The project with new joint venture partner, Lodestone Energy, has been five years in the making with construction to begin this year.
Mr Humm joined Central Otago cherry grower and solar entrepreneur Mike Casey in calling on regulators to smooth the way for selling surplus power to other users and set a fair price for solar exported to the grid.
The National Party recently announced an election policy of making small- and medium-scale solar projects a permitted activity, bypassing the resource consenting system, to get more solar investment on farms.
Mr Humm said he would like other political parties to take the policy up to another level if they were serious about raising solar adoption.
‘‘Probably getting grid connection with Transpower was about the biggest bottleneck we had.’’
Increasing the buyback rates would be a much greater incentive for more small-scale to industrial-level solar systems, he said.
‘‘The government keep saying we are in an energy crisis so they should be doing everything they can to encourage people to get power into the grid and the network, so better buyback rates closer to wholesale rates would be fairer and more logical in my opinion.’’
Energy consumers buy retail power for 25c-30c per kilowatt hour, plus lines and other charges.
But the buyback rate for energy generated from solar going into the grid is about 17c per kilowatt hour.
‘‘If you were getting the wholesale rate that any of the other big generators get, that would just set fire to the uptake of more solar and more generation and solve this energy crisis we supposedly have,’’ Mr Humm said.
When completed, the utility-scale solar farm will provide 23MW at peak power and likely an average of 18MW-20MW.
A start date for the solar farm’s construction, on a 35ha block, is pencilled in for this year, with construction due to take six to eight months.
Mr Humm said the new income stream would help fund the family’s succession plans.
A deer herd of 250 hinds and about 100 stags is run on the 150ha leased by him and wife Lorna from a family trust, with another part of the farm leased out for dairy grazing.
Their solar farm will have some battery storage to smooth the delivery of power to the grid.
They moved from another partner in a leasing arrangement to Lodestone, a mainly New Zealand-owned solar provider, to develop a longer relationship.
Federated Farmers energy spokesman Mark Hooper said the consenting system was creating needless costs, delays and frustration.
‘‘Solar technology has come a long way, but the planning system simply hasn’t kept up.’’
On-farm solar had potential to improve the profitability of farms, reduce electricity costs, improve energy security during outages and reduce emissions, he said.
The economics of solar now stacked up for many farming businesses.
