Reefton Solar Farm, a 13.5MW project on the outskirts of Reefton, is expected to bring more energy resilience to the region.
The power scheme by Lightyears Solar Ltd is being installed on 20ha of land owned by farmers Kate and Danny King.
Lightyears Solar Ltd says it will eventually feature 20,000 panels that track the movement of the sun across the day.
The panels are designed to absorb, not reflect light; remaining glare will be mitigated by bunds and plantings.
Lightyears co-founder and managing director Matt Shanks said the site establishment work had started, with the first few piles in the ground.
‘‘We’re pretty excited about this project — it’s the first solar farm project on the West Coast.
‘‘We’ve just wrapped up two smaller farms in North Canterbury.
‘‘We’ve had really good reception from the community, the council and Westpower.
‘‘We’re now looking at two different sites on the West Coast, [though] they wouldn’t be as big as Reefton’s.’’
The Reefton solar farm would plug into the Westpower network, so most of the electricity would be used by the community, producing enough energy to power 3000 homes, he said.
The 20ha solar farm only took up a portion of the King’s 73ha farm and would allow for stock to graze underneath the panels.
Mr Shanks called the dual use of land for agriculture and solar photovoltaic energy generation ‘‘agri-voltaics’’.
The Reefton farm would produce a significant portion of energy used in the region, greatly adding to energy resilience on the Coast, particularly with some of the hydro projects already in the consenting process, he said.
‘‘Another two [solar] projects and the Coast could probably produce its own power and even one day be an exporter of energy.’’
- Arianna Stewart
