A $104 million solar farm on the Canterbury Plains will have about 90,000 solar panels when it is completed. Photo: Supplied / Genesis Energy
A solar and battery power station to be built on farmland in Selwyn has been given planning consent.
The Kea X and Ethical Power project will have solar panels spread across 104-hectares near Rolleston and have a generating capacity of 100-gigawatt-hours - and have a battery to store the energy.
The land is being leased from farmers and converted from cattle to sheep grazing, with livestock living in and around the panels.
The project is a downsizing of a previous plan the company Kea X had to build a 258-hectare solar farm that missed out on resource consent last year.
It comes as Alan Brent - chair in sustainable energy systems at Victoria University - makes the case for 'agrivoltaics' - a farm that also generates electricity via photovoltaic panels. He says large tracks of the country - notably in Canterbury, Taranaki and Waikato - are well suited for this.
They can help land with water retention and reduce the need for irrigation while producing much needed electricity, he says.
Campbell McMath, managing director at Kea X, talks to Kathryn about their imminent build.
