Huge new solar farms could have 'potentially catastrophic' impact on world's rarest wading bird

Saturday, 3 August 2024

One of New Zealand’s rarest birds faces “potentially catastrophic” consequences if the country’s largest solar farm goes ahead, an internal Department of Conservation (DOC) report says.

It is one concern swirling around a rush of solar farm developments in Te Manahuna/Mackenzie Basin in South Canterbury. An investigation by The Press has found at least eight have been proposed, which combined would blanket a sensitive landscape with millions of solar panels.

The largest publicly announced farm — The Point — would comprise around 740,000 solar panels and span an area slightly smaller than Twizel.

Supporters say solar farms are crucial for decarbonising the electricity system and meeting climate change targets. Without large, wide-scale solar power, the country would have to burn fossil fuels to meet increasing electricity demand.

Environmentalists and mana whenua are among those who see solar farming as a threat to the sensitive ecology of Te Manahuna/Mackenzie Basin, which hydro-schemes and irrigated farming have heavily impacted.

“It’s death by 1000 cuts,” said Nicky Snoyink, regional conservation manager for Forest & Bird.

“[The Mackenzie Basin] has already been subjected to a lot of development, so what's left is become even more important from a habitat and species perspective.”

The Point is backed by Far North Solar Farm (FNSF), an Australian-owned company based in Auckland.

The Press found that its directors have a fraught business history in New Zealand, including numerous complaints about a previous rooftop solar company that resulted in a formal warning from the Commerce Commission.

The solar farm, estimated to cost around $600 million, has been submitted for consideration under the forthcoming fast-track consenting law. It would be built on depleted farmland currently used to winter cows on the edge of Lake Benmore.

A separate solar farm, proposed by Lodestone Energy, would be nearly adjacent to The Point. It is understood Todd Energy has also leased nearby land for a solar farm.

The Mackenzie Basin is sunny and flat and already contains transmission infrastructure connecting to the national grid. However, it is also legally considered an outstanding natural landscape and is a stronghold for some endangered species.

A specific concern is the potential impact on rare birds. The area is habitat for 34 native bird species, 18 of which are at-risk or threatened. Three of those are critically endangered, including the kakī, one of the world’s rarest birds with an estimated 169 adults in the wild.

After The Point was proposed, principal scientist at the Department of Conservation (DOC), Dr Colin O’Donnell, wrote a 13-page report outlining its potential threat to kakī and other rare birds.

“Given the complete uncertainty about the magnitude of effects, especially on nationally critical threatened species, allowing a solar farm like this to go ahead would be potentially catastrophic to the long-term viability of these species, even if small numbers are killed regularly,” he wrote.

If there were catastrophic effects, it is unlikely anything could be done other than “decommissioning the farm and entering an expensive recovery phase for the species in question”.

His main concern was the so-called “lake effect,” a theory that flying birds cannot distinguish solar farms from water and thus crash into them. This theory is one explanation for high bird mortality around solar farms, but it has been contested.

FNSF commissioned a peer review of O’Donnell’s report, which said his concerns were “overstated” and used overseas data that did not necessarily apply in a New Zealand context. The review acknowledged The Point posed a risk to rare birds, but it was likely minor.

The company said there was no conclusive evidence that solar farms pose a more serious risk to birds than existing man-made structures.

It would take numerous actions to reduce any potential risks to birds, including spacing rows of panels so they don’t appear as a single mass from above. It was also investigating methods to reduce the panels' reflectiveness and would have a stringent monitoring programme.

The project would include an 89-hectare ecological restoration, including predator control in the surrounding area and an invertebrate sanctuary inside the solar farm.

It was being developed with help from DOC and an environmental consultancy, and would be a “significant net gain for ecology in the area,” a FNSF spokesman said.

The company would also work with DOC to construct an extra kakī aviary at the nearby captive programme.

Solar farms and the bird factory - read the full investigation here.