Environment Court

Blogger's Note: Canada should have one of these.

Environment Court Approves Tidal Plant at Kaipara Harbour
Submitted by Omaka Nelson on Mon, 01/11/2010 - 15:26 Featured TNM Tim Groser Auckland


The Environment Court has made a positive recommendation to Conservation Minister Tim Groser on a plan to set up a harbor tidal power station to harness tidal energy for meeting the country’s electricity demand. The approval is subject to fine-tuning of consent conditions.

The site for the power station will be the Kaipara Harbour, on the west coast just north of Auckland, which could be providing power to 250,000 homes within 10 years.

The system could be generating power by next year, with the initial phase of the project producing 20MW from an initial installation of 20 turbines of the 200 planned.

The project is revealed to be the first project of its kind in New Zealand. "Tidal power is predictable, sustainable, silent and invisible. These advantages need to remain the focus, rather than the eight hours a day when tidal turbines produce little or no power", Anthony Hopkins, a director of Crest Energy, said.

However, in its interim decision, the Environment Court said the Crest Energy proposal needed further work, mainly to satisfy concerns about the turbines interfering with the critically endangered Maui's dolphin and the important snapper fishery on the west coast of the North Island, the New Zealand Herald claimed.

The overall cost estimated is near to $600 million.


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