Wind turbines at Mercury's Tararua Wind Farm

THE TARARUA WIND FARM.

The Tararua Wind Farm stands on 700 hectares of private farmland in the Tararua Ranges, in the lower North Island of New Zealand and all three stages combine to make New Zealand's largest wind farm with total average annual output of around 560GWh.

Stages 1 &2: Maximum capacity 68 MW
Annual output: 245 GWh
Commissioned: Stage 1: 1999, Stage 2: 2004
Location: Tararua Ranges, Manawatū  

Stage 3: Maximum capacity 93 MW
Annual output: 318 GWh
Commissioned: 2007
Location: Tararua Ranges, Manawatū  
StageS 1 & 2
Built over two stages, stages 1 and 2 have a total of 103 Vestas V47-660 kW wind turbines, on lattice towers with a hub height of 40m.
Stage 1 was completed in December 1999, making it the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere at the time.
For many years this site was the best performing commercial wind farm in the world and the original turbines have already generated more than twice the designed production volumes.
Stage 3
Stage 3 of the Tararua Wind Farm began operating in 2007, utilising 31 Vestas V90-3.0 turbines.
Three of the V90 turbines were the first Vestas turbines in the world to reach production of one hundred million kilowatt hours, further cementing the site's reputation as one of the best in the world.
Together, all three stages of the Tararua Wind Farm produce an average annual power output of over 560GWh.