In June this year, a new piece of equipment was anchored 37km off the coast of Pātea in the South Taranaki Bight. Called the Floating Light Detecting and Ranging device, FLiDAR will measure wind speeds at heights of up to 300m as a well as waves and currents to provide data critical for assessing the feasibility of a proposed offshore wind farm. The Taranaki Offshore Partnership, if successful, will be the largest windfarm in NZ, producing 1GW or 10% of the country’s needs. That’s about the same as one large hydroelectric scheme. TOP is a JV between NZ superfund and Denmark’s Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. NZ project leader is Giacomo Caleffi spoke to Vincent.
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