Foreign tidal harbour development in NZ

Crest Energy, a NZ tidal energy company won planning permission last year to generate up to 200 MW of tidal power at Kaipara harbour in the NW peninsula of the North Island. The project is in its early stages but at least has government consent to proceed – a process which took over five years.

Once completed though, the company will act as a developer and host to other companies who will generate electricity using their own equipment.

The main challenge for the project, according to Crest, is that NZ is more or less an independent electricity market with over half the generation being from hydroelectric dams, “which means that the price of electricity is relatively low.”

Anthony Hopkins, director of Crest Energy, said to Maritime Journal: “Most of the hydro and geothermal generation is owned by the government in entities called State Owned Enterprises. The current government has plans to privatise a part of these which may have the effect of changing the overall market conditions. And there are other strong drivers for change over the next few years. The country has minimal commercial support for renewable energy.

“As a general statement the country uses and licences other people’s technology. Crest plans to do the same.”

This may mean that other NZ companies follow suit.