What is a wind farm?

· Wind farm are clusters of wind machines used to produce electricity

· A wind farm usually has dozens of wind machines scattered over a large area

· It is situated in an area that receives favourable wind throughout the year

· Good sites for wind plants are the tops of smooth, rounded hills, open plains or shorelines, and mountain gaps that produce wind funneling.

Where are the wind farms found in New Zealand?

· New Zealand has nine operating wind farms.

· These wind farms have a capacity of 359.8 megawatts.

· They supply about 2.5% of New Zealand’s annual electricity generation (about 145 000 homes)

· New sites are being explored

What else can wind be used for?

· Wind energy propelled boats along the Nile River as early as 5000 B.C

· Babylonians and Chinese used wind power to pump water for irrigating crops 4,000 years ago

· Sailing boats were around long before that

· Wind power was used in the Middle Ages, in Europe, to grind corn, which is where the term "windmill" comes from

· We use it for sports and fun – paragliding, wind surfing, etc

Is New Zealand suitable for wind farms?

· New Zealand is very well suited to wind farms - a long coastline

· Our position in the ocean means fairly strong winds throughout the year

· Wind farms are often built on or near the coast where there is a regular breeze

· Wind farms are also often built on hills and mountain ranges where there is good flow of strong wind

· New Zealand has some of the world’s best performing wind farms?

· NZ could produce up to about 20% of its electricity from wind generation

Advantages and Disadvantages of wind farms.

Besides the few advantages mentioned above what are the other advantages and disadvantages of wind farms

· We reduce the amount of fuel used at thermal stations

· We reduce the amount of pollution released into the air

· Wind energy doesn't need mining for fuel or transport of the fuel to the power station

· Wind farms do not create any C0₂ or any other polluting gases

· They also don't use water for cooling

· Modern turbines are quiet

Will wind farms solve New Zealand’s energy problems?

· Electricity prices have gone up over the last few years and this because the Maui gas field is running down

· Maui provided us with cheap gas for generating electricity

· We have been using more coal to generate electricity but this puts more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

· If we are going to achieve the government's target of 90% renewable electricity we will need to increase our use of wind or build new hydro stations and geothermal stations

· We always seem to have problems in dry years and with hydro generation when there is not enough rain to fill our hydro lakes. Instead of saying that we will always have problems with hydro we should look at a solution

Are the wind farms a threat to our native wildlife?

· In the USA and Europe in the early days of wind farms, there were serious problems for birds because some of the wind farms were built on the flight path of birds

· In New Zealand research ensured no wind farm was built so as to threaten bird or bat life

· Fewer birds are killed by wind turbines than are killed by pet cats in New Zealand