Lodestone Energy officially opens North Island solar farm

Lodestone Energy held an official opening ceremony on February 29 for its Kaitaia solar farm and announced it has raised a further $55 million to continue its solar farm expansion.

The opening included local iwi Te Rarawa, construction partners Infratec and New Energy by Drillco, and solar panel provider Trina Solar.

Construction at Kaitaia ramped up in early 2023, with Lodestone’s Kohira solar farm generating its first power in November last year.

The official opening marks a pivotal point in New Zealand’s electricity market with Lodestone Energy delivering the first grid-scale solar generation plant, says Lodestone Energy managing director Gary Holden.

“As New Zealand’s largest solar installation to date and the first solar farm in New Zealand to bid into the electricity market, this is a crucial step forward in the future of energy generation.

“Many organisations were involved in delivering this project and learnings from Kaitaia are being used in the construction of our other sites with Edgecumbe close to starting generation and Waiotahe construction on target to be generating by the end of the year.”

Whitianga and Dargaville solar farms are also due to start construction this year.

The site’s official name Kohira was gifted by Te Rarawa and translates to “suncatcher” in te reo Maori – the partnership with local iwi aligning with Lodestone’s commitment to work with tangata whenua to deliver solar projects empowering the regions in which they operate and the way Kiwis live.

Kohira’s “agri-voltaic” design maximises the production of electricity and maintains productive farming and will be rolled out to other solar farm projects, says Lodestone Energy.

With more than 61,000 solar panels installed, the farm will generate 56GWh of power annually – earmarked for residential and commercial energy consumers including The Warehouse Group which signed up more than 250 sites across New Zealand to Lodestone’s Phase 1 portfolio of five solar farms.

This week, Lodestone has also successfully completed an equity capital raise of $55 million led by Jarden Principal Investments which will be managing a significant investment from Fisher Funds, alongside contributions from other existing investors including Purpose Capital, Tauhara North No. 2 Trust, ACC, K1W1 and Pathfinder.

“The funds we’ve secured from the capital raise will be used to finance the pre-construction activities of our second phase of agri-voltaic solar farms,” says Holden.

“These developments will mean there is more new renewable energy available for commercial customers and bring us one step closer to building a more sustainable Aotearoa for generations to come, powering the country’s zero carbon future.”

Lodestone’s Phase 2 programme is set to be larger in scale, with three confirmed South Island farms and additional sites expected to be announced this year.