NZ must make choice between seabed mining or offshore wind farms, ministers told

Wednesday, 15 May 2024

It would not be possible to build any of the giant proposed offshore wind farms in the South Taranaki Bight if Australian miner Trans-Tasman Resources was allowed to mine the seabed there for iron ore, the Government has been advised.

Taranaki Offshore Partnership, a joint venture between Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and the NZ Superannuation Fund, hopes to build a $5 billion wind farm about 23 kilometres out to sea in the South Taranaki Bight.

A consortium between local and overseas investors BlueFloat Energy and Elemental Group is also looking at essentially the same opportunity.

But both consortia are warning their plans could not go ahead if Trans-Tasman Resources was allowed to extract iron sands from the seabed.

The time it would take for sediment to sink and the uneven seabed to resettle after any iron sands mining in the region would rule out any offshore wind farms nearby for the “forseeable future”, the prospective wind farm developers said in a briefing paper sent to ministers.

Although offshore wind farm developers were investigating a number of different locations, “the vast majority of development interest exists in the South Taranaki Bight”, the companies said.

The paper was circulated by the companies to Greenpeace, which released it on Wednesday, and toughens up a warning previously issued by Bluefloat and Elemental Group in March.

“Any part of the offshore wind zone not covered by mineral permits or applications would be too small to warrant any commercial offshore wind development,” the paper said.

“Offshore wind turbines and electrical cables could not be constructed in the same location as an active seabed mining operation, resulting in the unavailability of that zone for offshore wind generation for the duration of the mining activities.

“To be clear, this would not only represent a risk to offshore wind projects proposed in the exact same area as seabed mining, but to any offshore wind projects proposed in the broad vicinity of the seabed mining activity,” it said.

It has been widely assumed that Trans-Tasman Resources would seek to make use of the proposed Fast-track consenting regime to advance its seabed mining project, if that regime was approved by Parliament.

Taranaki Offshore Partnership said in a statement that it was standard practice for different industry sectors to provide input to governments on planned policy developments.

The briefing paper on offshore wind and Taranaki seabed mining was sent to the Government in that spirit, it said.

Bluefloat said the briefing was shared with ministers “with relevant portfolios”, stakeholders and iwi and its timing was “not related to any specific fast-track consents”.

Trans-Tasman Resources chairperson Alan Eggers responded that it had long-standing existing property rights in the South Taranaki Basin in the form of government-granted exploration and mining permits.

He queried why wind energy developers hadn’t raised their concerns with the company before.

The seabed in the area Trans-Tasman Resources hoped to mine was comprised of “unconsolidated super-saturated fluidised black sands tens of metres deep”, Eggers said.

That meant any wind turbines built there would need massive foundations, he said.

“The South Taranaki Bight is big enough for both business activities. This hostility is puzzling.”

Greenpeace seabed mining campaigner Juressa Lee said the wind farm developers’ briefing note should be “the nail in the coffin for seabed mining here in Aotearoa”.

“We’re in a climate crisis and embracing new renewable energy generation is critical,” she said.