Wind power in New Zealand



Wind power constitutes a small but growing proportion of New Zealand's electricity. As of November 2023, wind power accounts for 1m059 MW of installed capacity and over 6 percent of electricity generated in the country.

New Zealand has abundant wind resources. The country is in the path of the Roaring Forties, strong and constant westerly winds, and the funneling effect of Cook Strait and the Manawatū Gorge increase the resource's potential. Over three-quarters (512 MW) of the country's wind generation is installed within a 150 km radius of Palmerston North, with some turbines in the area having a capacity factor of over 50 percent.

Generation capacity and expansion
As of December 2020, New Zealand had an installed wind generation capacity of 690 MW. In the 2020 calendar year, wind power produced 2,282 GWh of electricity, 5.5 percent of the country's electricity generation that year.

A further 2,500 MW of wind farms have received resource consent.

The New Zealand Wind Energy Association predicts that wind could reach 20 percent of New Zealand's annual generation by 2035.

Wind potential


New Zealand has outstanding wind resources, due to its position astride the Roaring Forties, resulting in nearly continuous strong westerly winds over many locations, unimpeded by other nearby landmasses at similar latitude. One study found that using 1% of total available land for wind farms would produce approximately 100,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year.

Coping with intermittency
Wind farms partner well with hydro plants on the same grid to create combined power plants, because hydro plants can be uprated with extra turbine units to provide highly dispatchable peak generating capacity above the average flows of their rivers, at lower cost than other peak power options.

List of operating wind farms
Only wind turbines and farms over 5 MW generating capacity are listed. Individual demonstration and prototype wind turbines have been installed at Southbridge in Canterbury, Gebbies Pass near Christchurch and Brooklyn in Wellington. Many small windmills serve as windpumps on New Zealand farms.

Meridian Energy also operates a 1 MW wind farm on Ross Island, Antarctica. It is not included in the above list as it does not contribute electricity to the New Zealand national electricity network.