Asti Wallace: Finance Internship

After completing my third year at Otago University, where I’m studying Finance and Accounting as part of my Bachelor of Commerce, I was fortunate enough to join the team at Lodestone as a finance intern over the summer. The opportunity to work with Lodestone was particularly appealing because of the company’s impressive growth and its dynamic, fast-paced environment. My interest in the sustainable energy sector and Lodestone’s expertise reinforced my decision to pursue the internship.

A key highlight was monitoring wholesale electricity spot prices and ASX futures, analysing market trends, and understanding how factors like weather, demand, and hydro storage impact prices. I also participated in commercial strategy meetings, gaining exposure to high-level decision-making on risk management and revenue optimisation. Working with asset management tools and forecasting models reinforced the importance of data-driven decision-making. The balance between technical and financial considerations was invaluable, and thinking about long-term improvements in a dynamic industry was particularly engaging.

I attribute much of my growth over the summer to the valuable learning opportunities and the ongoing support I received throughout the internship. The patience of those around me no matter how many questions I asked, was a huge part of the experience. The constant opportunities to learn and refine my skills strengthened my ability to analyse data and think more strategically. A huge thank you to Justin, Sarah, and the team.

I’d highly recommend this internship to anyone. It provides a unique opportunity to develop skills and gain industry insight. I look forward watching Lodestone’s continued growth.

Emily Rampton: Engineering Internship

Kia Ora, my name is Emily Rampton. I’m entering my last year of Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Canterbury. I’ve spent 9 weeks interning at Lodestone Energy. I wanted to work with Lodestone because of my strong interest in sustainable energy.

A highlight of the internship was visiting the Waiotahe-based solar farm, Te Herenga o Te Rā, while under construction. After reviewing all the assets and technical drawings in the office, it was super rewarding to visit the site and observe how each component served a specific function. We also had the opportunity to test the communications system at the solar farm, which was exciting as it gave us gain hands-on experience in a real-world setting.

During our internship, we also explored the possibility of building a battery solution at a solar farm. As a part of the exercise, we modelled both energy generation and storage, and also analysed wind data. This was an interesting project that improved my skills in Excel and my knowledge of data analysis. The largest task we worked on was organizing the assets for the Waiotahe solar farm to be uploaded to IBM Maximo (an asset management software platform). This was a key learning experience for me, as, coming from a non-electrical engineering background, I learnt expanded my knowledge on components such as inverters and transformers.

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience at Lodestone. I have gained so much knowledge and many skills that I will be able to apply later in my career.

Jeremy Muldoon: Engineering Internship

I joined Lodestone’s internship at the end of my second year of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the University of Auckland.

I am passionate about sustainability and renewable energy which are areas I hope to work in as part of my career.  Lodestone’s deep roots in this space made this internship the perfect opportunity for me.

During my time at Lodestone I learnt so much about solar farms and the intricacies of their systems. I learnt alot about managing a solar farm after construction and the work it takes to keep one running smoothly. In addition to this, I gained insights into the inner workings of a business and how decisions are made with such meticulous precision.

My favourite part of the experience was a site visit to Te Herenga o Te Rā solar farm with Emily in mid-November. We got the opportunity to see the inner workings of the Waiotahe-based farm and conduct some tests on the equipment. It was incredibly cool to make the connections between our office work and the actual plant as well as learning more about the systems in practicality.

Overall, I loved working with Lodestone, and I wanted to thank the entire engineering team for being so supportive and available for us over the duration of our internship.