Kaiwera Downs Wind Farm

The Kaiwera Downs Wind Farm is a wind farm in the Southland region of New Zealand. It is consented to have a maximum capacity of 240MW and use up to 83 turbines. Originally proposed by Trustpower, it is now owned and operated by Mercury Energy. The 10 turbine, 43MW stage 1 of the project was opened in November 2023.

The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "hot food" for Kaiwera.

Location and Resource
The wind farm is located about 15 kilometres south-east of Gore, within an area of 2568 ha. Access to the site from the port at Bluff is "considered excellent".

The prevailing south-west/ westerly winds blow with an average wind speed of 8.7 – 8.9 m/s.

Construction
The project received resource consent in June 2008. In September 2018 Tilt said that the development was waiting for favourable market conditions. In June 2021 Tilt announced the project was being acquired by Mercury Energy. In June 2022 Mercury began talks with the local community over the wind farm.

Stage 1
Installation of an initial ten turbines totalling 43MW of generation is expected to start in October 2022. Earthworks began in the first week of October 2022. A sod-turning ceremony was held in November 2022. As of February 2023, Mercury say they expect all turbines to be operational by October 2023. The first turbines arrived in April 2023, and were transported to the site during May and June. As of July 2023, two of ten turbines had been erected, and the wind farm was expected to be complete by October. As of mid October 8 of 10 turbines are operational and stage 1 of the project is on track to be completed by the end of October. The wind farm was officially opened on 20 November.

Stage 2
Mercury is building stage 2 of the project starting in June 2024 with first generation coming on stream by mid-2026 and completion by mid-2027. They are building an additional 155MW of capacity. In June 2023 they received approval to amend their resource consent. This change reduces the total number of turbines for the project from 83 to 66 but allows the remaining turbines to be built with an additional 20 meters of height, a maximum blade tip height of 165m. Mercury say this will help reduce stress on the blades and increase their lifespan.

Transmission
Power will be exported via a new 18 km 33,000-volt line to Transpower's Gore substation.