More solar

A group of solar panel installers has applied for resource consent for a new PV solar farm in Northland:

A massive 12ha solar panel farm – enough to power 2750 homes – is planned for the top of Northland, in what would be the largest of its kind in the country.

Far North Solar Farm, a company of New Zealand and Australian solar installers, has applied for resource consent for the 16 megawatt solar farm at Pukenui.

The site is on the Far North’s Te Aupōuri peninsular, a narrow landmass at risk of drought, where intensive avocado farming has raised concerns by locals worried about spray-drift and the demand for water.

While Stuff is calling it "New Zealand's largest solar farm", there are much larger ones planned: Refining NZ gained resource consent for a 26MW farm in 2019, and Genesis is planning a 300MW farm in Waikato. But it all helps, and every Joule we generate from the sun is coal and gas we don't have to burn and water we can store.