17 Apr 2009

Contact Energy plans new hydro dam for Clutha

10:18 pm on 17 April 2009

Contact Energy has announced it will proceed with discussions for a new hydro electric dam on the Clutha River in Otago.

The Clutha flows for about 340km through Central Otago and is home to the Roxburgh and Clyde dams.

Four possible sites, at Luggate, Queensberry Hills, Beaumont and Tuapeka Mouth were proposed by the former Electricity Corporation of New Zealand.

Contact Energy has launched a website detailing the schemes and wants to gauge community reaction before settling on a preferred option. Public meetings are planned in coming months.

Contact Energy general manager of generation Mark Trigg told Morning Report the last time the company looked at a Clutha River project was in the mid-1990s, when it had no specific plans for development.

Over the past decade hydro power has become more economic when compared to other options, he said, and it is time it was looked at again.

The largest dam, Tuapeka, would cost over $1 billion to build and create a lake stretching 50km up the Clutha Valley. It would generate 1,950 gigawatt hours, or enough electricity to power 240,000 households a year.

Construction could get under way between 2015 and 2025.

Molly Melhuish from the Domestic Energy Users Network says building more dams will push up household power bills up, as the dams will be more expensive than wind turbines.

But major electricity users group Ralph Matthes says the whole nation will benefit if the projects are economic but the impact will be on local communities.

Mr Matthes says Contact is taking the right action in getting feedback from the communities that will be most affected.

Industry analyst Brian Leyland believes the scheme is an excellent idea, saying hydro is a better energy alternative to wind generation.

Fears for Beaumont

Simon Cook runs a forestry business in Beaumont, which would disappear under a hydro lake if that area was chosen for a dam.

Mr Cook says up to 50 family homes, the local hotel, hall, and cemetery would be wiped out. He says this proposal dropped from view 14 years ago and it is a pity to have it back on the agenda now.

Long-time resident Margaret Healey believes the community will fight to make sure it is not buried under water.

Ms Healey has lived in the township for 30 years and has an aviary with 200 birds. She wishes Contact would pack up and leave the community alone - or, failing that, build wind turbines on the hills rather than flood the valley.

Ms Healey says no-one from Contact has bothered to talk to Beaumont residents about the proposals yet.

No need to trash rivers, say Greens

The Green Party says a new hydro dam on the Clutha River is irreversible and unnecessary as electricity schemes to cover growth are already in place.

Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons says New Zealand has a history of "trashing rivers" and there is no need to do this to provide more electricity.

Ms Fitzsimons told Checkpoint more than 600 megawatts of new electricity capacity is being built at present, largely geothermal and wind, that will take care of growth for several more years.

"Our wild rivers are precious - when you dam them you dam them forever ... at least a wind farm you can one day take down if you find a better idea."

Ms Fitzsimons says much of the power that is currently wasted could be saved through sensible energy efficiency programmes.

"We just don't need to keep on trashing the environment."