FAQs
Can wind meet all our electricity needs?
By the beginning of 2005 a total wind capacity of 168 MW had
been installed in New Zealand. This is about 2% of our energy
needs and provides energy for 75,000 average households but
New Zealand’s wind resource is enormous. The Energy
Efficiency and Conservation Agency (EEAC) stated in their
Review
of New Zealand’s Wind Energy Potential to 2015 that there is enough long term physical wind energy potential
in New Zealand to provide in the order of 100,000 GWh per
year, which is three times the current total electricity
generation rate per year.
Yet New Zealand remains close to the bottom of the "league
table" compared with other countries in terms of the percentage
of our electricity consumption met by wind energy. The 2% wind
energy capacity will place us about eighteenth in the world.
By comparison, Denmark already generates 20% of its electricity
from wind power. But New Zealand’s wind industry is unique
world wide in that it has been installed without any form of
governmental support.
The study recently undertaken by the Energy Efficiency and
Conservation Authority has reviewed earlier assessments of
New Zealand’s wind resource and shows that if economic
and resource consent conditions were favorable, wind energy
is set to make an even greater contribution to electricity
generation in New Zealand. There is a potential for more than
2,500MW to be generated by wind. That is enough electricity
for over one million New Zealand homes.
In actual fact it's unlikely that wind power alone will meet
all our electricity needs. But harnessing the power of wind,
New Zealand could create a diverse and secure energy mix
with other renewable energy sources, such as existing hydro,
geothermal, solar hot water heating and biomass, and become
a world leader by running on 100% renewable energy.
Notes:
www.eeca.govt.nz/uploadedDocuments/windsup_final.pdf
Greenpeace and EWEA report “Wind Force 12”, 2003
www.eeca.govt.nz/programmes/renewable/whatarethey/wind.aspx
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