Auckland-headquartered solar farm developer Lodestone Energy has bought two of New Zealand’s large-scale solar sites, expanding the company’s multiple energy project portfolio across the north island.
Bought from renewables developer Kiwi Solar, the proposed Manawatu region solar farms, located 140 and 180 kilometres north of the capital Wellington, both projects come with pre-consenting works complete.
The 40 hectare, 26 MW Bunnythorpe and 45 hectare, 27 MW Kairanga solar farm also have land options signed and are well-progressed in the connection process with electricity distributor Powerco.
The two sites will be developed in conjunction with a third Lodestone Manawatu site that is already consented and in detailed planning. Construction on the first of these sites is due to start in mid-2025.
The new acquisitions will produce an additional 84 GWh of renewable electricity each year, capable of powering up to 11,700 homes.
Lodestone Energy Managing Director Gary Holden said there is consensus across the electricity market that solar has become the most cost-effective source of clean electricity generation.
“Lodestone’s strategy to develop a diverse spread of regional solar resources, to serve the needs of consumers across New Zealand, is enhanced with these two well-developed sites,” Holden said.
“We saw immediate synergy with our other site in this area and look forward to linking this trio of generators to customers seeking to take advantage of the long-term benefits of solar.”
Holden said consultation with the community is also underway and its support is vital to the success of the company’s farms.
“Our goal is to create solar farms that not only generate clean energy but also bring positive economic and environmental benefits to the regions,” Holden said.
Kiwi Solar founder Andrew Beckett said Lodestone was identified as a strong partner with a proven capability in developing and operating solar farms of this scale.
“Kiwi Solar is working on a further pipeline of 100 MW of utility-scale solar farms with a focus on 5 to 10 MW sizes that are developed and constructed in-house,” Beckett said.
Lodestone has two operational solar farms located near Kaitaia and 32 MW Edgecumbe in the Manawatu region with two more near Waiotahe and Whitianga under construction and a further ten solar projects in various stages of development across New Zealand, bringing 564 MW of new renewable energy to market.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.