Far North Solar Farm (FNSF) says it will be a pioneering example of modern, sustainable, land use in the age of renewable energy generation.
It says the proposed 200ha solar farm will generate enough electricity to power around 28,000 average kiwi homes.
But FNSF’s plan is not being received well by many of the Waipara district locals.
They say the proposal will be a blot on the landscape due to the sheer scale of the project, will devalue their properties, and destroy the dreams of some property owners, along with the character of the valley and its vineyards Far North Solar Farm chief executive John Telfer says the design would allow for the continuation of sheep farming as well as potentially developing a portion of the site in grapevines, in keeping with other horticulture in the area.
“Agrivoltaics is common overseas and is a great way to provide sustainable dual land use development in agricultural areas, especially those prone to drought as North Canterbury can be,” he says.
Stakeholder and community consultation is under way, and technical studies to assess the viability of the agrivoltaic solar farm model would also be completed, Mr Telfer says. Landowner Tom Kidner sees the venture as an opportunity to diversify his farm income.
‘‘With high interest rates and slumping commodity prices, farmers are having to think innovatively and diversify to stay profitable and sustainable, so the prospect of developing a new cash crop here, through energy production, would be a real boost,” Mr Kidner says.
The key motivation in developing the site as a solar farm was to make a positive contribution to helping the country reach its emissions reductions targets by facilitating the growth of renewable energy, he says.
Agrivoltaics works by growing crops or grass between the rows of solar panels, allowing for dual use of the available land. The panels provide periods of shade throughout the day for plants and animals reducing ground temperatures and moisture loss within the soil.
A recent Massey University study found the areas between the rows of solar panels produced nearly 40% more grass than areas that received no periodic shading at all, Mr Kidner says.
‘‘With climate change predicted to make droughts more frequent and intense, having the benefits of shading from the panels could make a really positive difference to the productivity of the whole site,’’ he says.
The Waipara site was specifically chosen because it is flat and close to the Waipara substation.
FNSF says this is crucial because solar farms need to be able to connect to existing electricity infrastructure to input their power – like an extension cord plugging into a wall socket.
The shorter the extension cord, the more cost effective the connection.
Mr Telfer says careful design planning and tree planting would be used to screen the solar farm from most public viewpoints.
One Waipara resident says after a visit from Far North Solar, they feel as though their legitimate concerns are being dismissed as ‘‘disinformation’’.
‘‘People are genuinely worried about how it will affect their lives and to say that’s all disinformation is just callous,’’ they say.
‘‘The proposal has left us very distressed, and it’s hard to convey just how significant it is to us.’’
They say FNSF is verging on spreading false information themselves, and admitted during a visit parts of a leaflet they handed out were wrong.
‘‘In particular the leaflet said that the plant would be quiet as it would contain no moving parts.
‘‘But when we asked he confirmed it would have moving parts as the panels would be on a moving tracking system.
‘‘So the statement about noise was just wrong.’’ Mr Telfer says New Zealand still burns fossil fuels to supply almost 20% of the country’s electricity needs.
He says the renewable energy output from the Waipara solar farm would effectively provide emission offsets equivalent to removing 13,644 cars from the national fleet.
- The proposed Waipara solar farm is a joint development between Far North Solar Farm, a solar energy asset developer based in Auckland, and Aquila Clean Energy Asia Pacific, a clean energy platform headquartered in Singapore. Aquila Clean Energy is part of Aquila Group, a global sustainable investment management and asset development company, based in Hamburg, Germany. The partnership is investing in a portfolio of utilityscale solar projects across New Zealand with a total 1.4GW pipeline of projects under development. This would represent almost 15% of the country’s current total operational electricity production capacity which was 9.79GW in 2022 (MBIE).
