A wind farm proposal in Canterbury's Hurunui district has led to the alleged tyre spiking of a Meridian vehicle.Meridian is engaged in public consultation on Project Hurunui, a wind farm to be located on privately-owned farmland 66km north of Christc
A wind farm proposal in Canterbury's Hurunui district has led to the alleged tyre spiking of a Meridian vehicle.
Meridian is engaged in public consultation on Project Hurunui, a wind farm to be located on privately-owned farmland 66km north of Christchurch, and is expected to lodge a formal application for the project in the near future.
If approved, Project Hurunui will see the installation of up to 33 turbines with a combined generating capacity of 75.9MW, enough to power up to 33,000 average households.
The Hurunui District Council stated last week that councillors have noted a "level of community concern and reaction" to the wind farm proposal, including the involvement of police after the tyres of a Meridian vehicle were allegedly spiked.
The incident occurred at one of two open days held by Meridian in the area last month.
“It’s the first time we’ve had an incident like that,” Meridian spokesman Alan Seay told NBR, adding that the whole consultation process in the area has gone “very well”.
“As always with these projects there’s a range of feelings, from strong support to opposition, but generally it went very positively.”
At least two other energy companies have wind farm projects in the region.
TrustPower has two monitoring masts in Canterbury, and MainPower recently lodged a new resource consent application for the Mt Cass wind farm with the Hurunui District Council.
Mt Cass project manager Andrew Hurley was surprised at the alleged tyre spiking, as community support for the MainPower proposal was “generally pretty good”.
“I didn’t think Meridian would raise so many hackles,” he told NBR.
MainPower will hold a community open day for the Mt Cass project this weekend.
