The hearing into Northport’s Resource Consent application concluded on Tuesday this week (4 June), some 20 months after the application was lodged and about eight months after proceedings began with a range of verbal submissions at Semenoff Stadium in Whangārei and at Takahiwai Marae.
If, as the saying goes, “it takes a village to raise a child” then Meridian Energy’s proposed Ruakākā Energy Park can certainly count the local business community as willing villagers.
Northport is just one of the local businesses supporting the development. With construction works under way for the first stage of the energy park, a 100-megawatt battery energy storage system (BESS), all 80 of the imported 20-foot container-sized battery storage units are coming ashore at the port.
Northland businesses wanting to move freight now have the option of a new weekly container shipping service linking Marsden Point with Tauranga, Auckland and Lyttelton.
Pacifica Shipping has been running fortnightly coastal services from Northport since 2016. The new weekly service ensures much more frequent, efficient connections between Northland and the world, and gives shippers more options to reduce their carbon footprint and improve supply chain resilience and efficiency.
