By Frank Craig, Ace High Motor Inn
It’s time to ask some hard questions. When was the last time your community actually improved thanks to the actions of an elected politician? Too often, major projects are sold to the public as “good for everyone,” yet when the numbers are broken down, the economic sense is far less convincing.
Take, for instance, the Harapaki Wind Farm — a $395 million project touted as a sustainable investment set to power 70,000 households. On the surface, this sounds impressive. But let’s dig a little deeper.
If the average electricity bill per household is around $100 per month, that’s $1,200 a year. Multiply that by 70,000 households, and you get $8.4 million in energy consumption per annum.
Now, divide the $395 million cost of the wind farm by $8.4 million — which represents the annual return if the power offset equals bill savings — and it would take over 47 years to recover the initial investment.
Is this what we call an economically sound project?
What’s more, Meridian Energy — the company behind the Harapaki Wind Farm — is 51% government-owned. That means taxpayers effectively contributed approximately $200 million to this project. One must ask: could that money have been better spent elsewhere?
Take Napier, for example. Ask any local, and they’d likely say a $200 million investment into a much-needed hospital would be a far more beneficial and visible improvement to their lives. The need for better healthcare, housing, and local infrastructure remains glaring — yet funding is funneled into high-cost projects that may not return true value to the community for decades, if ever.
It’s not that renewable energy is a bad idea — far from it. But when politicians and government-owned entities push projects without proper economic scrutiny or public consultation, we must wonder: who is this really serving?
It’s time the public demanded transparency, accountability, and smarter spending.
We deserve better.
Contact Ace High Motor Inn
https://www.acehigh.co.nz/
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phillip@mediapa.co.nz