Nova Energy and Meridian Energy have marked the installation of the first modules at the 400MW Te Rahui Solar Farm in Rangitāiki, near Taupō, in New Zealand.
The two companies took to LinkedIn to state that the project’s engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor, Beon Energy Solutions, has delivered the first five rows.
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The installation represents the first visible construction progress at what will become New Zealand’s largest solar PV power plant when complete.
Te Rahui will include 900,000 solar PV modules spread across a 1,022-hectare site that was previously used as a dairy farm. The JV plans to incorporate sheep grazing under solar modules into the project design in a practice known as agrivoltaics.
Nova Energy CEO Rob Foster described the moment as “shared progress” and “turning investment into real infrastructure on the ground,” while Meridian Energy emphasised the collaborative nature of the project involving iwi, industry, communities and councils.
The 400MW project being developerd as part of a joint venture between state-owned Meridian Energy and Nova Energy, a Wellington-headquartered subsidiary of conglomerate Todd Corporation, is being developed in two phases.
The first 200MW phase received NZ$300 million (US$176.6 million) in investment and is slated to begin commercial operations in mid-2026, reaching full capacity by mid-2027.
A final investment decision on the 200MW second stage is pending, though both parties have indicated plans to advance it quickly.
Nova Energy secured resource consent for Te Rahui in April 2024. Meridian Energy signed a power purchase agreement to acquire 100% of the electricity generated at the project and secured a Contract for Difference with Nova for half of this output.
When the project was announced, it ranked among New Zealand’s largest solar developments, though it was still smaller than the proposed 1GW Helios Energy NZ Solar PV Park.
Meridian CEO Mike Roan previously described the joint venture as a “real win-win,” stating that “Te Rahui is a big undertaking and sharing the investment and offtake makes strong commercial sense for both parties, while the project will also benefit home and business customers by further strengthening security of supply.”
The Te Rahui development forms part of Meridian’s broader renewables expansion.
The Wellington-headquartered company plans to build seven large-scale renewable energy projects by 2030 and has committed NZ$2 billion in investment over the next three years to add over 1,000MW of new capacity to New Zealand’s electricity system.
Meridian secured final planning consent from the Environment Court in October 2025 for its 120MW Ruakaka solar plant in Tai Tokerau, Northland, which will use 250,000 modules to generate 150-250GWh of electricity annually. Construction on that project started in mid-2025 and is expected to finish in early 2027.
