Future Energy

Future Energy is where location becomes an advantage. Whanganui sits in the heart of a major wind and solar resource area, with large-scale renewable projects planned or underway. This opens the door to lower-cost, close-to-source, 100 percent renewable energy for synthetic fuels, derivatives, and other clean, energy-intensive industries.

As the energy transition accelerates, Whanganui offers the space, resources, and coordination to move quickly. Whanganui & Partners helps investors navigate land, infrastructure, and partnerships to turn energy potential into investable reality.

Food, Fibre and Beverage

Renewable Energy

Advanced Manufacturing

Opportunities within Future Energy

Wind and Solar development

A utility-scale wind and solar development opportunity in the Whanganui region, leveraging identified high-wind zones and existing transmission infrastructure. The project combines wind, solar, and potential storage to deliver reliable renewable energy aligned with rising regional demand and decarbonisation needs. Development is expected to be staged and anchored to grid capacity and offtake opportunities.

Synthetic Fuel Production

Whanganui presents a compelling opportunity to develop a synthetic fuels and renewable derivatives platform based on abundant renewable energy resources and access to biomass and industrial residues. The focus is on producing low-emissions fuels and derivatives - such as green methanol and other Power-to-X products - to support domestic decarbonisation and emerging export markets.

Whanganui Data Centre Hub

Whanganui is well positioned to become a location of choice for energy-enabled digital infrastructure investment, with the foundations to support a staged, energy-anchored data centre precinct that could grow towards approximately 50MW of compute load over time. Proximity to the Brunswick 220kV GXP and Whanganui 110kV GXP, development-ready industrial land, and potential future renewable generation from projects such as Waiinu and Harakeke provide a credible platform for significant data-centre and digital infrastructure development.

The opportunity spans a mix of enterprise, sovereign, cloud, disaster recovery, secure storage and other non-latency-critical workloads. Development could occur incrementally as energy supply, network capacity, supporting infrastructure and customer demand mature, creating long-term opportunities for capital investment, skilled employment, capability development and wider economic growth in Whanganui.

This information is intended to support further engagement with potential investors and infrastructure partners. Whanganui’s role is to enable and support investment that is right for the district, while ensuring any development is appropriately located, supported by the necessary infrastructure and delivers long-term benefits for the community.

Whanganui landscape looking at the Paraparas

Whanganui sits in the heart of a major wind and solar resource area, with large-scale renewable projects planned or underway. This opens the door to lower-cost, close-to-source, 100 percent renewable energy for synthetic fuels, derivatives, and other clean, energy-intensive industries.

~90,000

tonnes per annum of green methanol production planned

6.6 TWh

Potential annual wind energy generation in our region

4.5M MW

2023–2028 Lower north island wood availability forecast

~100 MW

Green hydrogen electrolysis planned

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