Slopedown Wind Farm

The Southland Wind Farm is a proposed wind farm on Slopedown in The Catlins in the Southland District of New Zealand.

The project was originally proposed by Wind Prospect (NZ) Ltd in 2008 as a 150MW wind farm and was called Slopedown. It was purchased by Genesis Energy Limited in June 2010. Plans to apply for resource consent were abandoned in April 2011.

In 2023 the proposal was revived by Contact Energy. It will consist of 50 6MW turbines and cost up to $900 million to build. The wind farm is opposed by the West Catlins Preservation Group. In July 2023 the project was accepted for fast-tracking under the COVID-19 Recovery (Fast-track Consenting) Act 2020. Contact lodged a resource consent application with the EPA in December 2023.

Location
The wind farm will be located about 15 kilometers east of Wyndham covering an area of 5,500 ha. Approximately 1.6% of the land within the wind farm area will be used by the wind farm, becoming roading infrastructure, turbine pads for cranes to lift turbine components, and a substation.

Proposal
To achieve 300MW from 50 turbines, 6MW turbines will be required. These would be larger than any wind turbine previously used in New Zealand with a blade tip height of 220m. In November 2023 Contact said it would make an application for 55, 220 m high turbines, by the end of the year. If the site is built out to the proposed 300MW it will be the largest wind farm in the country ahead of today's largest, the 222MW Turitea Wind Farm.