Last week, on 18th March 2011, New Zealand’s Minister of Conservation Kate Wilkinson, granted approval to Crest Energy for the staged installation of up to 200 fully submerged tidal turbine power generators in the Kaipara Harbour.
This is the largest fully submerged tidal turbine proposal in the world. To date only small arrays of tidal turbines are used or trialled in Scotland, France and America.
The Kaipara Harbour is the second largest harbour in the southern hemisphere and is located on New Zealand’s west coast, about 50km north of Auckland.
