![\"Wind](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/wind-turbines-may-sweep-across-rangitikei-skies-as-part-of-t-RICT7QIMWRGL5PTID6TXMVCIFY.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNg\u0101 Wairiki-Ng\u0101ti Apa is staking its claim in New Zealand’s clean energy future, backing a 280-megawatt green hydrogen and methanol project that could deliver climate gains, generational returns and long-term iwi ownership.<\/p>\n
By Moana Ellis, Local Democracy Reporting<\/p>\n
Te R\u016bnanga o Ng\u0101 Wairiki-Ng\u0101ti Apa is positioning itself at the forefront of renewable energy development, backing an ambitious green hydrogen and methanol project it said could be “massive” for the iwi.<\/p>\n
The venture signals a deliberate move beyond traditional primary sector investments into large-scale clean energy infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Ng\u0101 Wairiki and Ng\u0101ti Apa are two linked iwi whose combined mana whenua stretches from Omarupapako ki Motukaraka on the Rangit\u012bkei\/Manawat\u016b coastline and inland to Otairi.<\/p>\n
Their rohe, predominantly rural farmland across the Rangit\u012bkei and Whangaehu regions, could prove central to New Zealand’s renewable energy ambitions.<\/p>\n
T\u0101h\u016bh\u016b rangap\u016b \/ Group chief executive Grant Huwyler said the iwi have spent the past five years exploring a 280-megawatt wind and solar-powered hydrogen development on their Harakeke block near Whanganui, in partnership with Taranaki-based clean energy company Hiringa Energy.<\/p>\n
“We’re five years deep in this,” Huwyler said. “If the stars align, boom! It could go. If they don’t align, it might fall over.”<\/p>\n
The iwi see the potential development not only as a commercial opportunity capable of generating long-term returns, but as a contribution to reducing emissions in heavy transport, one of the country’s hardest-to-decarbonise sectors.<\/p>\n
“We’ve spent a lot of time positioning ourselves to play a role in renewable energy,” Huwyler told Local Democracy Reporting.<\/p>\n
“We have a good wind resource that comes across land we own, and we have two groups talking to us.”<\/p>\n
One is a renewables corporate multinational that wants to build a wind farm south of Turakina and in the Santoft Forest and its vicinity, and the other is Hiringa Energy, with whom the iwi have a 50-50 development partnership.<\/p>\n
Huwyler described the development plans as massively ambitious.<\/p>\n
The original proposal would combine wind and solar generation to power electrolysis \u2013 splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen \u2013 to produce green hydrogen.<\/p>\n
If realised, it would produce commercial quantities of low-carbon fuel aimed at decarbonising New Zealand’s emissions-intensive heavy transport sector.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Wind turbines may sweep across Rangit\u012bkei skies as part of Te R\u016bnanga o Ng\u0101 Wairiki-Ng\u0101ti Apa\u2019s vision for a 280-megawatt wind and solar-powered hydrogen and methanol development on its Harakeke block near Whanganui. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n
‘Strong demand’<\/p>\n
As global markets shift more slowly than expected, the focus has broadened to include green methanol for marine transport, and potentially sustainable aviation fuel.<\/p>\n
“We changed our focus from green hydrogen distribution to green hydrogen, then green methanol production,” Huwyler said.<\/p>\n
“There’s strong demand for that product out there in Asia, where it’s used to fuel ships.”<\/p>\n
For iwi leadership, the project represented both economic opportunity and an expression of kaitiakitanga across ancestral lands shaped by generations of Paerangi and Apa-Hapai-Taketake descendants.<\/p>\n
The integrated wind and solar-to-hydrogen and methanol project centred on about 280 megawatts of combined renewable generation and around 100 megawatts of electrolysis capacity to produce roughly 15,000 tonnes a year of green hydrogen.<\/p>\n
That hydrogen could be combined with green carbon dioxide to manufacture up to 90,000 tonnes a year of green methanol.<\/p>\n
Backers said the proposal benefited from a high-quality wind resource, affordable renewable electricity, access to biogenic carbon dioxide from forestry biomass, existing methanol infrastructure and developing offtake discussions with shipping companies building vessels for the New Zealand market.<\/p>\n
Hiringa \u2013 a M\u0101ori word meaning perseverance, energy, determination and vitality \u2013 already operated a green hydrogen refuelling network and was developing hydrogen supply chains across Asia Pacific.<\/p>\n
It positioned the joint venture as a high-potential near-term “Power-to-X” opportunity in the emerging e-methanol market.<\/p>\n
![\"Te](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/te-runanga-o-nga-wairiki-ngati-apa-tahuhu-rangapu-group-ceo-XV5H7DWMCJHL5FAWTBCW4GJYYU.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Te R\u016bnanga o Ng\u0101 Wairiki-Ng\u0101ti Apa t\u0101h\u016bh\u016b rangap\u016b \/ Group CEO Grant Huwyler. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n
Rare opportunity<\/p>\n
“I think we’re quite fortunate to own significant areas of land where there happens to be a really good wind resource coming across that land,” Huwyler said.<\/p>\n
“It puts us in a position to take a massive step forward with our entire picture of development. These opportunities are quite rare.”<\/p>\n
While the project remained in the business case phase, Ng\u0101 Wairiki-Ng\u0101ti Apa’s ambition was clear: equity, ownership and long-term returns.<\/p>\n
“We’re a landowner. But one thing we’ve learned from watching other iwi who have had similar or related opportunities is that there are ways you can structure these developments where you do get an equity interest.<\/p>\n
“It’s not just about opening up our land for development, it’s about doing that plus achieving some level of equity and ownership in the businesses that are set up there,” Huwyler said.<\/p>\n
“That’s definitely our ambition. You’re constantly looking for people who have those same values and that empathy for indigenous development, who would welcome that opportunity to have you as an owner in their business.”<\/p>\n
The potential was “massive, massive”. But Huwyler cautioned that final investment decisions were still years away. The iwi was targeting 2028 to lock those in, with construction potentially taking several years beyond that.<\/p>\n
Success would mean “development on our land, returns from the land, ownership in some or all of the various stages in that value chain\u2026 employment”.<\/p>\n
For Huwyler, who as a teenager wrote the Ng\u0101ti Apa Manawhenua Report \u2013 still being referenced by his iwi today \u2013 climate leadership was inseparable from iwi identity.<\/p>\n
“Totally. We’re committed to our responsibility as kaitiaki and kaitiakitanga. That needs to play out in all of our operations.”<\/p>\n
The Harakeke vision included restoring up to half of the 390-hectare block to wetland alongside industrial development.<\/p>\n
“If we’re going to do economic development here, we do the environmental development there and try to keep it in balance,” he said.<\/p>\n
While acknowledging the environmental trade-offs of wind turbines and hydrogen production \u2013 including water use and turbine materials \u2013 Huwyler said the iwi was determined to help lead New Zealand’s energy transition.<\/p>\n
“To be a part of that story with Hiringa of New Zealand’s transition to decarbonised fuels\u2026 that’s really cool.<\/p>\n
“If we can get a plant of this nature up and working on our Harakeke site, it could be done in multiple locations around New Zealand rather than trying to have one big-scale site. There’s an alternative thinking that smaller regionalised plants are the way to go.”<\/p>\n
\u2013 Local Democracy Reporting is local-body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ng\u0101 Wairiki-Ng\u0101ti Apa is staking its claim in New Zealand’s clean energy future, backing a 280-megawatt green hydrogen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[2885,580,246,61,60,144315,144314,82],"class_list":["post-306600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-climate-change","tag-energy","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-iwi-hapu","tag-manawatu-wanganui","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}