Keep it clean

You get home, switch on the jug, switch on the lights and turn on the telly – while around the country millions of other people do the same thing. Soon you’ll start thinking about turning the oven on for dinner – and soon, the huge power station that squats on the riverbank at Huntly will rumble into life. Deep inside, coal and gas fires will flare and chimneys will begin to belch smoke – and invisible CO₂ – into the air as the station meets the evening power needs of New Zealanders.

That’s a scene that power company Meridian Energy is happy to play no part in – all of its electricity is generated from clean, renewable resources – a fact the company isn’t shy about promoting in its ad campaigns.

Yet as general manager of external relations Guy Waipara points out, it wasn’t entirely obvious that renewable power was the best way forward.

“Most new generation being built [around 2003] was gas-fired – it wasn’t obvious that constraining yourself to renewables was the right thing to do.”

The decision to concentrate on renewable energy sources was, he says, partly about it being the better environmental choice, and partly a savvy commercial move. “We took quite a bullish view early on that there was a future in wind energy. We decided it was much better to be ahead on something like wind and have that advantage.”

That decision was to cement the future identity of the company, which Guy says has embraced sustainability both externally and internally: “It’s really important to staff”, says Guy. “It’s a really important part of why people want to be a part of us.”

Renewables – what’s the big deal?

A source of power is considered renewable if it is topped up endlessly by nature. Solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and tidal power all fall into this category – whereas fossil fuels such as coal and gas are considered non-renewable, because they rely on a resource which will eventually run out. Nuclear power is also considered non-renewable: the radioactive material is uses must be mined and eventually degrades and must be disposed of securely.

These days, with what we now know about the realities of climate change, the big environmental advantage of renewable energy is that, unlike burning fossil fuels, it doesn’t create greenhouse gases. But there are other advantages too: once your expensive infrastructure is in place, renewable energy sources are effectively free, as nature provides the raw material. Fossil fuels, on the other hand must be drilled or bought, with prices at the mercy of the markets, wars, or disasters.

Meridian is New Zealand’s largest power generator, making about a third of the country’s electricity from seven hydro stations and four, more recently built, wind farms. It also owns a wind farm in Australia, built one in Antarctica, and has built large solar arrays in Tonga and the United States.

Controversial projects

Ironically for a company that prides itself on its green credentials, Meridian now owns the hydro station that launched the environmental movement in New Zealand, thanks to the widespread protest against the damage it would do.

Manapouri station is the largest hydro station in New Zealand and its construction between 1964 and 1971 was something of an engineering marvel. Instead of using a dam, it takes advantage of the 230m height difference between Lake Manapouri and Fiordland’s Doubtful Sound: water falls through vertical tunnels into an enormous turbine hall carved from solid rock 200m beneath the lake. After spinning the turbines and generating power the water flows another 10km to be discharged into the sea.

The station was designed for the sole purpose of creating cheap power for making aluminium. An enormous bauxite reserve was discovered in Australia in 1955, but bauxite needs electricity to be turned into saleable metal, so the Manapouri plans were devised.

However, the original idea called for dams that would raise the level of the lake 30m, thereby destroying a large area of pristine National Park. The public were outraged, and in 1973 the newly elected Labour Prime Minister Norman Kirk made good on his promise to keep the lake level as it was. It was the first great victory for conservationists in New Zealand and set the scene for iconic protests like the antinuclear movement of the 1960s and ‘70s.

Of course, it’s hardly fair to connect the Manapouri protests to Meridian – the company was only formed after the break-up of the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand in 1999. However, Meridian has been involved in more recent contentious projects. It abandoned its controversial Project Aqua Scheme in 2004, and a plan to dam the pristine Mokihinui River on the West Coast of the South Island, which came in for stiff opposition from environmental groups such as Forest & Bird, has also been shelved.

Walking the talk

It’s clear then that even ‘green’ renewable energy sources can impact the environment and communities. Yet it’s a positive in Meridian’s ledger that the company recognises this with a policy of community support. In the 2013 financial year the company will give away over $680,000 to community projects near its generating assets as part of its ongoing grant scheme, and Meridian also works with groups such as DoC, Niwa and local iwi on major conservation projects such as trapping and transferring thousands of eels to help them migrate past the company’s dams.

The company has also made a commitment to running a sustainable workplace. Its Wellington office was the first purpose-built 5 green-star rated building in New Zealand. Less than a third of all its office waste goes to landfill, with the rest being recycled or composted. All large energy-draining devices such as lights, heating and cooling systems run on sensors or timers – and CO₂ travel emissions have been cut by using video conferencing facilities whenever possible.

Today Meridian remains one of only two Kiwi power companies to use only renewable resources (the other being TrustPower), and has forged valuable experience in creating and running clean technology. For example, the solar array that it completed in Tonga in 2012 now generates about 4 per cent of the mainland’s electricity. That has reduced the country’s dependence on imported diesel by 470,000 litres every year, which in turn has cut Tonga’s carbon emissions by over 2000 tonnes annually.

Of course, the next big challenge for Meridian is its partial privatisation in the Government’s state-owned assets sell-off. The sales have been a subject of hot debate, yet whatever your views on who should own the country’s assets it seems clear that Meridian Energy is set to remain a powerhouse of a company.

Meridian in numbers

• Net earnings (EBITDAF): $584.8 million
• Staff: 800
• Hydro stations: 7
• Wind farms: 5