Kiwi solar developer lines up 220MW project in hot South Island location

New Zealand solar developer Lodestone Energy says will build its next project in the southern high country, as the country pushes more deeply into photovoltaics to support hydro power. 

The 220 megawatt (MW) project will be on Haldon Station in the Mackenzie district in the central South Island, and will be Lodestone Energy’s largest project to date by a significant margin.

The other South Island project currently underway and the second largest in Lodestone’s portfolio is the 97 MW Canterbury farms solar. Construction on that project is expected to start in early 2025.

The family which owns the station, the Klissers, decided to switch to solar because they’ve struggled with wind erosion and pests on the particular patch of land they’re leasing to Lodestone. 

“We believe from research, and observation on other well-planned developments on the property, that the partial shade and shelter from the panels, will result in a beneficial effect on the lands below and will result in revegetation of the original native fauna and flora,” says Station manager Paddy Boyd. 

“The Station is planning for the area to be ring fenced with rabbit netting and totally destocked to allow for full regeneration of the natural grasses.”

Lodestone will start building the solar farm in mid-2025. The farm is expected to produce 340 GWh annually and be able to power nearly 50,000 homes.

The Mackenzie District is a popular choice for solar developers in New Zealand, because of high levels of solar irradiance. 

However, the form of renewables is also contentious, with an 88 MW project on Balmoral Station near Lake Tekapo, rejected on the grounds that it threatened native plants because of shading from panels, and because sheep grazing on the same land could encourage more exotic grasses. 

Yet around the same time developer Far North Solar Farm put in an application nearby for a 420 MW project, closer to Lake Benmore which is also where the Haldon solar project is proposed for. 

Far North Solar Farm director John Telfer told Stuff.co.nz that the same ecological concerns would not prevail at his site because “farming activities have already destroyed any ecological value; there’s nothing left to protect.”

10-project portfolio

Haldon Station is the fourth solar farm in Lodestone’s Phase 2 program, after the company confirmed it will build solar farms in Clandeboye, Mount Somers, and Dunsandel in January. 

These solar farms will be built using funds from a capital raise the company launched at the start of June. 

The company operates two generating solar farms in the North Island: the 33 MW Kohirā in the far north which is New Zealand’s first utility solar farm, and 32 MW Rangitaiki in Edgecombe in the Bay of Plenty. The 42 MW Te Herenga o Te Rā solar farm also in the Bay of Plenty is set to start generating later this year.

Lodestone has two more projects set to start generating in mid-2025, a 32 MW solar farm in Whitianga and another 52 MW in Dargaville, both in Northland.