Auckland-headquartered Helios Energy said Ruapehu District Council has granted resource consent for the 110 MW Karioi Solar Farm being developed near Tangiwai in New Zealand’s central North Island.
Helios founder and Managing Director Jeff Schlichting said the consent is a significant milestone for the project and the company has already launched preparatory geotechnical work on site with construction of the project proper expected to commence in 2026 with the build phase to take about 12 months.
Once complete, the Karioi Solar Farm is expected to generate enough renewable energy to power the equivalent of about 25,000 homes.
Schlichting said the project site was well suited for a large-scale solar project with the region identified early on by Helios.
“Good solar resource combined with cooler ambient air temperatures near an existing transmission network connection point at Transpower’s Tangiwai substation make this an ideal location,” he said.
“The Karioi project represents one of the priority solar farm developments in Helios’ portfolio.”
In addition to boosting the amount of renewables in New Zealand’s wholesale electricity market, Helios said the design of the Karioi Solar Farm also allows for the grazing of sheep and wider farm operations to continue on site.
“The site will be leased from a local multi-generational farming family and will remain in agricultural production via ongoing sheep grazing, as well as maintaining deer grazing on surrounding paddocks,” it said.
The resource consent for the Karioi Solar Farm comes just weeks after Helios’ put a hold on its resource consent application for a 300 MW solar project on New Zealand’s South Island.
Helios has paused its application for the proposed 300 MW Maniatoto Plain Solar Farm after a public submission process attracted more than 180 responses, with about 75 against the project.
Helios has since requested its application be put on hold to allow it more time to consider and respond to the range of feedback on the submissions.
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