This page presents draft information, that is still being actively researched and fact checked.
It may be incomplete, and contain more than the normal level of mistakes and factual errors.
If you have any corrections or additions please get in touch.
Swift Micro wind turbine, installed as a trial 2007
This was the first of a supposed 10 trial systems that were due to be installed in NZ.
However, I've found no information that any more than 2 systems, this one, and the Waitangi Park, Wellington one, were actually installed.
Flickr images are copyright their individual photographers.
Wellington
(#nz5050)
Brooklyn (original turbine, now decomissioned):
0.23 MW turbine commissioned in 1993, decommissioned 2015
New Zealand's first major wind turbine was installed as an experient on the hills above Brooklyn, a suburb of the capital Wellington.
It became such a familar and well loved sight on the skyline, that when it reached the end of its useful economic life
there was a campaign to "save our turbine".
The operator ended up replacing the turbine with another, more modern and larger one.
Waitangi Park is a redevelopment of a former brownfield site on the Wellington waterfront.
The site has a recreation of the Waitangi stream, which currently flows underground, and in order to raise the water from the underground culvert to the current ground level, the water has to be pumped. The wind turbine was part of the sustainable energy arrangements to drive the pumps, generating electricity which could recharge batteries to run the pumps when required. My understanding is that the turbine was removed after a few years, possibly because of mechanical problems, though when it was installed it was described as only being a trial, not necessarily planned as a permanent feature of the park.
Wind Farm Development in New Zealand,
Mohammad Shahidul Hasan Swapan, Ben Gleisner, Martin Barry,
LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2009,
ISBN-13 9783838303956
Paperback, 108 pages
(