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Central Wind windfarm resource consent application: all-of-government submission for lodging

Proposal

  1. This paper asks the Cabinet Policy Committee to note that I intend to lodge, on behalf of the Crown, the attached all-of-government (Crown) submission on Meridian Energy’s Central Wind windfarm resource consent application.

Executive summary

  1. On 14 July 2008 I raised an oral item at Cabinet to inform Cabinet of my intention to use my intervention powers under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) to develop a Crown submission on Meridian Energy’s Central Wind windfarm proposal. Cabinet agreed that the proposal raised matters of national significance and that a Crown submission was the appropriate intervention [Cab Min (08) 27/20].

  2. Submissions on the resource consent application for Meridian Energy’s Central Wind proposal are expected to close on 4 August 2008. Departments with an interest in the pro­posal have prepared a submission that sets out the Crown’s overall position in support of the proposal (Annex 1).  The Crown submission also clarifies conditions to address potential adverse effects, which have been discussed and agreed with Meridian by the Department of Conservation (DOC) (Annex 2). 
  3. The Crown submission also notes that the New Zealand Defence Force has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Meridian regarding the use of Crown lands to access the site.  The Defence Force has also provided Meridian Energy with written approval of the application under section 94 of the RMA as an affected party.
  4. The Crown submission covers the following matters of most importance nationally:
    1. wind energy potential
    2. security of supply (including dry-year risk for the hydro lakes)
    3. the contribution of the proposal to government energy and climate change policy objectives (including renewable energy targets).
  5. The Crown submission also asks the consent authority to note the conditions agreed to by DOC and Meridian to address potential effects on native species (New Zealand falcon and bats) and to include these in any conditions imposed on the proposal.  DOC is reviewing the consent application and will agree the final conditions with the Ministry for the Environment before I sign and lodge the Crown submission.
  6. As with the Crown submissions in support of the Project Hayes and Mahinerangi windfarms, this submission will need to be supported at the consent hearing by the appearance of government expert witnesses. They will speak to the submission, give further supporting evidence and answer any questions posed by the hearings committee.  The date of the resource consent hearings has not been announced by the councils. The Ministry for the Environment will coordinate the government’s involvement and instruct Crown Law as necessary.

 

Last updated: 29 August 2008