When complete, this will represent 15% of the current peak daytime electricity demand in New Zealand (NZ).
The largest asset in the portfolio is The Point, a 450 MW solar farm in the Mackenzie region. It is currently the country’s largest solar farm under development. In 2024, The Point was officially embedded into NZ’s fast track legislation, when it was selected by the NZ government as a project of national significance.
The Far North Solar Farm (FNSF) team boasts deep expertise in energy retail, construction, and electricity market compliance and operations. The developers, John Telfer and Richard Homewood, have been in the renewable energy markets of Australia and New Zealand for 20 years.
“The growth of solar in NZ is only a few years old, and the reality is that NZ needs more generation and transmission,” said FNSF director Richard Homewood.
“We were pioneers in NZ’s virgin solar market, which gave us a number of first mover advantages that are now on their way to being realised. These include securing project sites in regions with the country’s highest solar irradiance, and securing first-in-queue priority position for grid connection for all eleven solar farms,” Homewood said.
With a pipeline of projects in various stages of development, FNSF is poised for significant expansion.
The company was also the first in New Zealand to achieve Overseas Investment Office approval.
Homewood says that New Zealand is a stable democracy, and the government’s stated domestic priorities and policy positions lend themselves to an enabling environment for investors in our business.
“The New Zealand government has recently embarked on a robust programme of overseas investor attraction. The incoming changes include simplifying regulation, changes to the Overseas Investment regime, and investor visa requirements.”
The pair are also the developers of Taslink, 2-3 GW HVDC submarine cable extending 2,600 km across the Tasman Sea to facilitate the trade of electricity between New Zealand and Australia. The $12 billion asset which is currently open for second round investment and when built will be the deepest submarine HVDC cable in the world.
“John and I have always applied a philosophy of being ahead of the curve and moving fast – this is a philosophy we applied early on in rooftop solar, utility generation, and more recently, transmission,” Homewood said.
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