Genesis Energy gives green light for $70m solar power plant in Canterbury

Tuesday, 7 February 2023

Genesis' promotional video for its Lauriston solar farm.

Genesis Energy has given the go-ahead for a large solar farm near Lauriston on the Canterbury Plains, an hour’s drive south of Christchurch.

The state-owned power company, whose assets include the coal and gas power plant at Huntly, said the solar power plant would generate 80 gigawatt-hours of power a year, or enough to power nearly 10,000 homes, once it was completed next year.

For comparison, the country’s total power demand sits at about 40,000GWh.

The solar farm will be built on a site bought from British-based solar specialist Hive Energy. Australian firm FRV Australia will pay for 40% of the development costs and will own 40% of the farm as Genesis’ joint venture partner in the investment.

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Genesis says few of the planned solar developments in NZ have resource consent and a grid connection in place.

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Genesis said in a statement that the solar farm would comprise 80,000 solar panels on a 90-hectare site and already had resource consent.

The site is currently farmland and Genesis commercial development manager Craig Brown said sheep would be able to graze under the solar panels after they were erected.

About 50 jobs would be created building the plant and work on would start this year, but it would only require three full-time staff once operational, the company said.

Genesis chief executive Tracey Hickman said the project was a step on the road to fulfilling its strategy of developing 2650 GWh of new renewable generation by 2030.

The power generated by the solar farm will be fed into the national grid.

“Solar is a good addition to New Zealand’s generation mix and when it reaches scale it will play an important role in helping manage dry year risk when hydro levels are low and the wind doesn’t blow,” Hickman said.

“There have been lots of solar announcements but not many have the land, consents and grid connections in place. We’re looking forward to making more announcements on solar through the year,” she added.

Analysts at Forsyth Barr calculated in April last year that 12 different businesses were planning to develop 2500GWh of solar power around the country and that another 2000GWh was being more loosely discussed, but said it didn’t expect all of those projects to follow through to completion.