Wind Farms

Mill Creek - Ohariu Valley

Wind is a renewable energy resource - and Wellington has a good supply of it.

West Wind, the wind farm on the hills above the Makara valley in northwest Wellington, is now operational.

Meridian Energy is in the process of developing another wind farm, Mill Creek, on the hills above the Ohariu valley, which lies to the north of Makara.

Project West Wind and Project Mill Creek were both approved by the Environment Court following appeals against Wellington City Council's decision to grant resource consents to these two projects.

While these are not Wellington City Council projects, this page provides information on the progress of the two projects.

Project West Wind

West Wind construction site - Makara

Project West Wind was completed in late 2009 on the rugged hills of Makara Farm and Terawhiti Station. Initial works began on the project in October 2007.

The wind farm is made up of 62 wind turbines, each generating up to 2.3 MW of electricity. The combined output would supply enough power for Wellington's domestic use, according to Meridian Energy.

The Environment Court approved Project West Wind in May 2007. It is subject to a large number of conditions that Wellington City Council has monitored.

Environment Court Decision - May 2007 (6.12Mb PDF)
Conditions of Consent - July 2007 (2.81Mb PDF)
Project West Wind Fact Sheet (53Kb PDF)

West Wind Recreation Area

A recreation area has been created at West Wind. It is open to the public at specified times and has 3 walkways which give visitors access to spectacular views of:

the coastline
Fort Opau
the wind farm
World War II gun emplacements.

Access to the recreation area and car park is either from Opau Road or Makara Beach.

More Information

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For information on Project West Wind, see:

West Wind - Meridian Energy website

For information on the recreation area, including a map and the times it is open to the public, see:

West Wind Recreation Area - Meridian Energy website (900Kb PDF)

Project Mill Creek

In 2008, Meridian Energy applied for resource consents to create a second wind farm in Wellington in the location of Ohariu Valley. This project is known as Mill Creek.

The resource consent was granted by Wellington City Council, Porirua City Council, and Greater Wellington Regional Council.

Following an appeal against the decision to grant the resource consent, 26 turbines similar to the turbines at West Wind were also approved by the Environment Court.

Construction of Project Mill Creek is expected to start in the near future and will include:

creating restricted access through Spicer Forest to enable machinery to access the site and the turbine parts to be brought up
upgrading northern parts of Ohariu Valley Road and Boom Rock Road
carrying out earthworks to build the internal roading network and turbine sites
erecting the turbines and associated infrastructure.