$78m to accelerate solar development

A tripartite signing of agreements that further facilitates the uptake of new renewable energy generation was done at parliament.

The deal between New Zealand Green Investment Finance (NZGIF) and utility solar developer Far North Solar Farm (FNSF) sees the Crown-owned bank provide a $78 million facility to finance grid connection infrastructure and broader development activities required by FNSF across five sites within its national solar development portfolio.

The agreement outcome will help to accelerate development of extra renewable capacity into the New Zealand electricity market.

FNSF immediately actioned the financing and agreed to sign a $22m works agreement contract with Transpower.

The five planned Far North Solar Farm sites would generate around 1132MWp of new clean electricity, enough to power around 178,000 homes annually.

“The agreement reflects NZGIF’s mandate to accelerate investment that decarbonises the country’s economy,” says NZGIF chief executive Sarah Minhinnick.

“The Connection Facility Agreement is a tailored solution, designed by NZGIF, to introduce a new pool of capital to accelerate renewable energy generation in New Zealand,” she says.

“We look forward to seeing more private capital driven towards these solar developments.”

FNSF director Richard Homewood says the ability to access financing within New Zealand to advance solar developments is an endorsement of the need to develop more renewables.

“Generating more renewable energy is the future of the electricity market in New Zealand and developing new capacity to help enable this is something that we’re proud to be involved in.”

Transpower says its grid-connection agreement with FNSF, which includes a new substation, is the first of many around the country in the shift to electrifying the economy.

“The signing of this agreement is a positive milestone for New Zealand’s energy future,” says Transpower customer and external affairs executive general manager Raewyn Moss.

“Transpower has a significant pipeline of other generation projects that want to connect to the national grid which are critical both for security of supply and the decarbonisation of our economy.

“The ability for a developer to access capital is another critical element of getting renewable energy developments off the ground and NZGIF can play a key role in that going forward.”