Windmilling

The residents of Awhitu Peninsula, south-west of Auckland, have given up in their battle against Genesis Energy. Their plight was aimed at preventing the green power company from setting up a wind farm in their area. However, the community's two hundred thousand dollars that was spent taking their case to the Environment Court would appear to have gone to waste, with the go-ahead having already been given for Genesis to begin operations. In recognition of the fact that Awhitu is a significant rural tourism area, Genesis has promised to provide the community with cash over the next five years, so that it may fund tree planting projects and also with the purpose in mind of combating erosion. Erosion is a significant problem for Awhitu due to that it is essentially a sand dune, or spit, protruding out into the sea.

It is easy to perceive that these hastily-contracted compensatory reparations effectively symbolise the event of the company purchasing the Awhitu residents' support, or at least buying itself some room to manoeuvre when it comes to getting down to the business of starting construction on the windmills themselves. Richard Gordon, the spokesman for Genesis Energy, has insisted, however, that this is not the case and that the company genuinely cares about the natural environment. Given the overall efforts that Genesis appears to have been taking to integrate the use of sustainable energy sources into their operations, and the approval that it has recently received from various environmental organisations such as Greenpeace, it could probably be safely assumed that Richard is not being dishonest.

Nonetheless, in many people's eyes, Awhitu still stands to potentially lose a significant amount of its natural beauty in light of the eighteen windmills that are going to be situated there. As a rural tourism area it is dependent to a great degree on that natural beauty to attract the consistent flow of visitors that much of the community undoubtedly relies on for their income. However, the mention that there are racing stables and an equestrian centre nearby leads me personally in the direction of the conclusion that perhaps Awhitu isn't so untouched after all, as the notably zealous actions of the residents would have suggested. It also turns out that Awhitu is not a community that distances itself from an involvement in eco-tourism; in fact it prides itself on this.

It's quite possible that this new wind farm project -- the Auckland region's first -- could actually serve to mark the beginning of a new era for Awhitu, and contrary to the attitudes that are apparently being expressed by the locals, it has the potential to be a very good one. The presence of an operation in sustainable energy production, in addition to the tree planting and erosion prevention works that Genesis Energy will be funding, and the fact that it is all taking place in such a unique location -- on a sandspit -- could likely provide completely new business opportunities to the Awhitu community. It wouldn't be surprising at all -- indeed, it would be very heartening -- if Awhitu were to develop into some kind of exemplary model of thoughtful, progressive-minded interaction between people and the environment for the good of the Earth as a whole. This, of course, could prove in the end to be very lucrative for the local community.