The wind farm is scheduled to come on line in 2011 and will have a capacity of 64MW. It is estimated that the project will save approximately 145,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
Andreas Nauen, CEO of wind power business unit at Siemens, said: “New Zealand’s abundance of natural wind resources is ideal for wind power generation. Siemens and Meridian Energy initially worked together on the West Wind project which was recently commissioned ahead of schedule. We are confident that the follow-up project at Te Uku will also be a great success.”
The Te Uku project will have the first installation of the new Siemens SWT-2.3-101 wind turbines in the Asia-Pacific region. With a diameter of 101 meters, the rotor of the new SWT-2.3-101 has a swept area of 8,000 square meters. The new turbine is based on the design of the 2.3MW family.
In October, Siemens commissioned its first wind power plant in New Zealand. The 62 SWT-2.3-82VS wind turbines at the West Wind site, which is also owned by Meridian Energy, is now supplying up to 70,000 homes with clean energy.
