They\u2019ve led some of New Zealand\u2019s biggest companies \u2013 but this may be their most ambitious project yet.<\/p>\n
Sir Stephen Tindall, Selwyn Pellett and Michael Stiassny have each taken a 5 percent shareholding in Clutha Pumped Hydro Consortium, to privately build the Lake Onslow storage scheme that was cancelled by the coalition Government.<\/p>\n
The consortium\u2019s directors, led by former Meridian chief and Transpower chair Dr Keith Turner, have submitted the project to the fast-track for consenting. Turner claims to have slashed the price from the previous government\u2019s estimated $16 billion to under $8 billion.<\/p>\n
That remains \u201can exceptionally expensive exercise\u201d according to Tindall, the philanthropist and founder of The Warehouse retail chain. But he and the other investors want to give it a chance.<\/p>\n
Pellett says the project has huge potential for New Zealand, and removes any dependency on imported LNG (liquefied natural gas). And it should have the effect of shutting down or removing the need for the Huntly coal- and gas-fired power station.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I look at all the dams around New Zealand, I realise our grandfathers built them, and they built them ahead of need,\u201d he says. \u201cSo whether you\u2019re doing it based on green imperatives, or whether you\u2019re doing it based on a sense of society, it\u2019s important. I call it nation building \u2013 that\u2019s why I\u2019m doing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we need big projects that inspire people, not kicking the can down the road by importing LNG.\u201d<\/p>\n
He points to the impact of the Strait of Hormuz closure, when the world\u2019s second-biggest LNG producer Qatar shut down its facilities and exports entirely. It\u2019s critical that New Zealand doesn\u2019t expose itself to that risk by relying on LNG for dry years, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then there\u2019s none available. Is that the future security you want for New Zealand? It\u2019s not the future I want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stiassny, who retired this year as chair of Tower Insurance, says that as New Zealand moves to more solar and wind power, it\u2019s important the country also has security of supply for those times when the wind drops and there\u2019s no sun.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think energy pricing is one of the biggest things in the Western world,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re moving to solar and wind, but they can be intermittent. It\u2019s ridiculous to think they\u2019re going to be there all the time. And pumped hydro, in a simplistic view like mine, is just another form of a battery really \u2013 and therefore this has a place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a good project. We need to reduce the price of energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
But what about importing LNG as a backstop? He laughs. \u201cI think this is a more sustainable long-term alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n
He shares Turner\u2019s confidence that the consortium will find international finance for the project. \u201cThe fundamentals are such that this should be fundable and it will work. It ain\u2019t going to be easy, but yes, I think we will.\u201d<\/p>\n
He and Pellett both say they\u2019re looking forward to visiting the site in Central Otago.<\/p>\n
Stephen Tindall is travelling overseas at present, but emailed Newsroom. He and his family have bought shares through their K1W1 investment business.<\/p>\n
\u201cK1W1 is working to at least give Keith Turner and the team a chance to take a possible project with the Clutha pumped hydro project to the next stage,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will give all of us a chance to see whether it\u2019s viable or not and hopefully to being able to bring on some very big private players who would need to fund what will be an exceptionally expensive exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lake Onslow is about 50km from Santana\u2019s proposed Bendigo-Ophir goldmine \u2013 a very different but similarly headline-grabbing Central Otago project that\u2019s also working its way through the fast-track process.<\/p>\n
Turner says they\u2019re watching that with interest \u2013 particularly how Santana engages with the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, the goldmine has its challenges and its opponents,\u201d he says. \u201cWe are watching the process with great interest because the fast-track process hasn\u2019t been used on major infrastructure a great deal. If you look at all the fast-track projects, they\u2019re most property developments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just want to learn whatever lessons we can from from their experience, and obviously improve on that, with those learnings.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019ve led some of New Zealand\u2019s biggest companies \u2013 but this may be their most ambitious project yet.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-554390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}