Harmony Energy, a UK battery energy storage systems (BESS) developer, has partnered with First Renewables, a subsidiary of New Zealand’s Clarus energy group, to develop a 200MWac solar project.
According to a spokesperson from Harmony Energy, the Tauhei Solar Farm will be built on 182 hectares of land near Te Aroha in the North Island. The solar farm will consist of 330,000 solar modules and is expected to have an annual electricity generation capacity of 270GWh. At the point of interconnection to the grid, the farm will have a capacity of 150MWdc.
According to Harmony Energy, the Tauhei Solar Farm is poised to become the largest ground-mounted solar PV power plant in New Zealand. Currently, the total capacity of large-scale PV connected to the grid in the country is approximately 140MW. The largest operational solar power plant on the islands to date is the Sunergise Kapuni Solar Power Plant, which has a capacity of 2.1MW and was inaugurated in 2021. The Tauhei Solar Farm will significantly surpass this capacity milestone, marking a substantial advancement in New Zealand’s solar energy infrastructure.
The project is scheduled to commence construction later this year, and it is expected to be operational by 2026.
Harmony Energy stated that the current plan for the project does not include co-locating Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) at the site. However, they expressed openness to the possibility of incorporating such systems in the future if they prove to be beneficial.
When discussing the power market in New Zealand, Harmony Energy highlighted the advantages of a stable and efficiently managed grid infrastructure. They emphasized that this robust infrastructure will play a crucial role in facilitating the integration of new utility-scale solar PV plants.
Until recently, utility-scale solar generation has not been prevalent in the New Zealand electricity market, according to Harmony Energy. With hydroelectric power accounting for approximately 60% of the country’s generation mix, the company believes that utility-scale solar has the potential to complement the existing market dynamics.
James Irvine, the general manager of Future Fuels at Clarus, expressed that utility-scale solar generation represents a substantial and mostly unexplored renewable energy source in New Zealand, drawing on successful examples from various international markets.
Prior to this project, New Zealand has been actively pursuing the development of renewable energy projects, including solar, throughout the country. Since 2020, the country has submitted nine solar PV projects for expedited approval, with a total power generation capacity of 1,147MWp and the deployment of nearly 2 million solar PV modules.
In August 2023, the New Zealand government and US investor BlackRock joined forces to establish a NZ$2 billion (US$1.2 billion) investment fund dedicated to promoting renewable power generation in the country.
With the objective of achieving its ambitious renewable power targets, the investment fund will provide crucial support for the development of new renewable power facilities in New Zealand. The government has set a goal to fulfill 100% of the country’s electricity demand through renewable sources by 2030, a significant increase from the current 82% as of 2021.
