Planning services for the South Island’s largest wind farm

Mt Cass Wind Farm

The Government has set a renewable electricity generation target of 90% by 2025 and 100% by 2030. To meet these demands, New Zealand must increase the number of wind turbines across the country—the Mt Cass Wind Farm will be the largest wind farm in the South Island and contribute to this growth. 

We were engaged to provide engineering services supporting resource consent applications, and to provide evidence at the Environment Court. This included access road design to enable transport of towers, blades, and turbines to the selected sites, assessment of construction effects, traffic assessments, and geotechnical services including special analysis of the limestone on Mt Cass. Specific services included assessment of road alignments and gradients, required crane sizes and platform locations, detailed consideration of erosion and sediment control, and calculation of earthworks quantities to minimise spoil.

Additionally, we were appointed as reviewer of the construction management plan required under the Hurunui District Council Consent, and reviewer of the management plans required under the Environment Canterbury consents. When construction is complete, the maximum generation output of the wind farm will be 93 megawatts and it will have the capacity to power approximately 40,000 homes.