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Another company, British-based Island Green Power has revealed plans to build a large-scale solar farm in north Waikato’s Waiterimu Valley.
Genesis Energy is playing its cards close to its chest amid speculation it is interested in north Waikato land for a solar power project, possibly close to where the UK’s Island Green Power (IGP) is planning a development in the Waiterimu Valley.
However, one Waiterimu farmer said he had definitely been approached by Genesis about his land recently.
Asked about the talk of the company’s interest in land for solar at Waiterimu, Genesis was reluctant to go into any detail about where its interests lay in Waikato or elsewhere because the matter was “commercially sensitive”.
A company statement said Genesis has committed to deliver up to 500 megawatts of solar capacity over the next five years: “Locations for the solar developments will be mainly in the North Island with a focus on existing transmission connection points.
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“We are currently assessing sites and approaching landowners, and hope to announce our first solar location later this year. We’re looking across multiple regions and will confirm specific project locations when we’re in a position to do so,” the Genesis statement said.
The Waiterimu farmer who said he had been approached by Genesis – and who wanted to remain anonymous – told Stuff : “Yeah, we did [get approached] but I wasn’t really into that.”
Genesis had rung “out of the blue” about his property.
“I didn’t go on with it, I didn’t encourage them. They never rang back.”
The farmer said the property had been in his family for a long time and he would be very reluctant to sell.
Another Waiterimu farmer, Colin Hickey, said a consultant asked him what he would think and would he sell land if an energy company was interested in a local project. But there was no mention of Genesis in the discussion.
MARK TAYLOR/Stuff
Some Waiterimu Valley locals say a large-scale solar farm will detract from the valley’s natural beauty.
Hickey said he would need to know what was being proposed and offered before he could respond to any idea.
Of the IGP proposal, Hickey said he simply didn’t have enough information to judge the merits of the plan.
Other residents, however, have rejected the IGP scheme, due to be over 380ha, as they believe it would spoil the aesthetics of the Waiterimu Valley.
A third Waiterimu farmer, Douglas Dobbs, said he understood only one farmer was definitely approached by Genesis about his land.
But Dobbs had heard another local landowner could be keen to sell to a power operator, while he had heard another had been approached by either Genesis or IGP.
In a recent report on Waikato energy prospects to the climate action committee, the regional council’s principal strategic advisor Blair Dickie said Genesis was scoping land for creating another 500MW “although some could be in Northland”.
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Blair Dickie of Waikato Regional Council says small impact grazing land appears to be more suitable for terrestrial solar.
“Genesis staff are clear that bovines are incompatible with solar panel structures, so small impact grazing looks to be the land that can co-exist with terrestrial solar (that are not on buildings). Subsiding peat soils are also seen as a locational constraint,” Dickie’s report said. But no specific possible Waikato sites were mentioned.
Waikato district’s mayor Allan Sanson said he’d heard nothing about Genesis taking a look at Waiterimu although he was aware “they have been looking at different options around generation”.
Sanson said north Waikato did have the advantage for generators of being close to centres of demand in both Auckland and Waikato.
“So if they can generate it locally it’s more cost-effective for them.”
Kelly Hodel/Stuff
Waikato District Council mayor Allan Sanson says north Waikato is potentially attractive for more solar power generators.
Tawera Nikau, the chair of a local Tainui marae collective Te Riu o Waikato, said this month that a meeting of Waiterimu residents that he attended had rejected IGP’s plans.
The concerns at the meeting, attended by about 45 people, included the impact of a solar farm on the area’s character and potential environmental effects.
“That was the consensus, that they do not want the solar farm in the Waiterimu Valley,” said Nikau.