Taranaki piggery goes solar
Installing 400 solar panels at their Taranaki piggery and cropping operation will have significant environmental, financial and animal welfare benefits for the Stanley family.
Adding solar power generation to the rural economy is picking up pace, with one of the country's leading solar generation companies announcing plans for another 150 GWh (gigawatt-hours) per year at three Canterbury sites.
Lodestone Energy says it has consents for agrivoltaic solar farms at Clandeboye, Mount Somers and Dunsandel.
Daniel Cunningham, Lodestone's general manager development, says, "In keeping with Lodestone's agrivoltaic approach for all farms, the Dunsandel farm, which recently received consent approval from Selwyn Council, is located on a 100-hectare block leased to Lodestone and will continue to maintain productive farming activity.
"This combined use of agricultural and solar productivity results in more efficient use of the land and creates new value for the nation."
The Dunsandel farm will connect via Orion's new Norwood GXP (Grid Exit Point, a facility where Transpower's national grid interfaces with a local distribution network), while the Clandeboye and Mount Somers farms will connect to the Alpine Energy and Electricity Ashburton networks respectively. Construction for all three is planned from this year through to 2026.
Lodestone came online last year with the country's largest grid-connected solar farm, at Kaitaia, and has four more in development at Edgecumbe, Waiotahe, Whitianga and Dargaville.
Lodestone managing director Gary Holden says diversifing into the South Island is a key part of the company strategy. "Getting enough volume, coming on-line with pace, is a critical part of satisfying consumer demand.
"Our objective is to ensure the farms are welcomed by local councils and neighbours and to find as many like-minded customers as we can. In the end, those willing to invite these farms into their future planning will play a key role in the energy transition to an electricity market with 100% renewable energy."
Meanwhile, another agrivoltaic developer, Far North Solar Farm (FNSF) is seeking resource consent for a large development near Twizel and Lake Benmore in the Mackenzie Basin.
FNSF, which already has several North Island plants underway as well as one at Waipara in North Canterbury, says the 420MWp (megawatt peak) solar farm would produce enough renewable electricity to power around 100,000 homes and also create the largest ecological restoration project ever undertaken in the area.
The site is currently in cropping and dairy support. FNSF says it was chosen as it is flat and sits within an already highly modified landscape of existing power infrastructure beside the Ohau C hydropower station and national electricity grid transmission lines.
FNSF director John Telfer says at least 89ha of the site would be ecologically restored and the company was actively working with stakeholders to refine how other conservation values could also be achieved.
"The environmental restoration plans will see upwards of 500,000 native plants indigenous to the area reintroduced, providing a significant increase in the overall ecological value of the site as it currently exists. On top of that, we're also looking at how we can use the solar farm to act as a sanctuary for some of the lesser known but equally threatened insext species we have in the Mackenzie.
"Panels will only cover around 30% of the entire site and the perimeter will be fenced off from pests, so it's perfect for invertebrates. Everyone involved is excited by the conservation potential we could achieve, and we've been told nothing else like it has ever been attempted in the Mackenzie on this scale," said Telfer.
Consent was refused for a solar farm near Tekapo due to ecological concerns but Telfer said a major difference with the proposed site is that farming activities have already destroyed any ecological values.
This International Women's Day, there are calls to address a reported gender disparity gap between men women New Zealand's horticulture industry leadership.
WorkSafe New Zealand is calling on farmers to consider how vehicles move inside their barns and sheds, following a sentencing for a death at one of South Canterbury’s biggest agribusinesses.
Now is not the time to stop incorporating plantain into dairy pasture systems to reduce nitrogen (N) loss, says Agricom Australasia brand manager Mark Brown.
Building on the success of last year's events, the opportunity to attend People Expos is back for 2025, offering farmers the chance to be inspired and gain more tips and insights for their toolkits to support their people on farm.
Ballance Agri-Nutrients fertiliser SustaiN – which contains a urease inhibitor that reduces the amount of ammonia released to the air – has now been registered by the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI). It is the first fertiliser in New Zealand to achieve this status.
Precision application of nitrogen can improve yields, but the costs of testing currently outweigh improved returns, according to new research from Plant and Food Research, MPI and Ravensdown.
OPINION: Henry Dimbleby, author of the UK's Food Strategy, recently told the BBC: "Meat production is about 85% of our…
OPINION: For the last few weeks, we've witnessed a parade of complaints about New Zealand's school lunch program: 'It's arriving…