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Todd Energy has taken a 75 per cent stake in Tauranga-based solar energy business Sola60.
Co-owners of Sola60, Dave Catley and Lindsay Richards, jointly retain a 25 per cent interest in the business.
Sola60 had recently increased production capacity to meet growth in demand, and Todd Energy's investment would improve the company's ability to rapidly extend production and distribution, Mr Catley said.
Todd Energy, which describes itself as New Zealand's only vertically integrated energy producer, is active in oil and gas exploration, production and transportation, electricity generation and energy retailing.
It described Sola60, which employs about 30 people, as this country's leading manufacturer of home and commercial solar systems for hot water, pool heating and underfloor heating, supplying the residential and commercial markets.
Todd Energy managing director Richard Tweedie said solar energy was set to become a mainstream solution to the energy requirements of New Zealand homes and businesses.
"This technology clearly complements our existing electricity, LPG and natural gas supply business and recognises the increasingly important role renewable energy sources and energy conservation will play in New Zealand's energy future," he said.
Solar technology was rapidly developing around the world and in time would, like wind, become an economic form of electricity generation.
Last month the Government published a new draft energy efficiency strategy which included greater promotion of solar energy among its features.
It proposed installing 15,000 to 20,000 new solar water heating units by 2010.
United States sustainable technology promoter Travis Bradford argues in his book Solar Revolution that the high price of oil, advances in solar technology and an easing in the cost of silicon used to make panels will combine to make solar the cheapest source of power within the next 20 years.
The shift from fossil fuels to solar energy will take place not for environmental reasons but as a result of self-interested economic decisions made by individual users, according to the book, published last year.
Environmentalists and many financial analysts envision a not-too-distant future when the cost of power from solar panels will equal the average cost of power from fossil fuels.
When costs become equal, "solar power demand is infinite", Jesse Pichel, solar industry analyst with investment bank Piper Jaffray in New York said.
David Smith, an analyst at Citigroup in New York wrote in a research report in October that solar power has "crossed the tipping point and is on the cusp of a significant expansion between now and 2010".
- NZPA
