Hawke’s Bay: Ongaonga solar farm to be one of NZ’s biggest, land to be ‘retired’ from intensive dairy to build it

Greg Wilson standing next to 50kW solar power panels that were installed on his property in Ongaonga by Sky Solar. Photo / Supplied

One of the biggest solar farms in New Zealand is all but ready to be built on 152 hectares of farmland in Central Hawke’s Bay.

Sky Solar purchased the farmland near the Kahahakuri Stream at Ongaonga to build an eco-friendly solar farm, simultaneously retiring intensive irrigation and promoting biodiversity in the stream.

According to the resource consent application, the proposed solar farm would have an operational capacity of 160-gigawatt hours per year at full capacity, enough to power 18,000 houses.

Cameron King, director of commercial projects and sales for Sky Solar, said the solar farm will likely be the biggest of its kind in the country when built.

Sky Solar’s substation grid connection application to Transpower was officially approved on Friday.

Central Hawke’s Bay District Council granted consent for the development in July and King said surrounding landowners had also granted permission.

Construction is expected to start in winter 2023.

King said the public response has been mostly positive, besides “one disgruntled party” at a recent public meeting held about the proposed solar farm.

“They weren’t concerned so much about the view, they were local farmers who were concerned about the land productivity, which is currently very intensive dairy land,” King said.

“We’re retiring the intensity of that dairy land and it will now be used for farming lambs and sheep, so there is nowhere near as much fertiliser or irrigation on the land as there previously has been.”

He said irrigation will drop by 90 per cent from the current level, there will only be natural fertiliser used, and there will be a 10-metre buffer left along the stream with a native planting scheme.

“The idea is to improve the biodiversity of the Kahahakuri Stream,” King said.

A proposed Ongaonga solar farm can power 18,000 homes at full capacity and will still have grazing and native planting on the land. Graphic / Sky Solar

“We are looking at funding some of the initial studies of that through Massey University to assess where it is at now and then engage through the coming years what effect the planting after the irrigation and intensive fertilising will have on the stream.”

He said lambs would graze underneath the solar panels to reduce the fire risk and ensure the land was used to its fullest.

In response to a community member’s concerns that the solar farm will not generate employment opportunities or economic benefits for the community, King said he expects there would be about three to four full-time staff employed, no less than what was currently employed on the land.

He said there will likely be 40-50 local workers sub-contracted over a one to two-year construction period who will also stimulate the local economy.

He said Hawke’s Bay traditionally had high sunshine hours and they already had empirical data from existing solar installations on farmland in Central Hawke’s Bay, including a world-first pilot scheme on land owned by Greg and Liz Wilson, that they used when deciding to go ahead with the proposed instalment.

Central Hawke’s Bay District Council chief executive Doug Tate said the development supports the wider aspirations that the council holds as part of its economic development action plan, including land use diversification.

“It’s an exciting time for the district, and we look forward to seeing our region benefits both economically and environmentally as Central Hawke’s Bay’s sunshine is harnessed for clean energy.”