Wellington.Scoop report and photos by John Shaw

On a hill high above Brooklyn, work was completed this morning on Meridian Energy’s huge new Enercon E44 wind turbine – which is almost twice as high as the 22-year-old model that it has replaced. Meridian staff worked all night to assemble the blades on the 77 metre high structure which has replaced the familiar 45 metre prototype.

Their final task: to add the nose cone to the blade assembly.

Then the job was done, and workers were brought down from the top. The $2.9million project was complete.

It all started on Tuesday, after a giant crane was installed on the site.

Then four huge trucks made their way through Brooklyn, delivering the components of the new wind turbine, which had arrived last month from Germany.

A resource consent hearing approved the new turbine last May. A subsequent three-week period followed to allow for any appeals to the Environment Court but none were received, meaning Meridian could go ahead with the project.

The new turbine will generate around 3,900 megawatt hours a year – enough to power around 490 homes. The old turbine produced about 870 megawatt hours a year. It was installed for research purposes but Meridian says the replacement turbine will have a commercial return.

“The original turbine was a city icon, part of the cityscape and valued by the local community and wider Wellington region. So we’re excited to be retaining such an important Wellington landmark and continuing to celebrate the benefits of windy Wellington,” said Meridian’s GM External Relations Guy Waipara.