Real Dog Equipment Company owner Rose Voice, neighbour of the property where the solar farm will be established, said after much deliberation and consultation she would not be lodging an appeal.
"We talked to [a lawyer] who had done lots of these, talked to a lot of people, and his advice was we’d just be throwing good money after bad, that this decision was not going to be overturned."
She was advised similar appeals in the past had cost upwards of $400,000, money she did not have to spend when the outcome was unknown, Mrs Voice said.
Part of her business was boarding dogs in kennels and that part of the business would have to be closed.
People booked with them up to a year ahead and, with solar farm owners Helios required to give two weeks notice of work, it was not possible to let dog owners down at short notice, she said.
Aside from the noise from the solar panel piles being driven in, there was a concern about the batteries planned for the site.
"If there’s a fire you have to shelter in place. How can you do that with 20 dogs?’
"It’s just so disappointing that the whole community ... has not been listened to."
Power generated would be sufficient for about 70,000 homes, the company said.
Mrs Voice said she believed the neighbouring solar farm would negatively affect the value of her property.
"Anyone else looking at this property is going to see exactly what we see. And it’s just pretty devastating. I mean, we’ve got everything we need here.
"We love it here. but we can’t actually see ourselves living here, especially during construction, but we haven’t got a choice.
"We haven’t got enough money to walk away from the property or sell it for half of what it’s worth. This is all we’ve got."
Commissioners Louise Taylor (chairwoman), Gary Rae and Ros Day-Cleavin said in their decision they granted consent because potential adverse effects of the proposal were either no more than minor, minimised to the extent practicable or were otherwise suitably avoided, remedied or mitigated by appropriate conditions of consent.
They also said the provision of large-scale renewable energy generation provided significant positive effects at a regional and national level, supporting New Zealand’s phasing out of fossil fuel generation as well as providing needed new electricity generation capacity.
While acknowledging the lived experience of several submitters, who raised concerns about the impact the solar farm could have on the site and the Maniototo Plains more generally, was useful and carefully considered, the expert evidence was consistent that effects could be suitably mitigated, the commissioners said.
