Under the government’s new consenting regime for projects accepted under the Fast Track Approvals legislation, two solar farms are planned for the shores of Lake Benmore.
Lodestone Energy’s Haldon Station solar project, located 14km southeast of Twizel, next to Lake Benmore in the Mackenzie Basin, proposes a 370MW solar farm on a 320ha parcel of land within Haldon Station.
The exact dimensions and type of the solar modules to be installed onsite and the spacings between those modules will be determined at the detailed design stage.
However, fast-track application documents say it will connect and supply electricity to the national grid, providing a ‘‘nationally and regionally significant’’ power supply, enough to power 45,000 average homes.
Meanwhile, Far North Solar Farms has applied to build a 420MW solar farm also near Lake Benmore and about 8km east of Twizel.
That proposal covers 968ha, of which 670ha would contain 736,866 solar panels stationed on 28,341 tables.
The project expects to generate enough power for 100,000 homes.
Both projects are in the final stages of approval, following an assessment by an expert panel, which has asked both projects to account for each other’s effects on their own project.
‘‘Far North Solar Farm Ltd occupies nearby land and has also lodged a substantive application under the Fast-track Approvals Act 2024. The members of this panel, with the exception of one member, are considering that application as well as this application,’’ Haldon solar expert panel chairman Raynor Asher KC said.
‘‘The panel does not see the applicants as participating in a competition, and will not be assisted by critiques by one applicant of the application of the other. However, it does invite comment from Far North Solar Farm Ltd on the potential or cumulative effects of one or two of the applications being granted.
‘‘If there are cumulative effects, what are they and how should they be dealt with in the two separate applications?
‘‘It also invites comment on the relevance, if any, of the sequence and timing of the applications, and whether those factors give rise to any particular considerations.
‘‘We propose offering the applicant Lodestone Energy Ltd (Haldon Solar) the same opportunity in relation to the Far North Solar Farm Ltd application.’’
Given the landscape and ecological issues that may arise, the panel is also seeking comments from the Department of Conservation, the Environmental Defence Society, and the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society.
‘‘The panel is satisfied that those parties will have relevant expert evidence that could be of considerable assistance in making a timely, efficient and cost effective decision.’’
