The country’s largest solar park is preparing to start up, while green waste is piling up

A major solar farm in Canterbury is gearing up to boost power production in the district, but will also see a huge jump in green waste.

The solar farm at Lauriston, about 80km from Christchurch, is a $104 million joint venture between Genesis Energy and Future Renewable Vision Australia.

It has been under construction since April and is expected to be the largest solar park in the country, with a capacity for more than 13,000 households. The title won’t last that long, however, as an even larger factory is under construction near Taupō.

Genesis Energy asset development managing director Craig Brown said the Lauriston project remains on track for first power generation in December.

“It will be gradually brought online for the entire generation over the coming months.”

The solar farm has produced an estimated 200 tonnes of mainly green waste, which has been delivered to the Ashburton Resource Recovery Park. The park sorts Ashburton’s waste, recycling and green waste.

There was an increase in waste received at the Ashburton Resource Recovery Park in September, according to a recent Ashburton District Council briefing meeting.

Operations and project manager Hernando Marilla said this was partly due to the amount of waste received from the solar farm project.

The recovery farm had received more than 100 tonnes – the equivalent weight of a blue whale – from the solar farm in August, and another 117 tonnes in September, he said.

“They brought in green waste and about two tons of household waste.”

Group infrastructure and open space manager Neil McCann said Enviro NZ, the council’s contractors running the recovery park, had diverted all materials from general waste where possible.

Brown said Beon Construction was appointed to deliver the project and has experience managing large-scale solar projects from Australia to New Zealand, “including robust waste management procedures”.

“Given the size of the project and the large amount of equipment delivered to the site, construction waste is expected and is a normal part of solar construction.

“We are confident that the waste generated during the project will be managed to best practice standards, including waste segregation and recycling where possible.”

The 63 MW solar farm will feature approximately 89,000 solar panels on the 93 hectares of land leased from third generation Lauriston farmer Bernard Daley.

Daley runs an arable and dairy support farm and will run sheep under the solar panels once construction is complete.

The claim that the solar park is the largest in the country will be short-lived.

Nova Energy’s Te Rāhui will convert a 1,022 hectare dairy farm (about 35km outside Taupō) into a solar farm with around 900,000 ground-mounted solar panels producing enough electricity to power 100,000 homes.

LDR is local journalism, co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.