper tall turbines going at full tilt in a decent Wellington gale will look amazing.