Kaipara Harbour Tidal Project

Crest Energy Limited was granted consent to construct a marine tidal turbine power station in the mouth of the Kaipara Harbour in Northland, northern New Zealand. The project comprised of up to 200 completely submerged marine tidal turbines with a maximum generating capacity of around 200MW, located invisibly underwater. When fully implemented, it was estimated that this project would generate sufficient power for an area from Albany to Cape Reinga by harnessing the energy of the tide. The harbour is one of the largest harbours in the world covering 900 square kilometres with 3,000 kilometres of shoreline. The Kaipara extends for 60 kilometres north to south.

In March 2011, the project was approved to build up to 200 turbines. Consent was granted for an initial stage of just 3 turbines. After periods of monitoring the impact of the first three tidal turbines on marine wildlife, including snapper, if they do not adversely impact the harbour, Crest Energy can add another 17 turbines. In November 2013, the project was put on hold and has not been taken up since.

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Project Manager

CrestEnergy

Additional Information

Project Website

Project Status Is the project actively being planned or is deployed in the water (active)? Or was the project canceled or completed (inactive)?

Inactive

Project Life Cycle Project Progress through life cycle:<ul> <li>Planned: Project has identified a deployment location and is preparing for deployment</li> <li>Operational: Project is deployed in the water and is active</li> <li>Completed: Project was previously deployed in the water</li> <li>Decommissioned: Installation has been fully removed in accordance with regulations</li> <li>Canceled: Project was canceled before being deployed in the water</li></ul>

Canceled

Max Rated Power Capacity The maximum amount of electricity that can be produced by project, based on available resources and device nameplate capacity.

200 MW

Project Duration

2006 - 2013

Energy Resource

Tidal

Project Scale

Full-scale

Number of Devices

200

Grid Connectivity

Grid Connected

Waterbody

Kaipara Harbour

Site Characteristics Geographic characterization for the project location:<ul> <li>Open Ocean: Main body of ocean, not enclosed or partially enclosed by land</li> <li>Coastal: Open water near the coast, spanning between land and shelf boundary</li> <li>Enclosed Bay: water that is partially surrounded by land, with a mouth open to larger water</li> <li>Constricted Channel: A channel where water flows quickly due to narrowing by the land</li> <li>River: Water flowing from land towards a larger body of water</li></ul>

Enclosed Bay

Country

New Zealand

Last Modified

10 June 2025

This Project has the following MRE Devices

Citation Formats

“Kaipara Harbour Tidal Project.” Marine Energy Projects Database: Projects, PRIMRE, United States Department of Energy, https:https://openei.org/wiki/PRIMRE/Databases/Projects_Database/Projects/Kaipara_Harbour_Tidal_Project. Accessed <day> <monthRoman> <year>.

Marine Energy Projects Database: Projects. <year>. "Kaipara Harbour Tidal Project." Accessed <monthRoman> <day>, <year>. https:https://openei.org/wiki/PRIMRE/Databases/Projects_Database/Projects/Kaipara_Harbour_Tidal_Project.

PRIMRE/Databases/Projects Database/Projects/Kaipara Harbour Tidal Project

Kaipara Harbour Tidal Project

This Project has the following MRE Devices

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