The five solar farms across the upper North Island would generate approximately 400 Gigawatt hours (GWh), with more than 500,000 solar panels over 500ha of land.
Lodestone Energy managing director Gary Holden says the development is the most ambitious solar venture in NZ to date, and will provide solar energy to Dargaville, Kaitaia, Whakatāne, Edgecumbe and Whitianga.
The first site planned for development is a 62 GWh solar plant in Kaitaia, it will have up to 80,000 panels and will supply electricity directly to a Top Energy substation.
Holden says the plans had received strong support from tangata whenua, landowners and other local stakeholders. Construction is scheduled to start by late 2021.
This will be an ambitious timeline as no one has ever sought resource management consent to build a solar farm on this scale in NZ.
“We expect the Kaitaia farm will be producing electricity in summer 2022, with the construction of the four other farms following soon after. All farms are expected to be operational by the summer of 2023-24,” Holden said.
“Solar plants can be constructed very quickly and at a lower cost, compared to wind and geothermal generation plants.”
Lodestone’s largest shareholder at 46% is Magnetite Energy Investments.
Holden is the 100% owner of Magnetite and the former head of Pulse Energy, and a long-time enthusiast for solar power.
Other major shareholders include Guy, a rich-lister with a long history of investments in start-ups, and Susan Haddleton with 29.4%; a Gareth Morgan investment vehicle; JIT Hillend Investment with 8%; and a Stephen Tindall investment vehicle K One W One (No 5) with 5%.
Holden says the company is privately funded and “has attracted the financial backing from some of NZ’s most well-known investors and entrepreneurs”.
Solar has not been attempted on a large scale in NZ, despite construction costs rapidly coming down in price in recent years.
Holden says each of the solar farms will contain between 70,000 and 170,000 solar panels and will make use of world-leading technology to maximise generation.
“While the farms are designed to meet morning and late afternoon peaks in electricity demand, rapid developments in battery technology mean that in the near future the farms should be able to store electricity generated during the day for distribution in the evening peak,” he said.
The panels would be placed high enough, and spaced sufficiently, to allow farming to continue underneath. This arrangement will mean about 85% of agricultural production can continue after the panels are installed.
The other solar farms flagged in the plans are:
A 120 GWh solar farm located near Dargaville. It will contain 125,000 panels and include 170ha of farming operations;
A 85 GWh solar farm in the Waiotahe Valley, east of Whakatāne containing up to 115,000 solar panels;
A 52 GWh solar plant near Edgecumbe including up to 70,000 panels;
A 54 GWh farm near Whitianga with up to 80,000 solar panels, with plans to be the first of the farms to use battery storage.
Lodestone says it had an expert team with a long history in the electricity market, including developing generation projects in NZ, Canada, the United States and Australia, as well as managing integrated generation, transmission, distribution and retail operations.
BusinessDesk
