Antarctic wind farm delayed alongside hunt for private donors

Officials express optimism about the Scott Base redevelopment project following a high-profile reset

Officials are warning of risks beyond their control in the redevelopment of New Zealand’s Antarctic base, but remain hopeful it can be finished on time and on budget.

Because of these challenges, the launch of a new wind farm for Scott Base has been postponed by nine months. Antarctica NZ is also continuing its search for private philanthropists to help fund $50 million for the upgrade.

There had been concerns over cost blowouts that led to a reset of the project in 2024. Work on the Scott Base redevelopment was put on hold in late 2023 due to contract issues with the preferred contractor, with the Crown agency subsequently rescoping the project and appointing a new team to oversee the work.

In an October 2025 briefing to Foreign Minister Winston Peters, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (which heads the redevelopment’s monitoring group) said Antarctica NZ was “well positioned” to deliver the Scott Base redevelopment on time and on budget.

While the initial cost estimate for preliminary design work had exceeded the approved budget by $2.2 million (or 0.5 percent), the project team was confident it could “value-manage back to within budget”.

Treasury’s gateway review team, which oversees high-risk investments, handled a follow-up review of the project in September and kept its ‘delivery-confidence’ rating at amber – meaning successful delivery is feasible, but there are significant resolvable issues that require attention.

“The project will continue to be subject to risks which Antarctica NZ has limited or no ability to mitigate. Logistics … and weather (inability to complete a season) are the most dominant of these,” officials said.

The Antarctica NZ board had decided to delay the upgrade of its wind farm at Ross Island to “reduce emerging risks”, moving its launch date from February 2027 to December the same year.

“Additional testing should also be carried out on the Ross Island energy grid to de-risk the commissioning and integration of the new turbines and the new battery energy storage system into the wider grid,” officials said.

However, the completion of the main base would be brought forward from December 2030 to February 2030.

Detailed design work was due to be delivered by the end of February this year, with a revised business case set to go to Cabinet in June.

While the project work carries on, Antarctica NZ is also trying to find up to $50m in private sponsors for the Scott Base redevelopment at the request of Peters and the Government.

In a heavily redacted September 2025 memo to the foreign ministry, Antarctica NZ said it had presented “two parallel pathways” for external funding: the traditional pathway of partnering with philanthropic organisations, seeking private donors and exploring joint ventures, and a secret second pathway (the details were withheld from release on the grounds they could prejudice New Zealand’s international relations and hinder negotiations).

BusinessDesk has previously reported Antarctica NZ was considering whether to seek funds from the United Arab Emirates through its Emirates Polar Program.

In a written statement, Antarctica NZ chief executive Jordy Hendrikx says the decision to delay the launch date for the new wind farm is influenced by several factors, including the liquidation of turbine provider EWT and the fact that the existing wind farm “largely meets current power needs”.

“Consequently, the upgrade to the capacity of the wind farm, although important, has no time-critical date. Ensuring there is a high level of confidence with the interface between the new turbines and the new battery energy storage system has a greater importance.”

Hendrikx says the redevelopment project has a number of unique risks beyond the control of the project team, such as bad weather in Antarctica or flight and sea conditions disrupting logistics. A recent external review of the project had praised an improvement in risk management capability, which will continue to be a “fundamental focus”.

On the matter of private funding for the redevelopment, Antarctica NZ had started early discussions with “philanthropists with aligned interests in Antarctic science in parallel with the establishments of our charitable trust”.

“As these potential funding arrangements are still under discussion, we are unable to provide detailed commentary or funding levels at this stage,” Hendrikx says, adding that any approaches to would-be donors have to meet funding objectives and foreign policy requirements.