Hydroelectric power in New Zealand is the largest source of electricity generation in New Zealand.
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Reefton was the first town with a reticulated public electricity supply from a significant hydroelectric plant after the commissioning of the Reefton Power Station in 1888.[1]
During the next twenty years private companies and local authorities established a number of stations, including Waipori in Otago and Horahora on the Waikato River. The first government-developed station was Coleridge in Canterbury, opened in 1914.[2] Other significant early stations include Mangahao (1924), Arapuni (1929), Tuai (1929) and Waitaki (1935).
The plan in 1959 to raise the level of Lake Manapouri to increase hydro-electric generation met with resistance, and the Save Manapouri Campaign became a milestone in environmental awareness. Later hydro schemes (such as the Clyde Dam) were also controversial, and in recent decades coal and gas-fired thermal stations have been approved in New Zealand, while renewable energy schemes in general have been turned down because of the unpopular effect they have on the environment.
Hydroelectric power accounts for 11% of the total primary energy usage in New Zealand with imported oil and oil products making up 70% of the primary energy.[3] Hydroelectric power accounts for 57% of the total electricity generation in New Zealand.[4]
Over the decade from 1997 hydroelectric power as a percentage of total net electricity generated went from 66% down to 55%.[5] An increase in coal and gas for electricity generation accounted for the reduction in hydroelectric power as a percentage of the total.
Large hydroelectric power schemes have been built in the Central Plateau region of the North Island and in the MacKenzie Basin in the South Island, as well as a series of power stations on the Waikato River.
There are a number of proposed hydroelectric power projects in New Zealand and, despite the demand for more renewable energy, there is opposition to some new hydroelectric projects.
Other proposals, at various planning stages, include schemes on the Matakitaki, Matiri, Waimakariri, Clutha, Kaituna and the Gowan Rivers.
There has been opposition to hydroelectric power on environmental grounds for many decades.
The first nationwide environmental campaign in New Zealand was opposition to raising Lake Manapouri for a power station to supply electricity to an aluminium smelter. The Save Manapouri Campaign was a success and the power station was built without raising the level of lake outside of its natural range.
The highly endangered Black Stilt, which nests on the braided rivers beds of the South Island, is threatened by changes in river flows as a result of new hydro dams and changes in flow regimes for existing dams.[10] The Upper Waitaki Power Development posed a threat to the black stilt habitat and a programme was set up to lessen the threats.[11]