Lodestone Energy is leading the development of New Zealand’s largest ever solar project.
This transformative project will see utility-solar farms constructed in five locations across Northland, the Coromandel and the Bay of Plenty. More than half a million solar panels will be placed over 500 hectares of land.
Combined, the farms will act as one giant power station, feeding electricity into local networks and complementing New Zealand’s hydro, geothermal and wind resources.
Each solar farm will incorporate world-leading bi-facial modules and single axis tracking technology. This will see the panels rotate and track the sun as it travels across the sky. Electricity will be produced from both sides of the panel, allowing the capture of energy from reflected sunlight from the ground.
The farms will deliver approximately 400 GWh of valuable daytime, renewable energy to the New Zealand market, enough to power 50,000 New Zealand homes – or a city the size of Hamilton.
In addition to producing electricity, the farms will continue to support agriculture and horticulture production. The panels will be high enough, and spaced sufficiently, to allow farming and cropping to continue underneath.
The first solar farm, Lodestone Two near Kaitaia, is expected to be operational in the summer of 2022, with the construction of the four other farms completed by the end of 2023.
