- A new company set for feasibility studies of the 1GW Wind Project.
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and NZ Super Fund, New Zealand’s sovereign wealth, have jointly set up a new company that will undergo a study into exploring the possibility of developing an offshore wind project within the South Taranaki Bight located on the west coast of New Zealand. The project is expected to have an output capacity of 1 GW.
Both companies, now partners, are still in the early stages of evaluating the project’s feasibility, which is expected to last an estimated period of 2 years. Given a successful output of the feasibility studies, the project holds the possibility of generating electricity before the close of the decade. The power output from the project is expected to cover more than 11% of New Zealand’s energy requirements while serving as an aid in achieving the 100% renewable energy targets of the country, pegged for 2030. The two companies have projected an upscaling of the project to 2 GW, given the expected demand for electricity in the country.
Michael Hannibal, CIP partner, stated that average wind speeds and the comparatively shallow waters near transmission infrastructure make the project a thrilling one for CIP. It is part of a project development pipeline for its upcoming flagship fund, CI V. This will be CIP’s first investment in New Zealand. It comes after NZ Super Fund last year committed NZD 208 million (USD 144m/EUR 131m) to CIP’s Energy Transition Fund (CI ETF I).