New Zealand renewables developer Lodestone Energy has started constructing its first solar PV project on the country’s South Island, with a total generation capacity of 27.7MW.
Located in South Canterbury, the Clandeboye solar PV power plant will supply clean energy to the milk processing and irrigation industries in the area.
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The project will become Lodestone Energy’s fifth-generation power plant, which it has developed across New Zealand. The company said it will scale similarly to its existing Kaitaia (33MW), Edgcumbe (32MW), and Whitianga (32MW) solar PV plants.
Clandeboye will sit on a 42-hectare flat site, previously used for dairy farming, and will feature approximately 45,000 single portrait bifacial solar PV modules and six inverters.
Managing director of Lodestone Energy, Gary Holden, said the site will help the company serve its growing customer base on New Zealand’s South Island with 43GWh of renewable energy generation capacity each year.
“Adding new generation at this pace is a crucial part of our vision to ensure New Zealand has a ‘solar PV plant in every community’,” Holden said.
“We are committed to ensuring customers in all regions will have access to low-cost, renewable energy, and solar energy, which is the perfect way to complement the existing South Island hydro resources. Canterbury is the ideal location for solar: there is plenty of sunshine, which fits well with the electricity demand for irrigation and milk production.”
Although Clandeboye is the first power plant Lodestone has started construction on the South Island, the developer has proposed a 220MW agrivoltaics plant. The project will cover 340 hectares, around 1.5% of the total Haldon Station farmland, and Lodestone plans to begin construction sometime this year.
For the Clandeboye project, Lodestone has partnered with Ethical Power, a proven renewable energy engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) service provider, with established operations in New Zealand.
Opportunities for solar PV and energy storage in New Zealand
Due to New Zealand’s reliance on hydroelectric power plants, most of which are situated on the country’s southern island, dry years can lead to fluctuations in energy supply. Last year, this caused an energy crisis, with wholesale electricity prices spiking as the country became more reliant on oil and gas.
The turbulence last year now presents an opportunity for solar PV, wind and energy storage to secure a more prominent role in the island nation’s electricity mix, something Sarah Gillies, chief executive of the Electricity Authority, spoke with PV Tech Premium about last year.
Gillies told PV Tech Premium that more investment is needed to support and stabilise New Zealand’s electricity system, and the next 12-24 months will “continue to be challenging.”
“We need more investment in generation and to harness opportunities from new technologies and demand response to keep the lights on at an affordable price. Looking ahead, we continue to need a combination of fuels and the supply,” Gillies said.
