UK programmer safeguards planning for 147MW NZ solar

• New Zealand's Environmental Protection Authority has actually accepted Harmony's proposal for the project in Waikato

UK-based renewables programmer Harmony Energy has actually been given the green light to establish New Zealand's largest solar farm, a 147MW project in Waikato.

The country's Environmental Protection Authority has approved Harmony's proposition for the solar farm to be mounted on 182 hectares of a 260-hectare site at Te Aroha West, 140 km south of Auckland.

Harmony Energy Director, Pete Grogan, who is based in New Zealand, claimed: "We are thrilled this essential renewable development can currently continue.

" Renewable resource is crucial to reduce the negative influence of climate change and assist sustain New Zealand's net zero aspiration.

" Among the great advantages of solar power is that it fits twin use land, enabling energy generation together with proceeded farming manufacturing, as will certainly happen at Tauhei."

Grogan claimed the proposal produces opportunities for local businesses and also work as well as creates significant biodiversity gains.

"Upon granting approval, it was noted that we were to be complimented for the care absorbed conceptualising the proposal as we have-- developing a project that will certainly provide such considerable benefits with somewhat couple of adverse results," he added.

The style of the solar farm consists of the ecological restoration of a huge marsh area, incorporating boardwalks for set up educational visits.

It likewise consists of considerable riparian growing and also a network of indigenous species planted as biodiversity hallways for movement of fauna species through the site.

Grogan, who is a New Zealander, co-founded Harmony Energy, and went back to the country to develop the firm's New Zealand procedure.

In addition to Tauhei, Harmony Energy has a pipeline of over 500MW of projects prepared for New Zealand.

In the UK, the firm remains in the final stages of creating a battery energy storage space facility at Pillswood, near Cottingham, in East Yorkshire.

When completed later on this year, the new facility will have the capacity to accumulate to 198 megawatt hours of power to feed straight back right into the network, making it the biggest battery energy storage facility in the UK, stated Harmony.