The prospect of a solar farm being established in North Canterbury has left local residents up in arms.
Local Democracy Reporting understands an Australian company, Energy Bay Ltd, plans to build a solar farm on an 80ha site on the corner of Beatties and Upper Sefton Roads at Ashley, north of Rangiora.
About 40 residents met with Waimakariri Mayor Dan Gordon and Waimakariri District Council planning manager Wendy Harris on Thursday night to vent their concerns.
Ms Harris emphasised there was no active consent application, but a resource consent was required for a solar farm and none had been granted.
She said any application would need to be lodged with the council and consider if it needed to be a notified resource consent application.
Ashley resident David Fordyce said neighbours of the proposed site had been approached and asked to sign a document in support of the proposal.
‘‘There seems to have been a bit of skulduggery from Energy Bay in getting people to sign a document on the understanding a consent had already been granted.’’
He understood no one had signed the document.
Residents were not opposed to solar power, he said.
But they were concerned at the lack of available information, with some taking to the internet to do their own research.
‘‘There is some genuine concern. We are not experts and I have asked people to go away and do some research, which is peer reviewed,’’ Mr Fordyce said.
Concerns included solar arrays (solar panels grouped together) creating ‘‘heat islands’’ with so much heat it would burn anything within a 40-metre radius.
Meeting organiser Merv O’Brien, a neighbour of the proposed site, said he was concerned the solar panels would be damaged in a hail storm, exposing heavy metals which could leach into groundwater.
Overseas recommendations also advised not to live within 2.2km of a solar farm, Mr O’Brien said.
Ms Harris said any decision on whether an application is publicly notified, limited notified or non-notified was subject to criteria set out in the Resource Management Act.
Any resource consent application would need to include an assessment of the activity’s effects on the environment, including proposed mitigation measures, she said.
Energy Bay Ltd is understood to be a subsidiary of Australian company Solar Bay Ltd, which is building a large solar farm at Massey University.
The arrangement will see Solar Bay Ltd own and operate the solar arrays for the next 25 years.
The university will purchase all of the electricity generated, before taking over the ownership of the solar arrays after 25 years.
It will comprise two solar systems, including a six megawatt peak (MWp) array on the equestrian grazing area and a 1.87 MWp array over a car park.
Solar farms have been proposed in other parts of Canterbury by other companies.
The Ashburton District Council consented a solar farm at Lauriston, near Methven, last year, which is expected to produce 50 megawatts of power into the local electricity grid.
A resource consent application to the Selwyn District Council for a 258ha solar farm at Brookside, near Leeston, was declined by a commissioner in March due to the consent only being given a limited notification.
In his decision, Commissioner Tony Hughes-Johnson said he had considered the environmental effects raised by submitters and found them ‘‘acceptable and will be accommodated by the revised proposed conditions of the consent’’.
Solar Bay Ltd has been contacted for comment.
- By David Hill
Local Democracy Reporter
Public interest journalism funded through New Zealand on Air.
