The wind of opportunity looks to be blowing in Taranaki, with renewable energy set to provide hundreds of jobs.
Two women working in the offshore wind sector have visited their old school, New Plymouth’s Sacred Heart Girls' College, in the hopes of inspiring more females to join them.
"We're old girls. I remember doing fifth form economics in this class," Justine Gilliland told the Year 8 class. She and her colleague Bianca Ruakere graduated in the 1990s. Gilliland is a lawyer and told the 12- and 13-year-olds that hundreds of roles would become available.
"We'll need scientists, we'll need engineers, we need marine ecologists, we also need people who like being out at sea, people who want to drive boats; people who want to work on the turbines and do things like tower painting, people who want to study the marine life in and around the wind farm, and the bird life.”
Ruakere, who works in communications, added, "If we do start building it'll be ready around 2030/2031, so by the time you're entering the workforce, these jobs will be available right here in Taranaki for you."
New Zealand currently has around 18 onshore wind farms, but none offshore. The South Taranaki Bight is considered the perfect spot as the seabed depth is around 40-60 metres.
"New Zealand has an amazing opportunity for offshore wind energy overall because we are a very windy country, but what's unique about South Taranaki is the breadth of the shallow seabed, which means we can use fixed foundation turbines which are the most established technology," Gilliland said.
"As we move forward we can move into floating turbines as we get into deeper water, but initially that fixed turbine technology works really well."
The turbines planned for Taranaki will stand about 300 metres tall – around the same height as Auckland's Sky Tower – and will sit 22km off the coast. On a clear day, they’ll be faintly visible from land.
"We think about the scale and amount of electricity we'll need to power EVs, to provide electricity to our homes and businesses," said Gilliland.
"The biggest wind turbines in NZ at the moment are just over four megawatts, whereas at sea we are designing around 15 megawatts, so over three times the size.”
Taranaki is known as New Zealand's energy province, employing hundreds of people in the oil and gas industry. As New Zealand moves toward a decarbonised future, those jobs will change. Ruakere hopes many workers will transfer their skills to offshore wind technology.
Gilliland adds, "It's increasingly becoming known as a renewable province as well. We do currently have the largest wind turbines on-shore in South Taranaki and a number of solar farms.”
"We need to decarbonise and that means we need more electricity. Offshore wind operates at such a scale it can really push us along on that electrification journey."
Twelve-year-old Krystyna Wells was impressed, saying: "It would be cool to have more females doing this."
Classmate Paige Macalalag agreed. "I feel like it would be really fun to work in that area."
Ruakere told them: "Traditionally, the energy sector in NZ – and in fact, around the world – has been pretty male-dominated and still is, but that picture is beginning to change.
"And Justine and I are good examples of that.”
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