Landowners hold up hydro plan

About 40 per cent of the 60-odd landowners from which it requires consent for its Wairau River hydroelectricity project remain opposed to the scheme, which would generate 415 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity annually.

Meanwhile, monitoring of a promising Seddon wind farm site the Tauranga-based company hoped could produce 270GWh of energy has shown it might not be as suitable for development as first thought.

TrustPower first announced plans for the $240 million canal-based hydroelectricity scheme last year and started seriously negotiating easement agreements with landowners in April this year.

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