We are hugely proud to have been awarded the coveted 2024 ‘Infrastructure Decarbonisation Award’ at the recent Building Nations Impact Awards hosted in Auckland.

This award recognises projects which focus on a ‘whole of life’ approach to embedding carbon reduction into decision making, planning, design, delivery, and operation.

Lodestone Solar Farms Phase 1: Kohirā and Rangitaki

In the five short years Lodestone has been operating, it has achieved many New Zealand firsts. Our ambitious plan to build large-scale solar projects across regional New Zealand is delivering clean, renewable energy to the market, accelerating Aotearoa’s zero-carbon goals.

• In 2024, Lodestone commissioned New Zealand’s first two utility-scale solar farms, Kohirā and Rangitaiki, with a combined capacity of 65.6 MWp
• It was the first to adopt an agrivoltaic solar design, enabling solar generation to coexist with traditional agricultural activities, preserving productive farmland.
• The first to navigate the complexities and challenges of integrating a utility-scale solar farm into the local network
• The first solar generation to bid into the electricity market

Lodestone set out to develop a model independent of current electricity generators. By adopting the best available technology and building farms in New Zealand’s highest solar resource area, we are creating an alternative power supply that is delivering economic and environmental value while improving New Zealand’s energy resilience.

As part of a Phase 1 project plan, Lodestone is building five solar farms across the North Island, capable of powering 50,000 homes in Aotearoa, New Zealand – or a city the size of Hamilton.

In early 2024, our first two farms, Kohirā and Rangitaiki were commissioned. Built during the post-COVID era and unprecedented weather events, the team overcame numerous design and logistic challenges to deliver these projects on time, within normal capital contingencies and consented without objection.

Designed to maximise electricity generation, the 2P bi-facial modules, which track east-to-west, make Lodestone’s solar farms 30-40% more productive than traditional rooftop solar. By adopting an agrivoltaic design which sets the modules 2m above the ground in 11m wide rows, electricity generation can coexist alongside traditional agricultural activities, preserving land productivity.  Currently, Kohirā Solar Farm is grazing sheep with plans to investigate other horticulture opportunities in the future.

Lodestone is already attracting a pipeline of commercial customers to its ‘Virtual Rooftop Solution’, which offers the dual advantages of improved financial and environmental sustainability. Customers avoid the significant capital outlay of building and maintaining their own infrastructure, while gaining the sustainability credentials of being powered on 100% certified renewable energy along with competitive pricing and long-term certainty.  

Lodestone imagines a solar farm in every region, increasing the supply of low-cost renewable energy and accelerating New Zealands transition to electrification.

Winning the Building Nations ‘Infrastructure Decarbonisation Award’ is a wonderful acknowledgement of what Lodestone and its team have achieved to date. Through diligent planning, hard graft and courage, the team at Lodestone are pioneering a new path in New Zealand’s renewable energy future. 

This accomplishment would not be possible without the ongoing support of our investors, partners and communities, who are enabling us to pursue our vision for solar generation in New Zealand.