First sod turned at solar farm
CONSTRUCTION has begun on a $104 million solar farm on the Canterbury Plains and power is set to start flowing by the end of this year.
Genesis Energy and joint venture partner FRV Australia are building on a 93ha site at Lauriston, about an hour south of Christchurch.
The solar farm will hold about 90,000 solar panels, and is expected to generate enough renewable energy to power close to 13,000 homes.
Once completed, the 63 megawatt ( MW) farm would be the largest in the country, Genesis said.
The joint venture also signed a 10year power purchase agreement with Genesis Energy, which will take all the renewable energy from the site. Officials marked the construction milestone with a sodturning ceremony on Tuesday afternoon.
Genesis chief executive Malcolm Johns said this was the first 63MW of the 500MW of solar power the company planned to build across New Zealand over the next five years.
‘‘It’s great to be building it here in Mid Canterbury. Can
terbury is naturally endowed with sunshine, the mountains keep the weather on the western side and the sun on the eastern side, so it’s what we
hope will be the first of a number of developments in this area,’’ he said.
‘‘By 2050 New Zealand has to have 60% of all of its energy coming from electricity, 95% of that needs to be renewable, and it needs to be available 100% of the time, so solar is going to play a critical role.’’
Genesis said the solar farm was expected to create more than 50 jobs during construction, and employ up to three fulltime staff when operational.
Mr Johns said sheep farming would still be able to continue at the solar farm site.
‘‘We lease the land to put the solar panels on and the farmer is still free to continue to basically graze sheep among the solar panels. You can still fence paddocks and you can still put sheep in among them,’’ he said. ‘‘It improves the productivity for the landowner. You have dual income streams coming off it. You’ve got your traditional agricultural income stream and now you have a renewable energy income stream on top of it.’’
Ashburton District Mayor Neil Brown said it was a big day for Ashburton.
‘‘Turning the first sod here today, it has been a long time waiting for this to happen. To get renewable energy from solar in Ashburton is really exciting for us, and the farm owner here,’’ he said.
‘‘We have a good network to deliver the power to the substations and then deliver to the houses, so it’s the perfect spot for it.’’ — RNZ