The country's switch to greener energies has had a big boost today, with the first sod turned on what is expected to be Aotearoa's largest solar farm.
The $30 million farm is being set up near Pukenui in the Far North. Prime minister Jacinda Ardern was called on for today's occasion.
The so-called 'winterless north' turned on its trademark sunshine for the ceremonial shovel lifting, which Ardern attended with MP Willow Jean Prime.
Ardern said the fine weather highlighted why the Far North had been chosen as the farm's site.
"I cannot imagine a better day to open a solar farm than this day, which seems to be really underscoring why this farm is in this part of the country."
The farm will power around 3000 local homes when it is completed, which developers hope will be in the next six months.
Willow Jean Prime (second left) and Jacinda Ardern (fourth left) attended the ceremonial shovel lifting. Photo: RNZ / Nita Blake-Persen
Co-owner of the Far North Solar Farm, John Telfer, said there was plenty of power to be generated in the area.
But it is not only energy - the development will also create jobs, with the $30m spend split roughly 50/50 on gear and labour.
Telfer said there would be 50 new employees while the farm was under construction, but would eventually drop down to five to maintain the space.
"We're using a lot of local labour on this farm - there's around 50 new jobs that will be created through the electrical componentry of the farm and solar panel installation, but we're also using Far North Roading as the civil contractor and we've got some other local contractors as well.
"A lot of the money will stay locally."
While the project can claim the country's biggest solar farm project for the moment, plenty of others are nipping at their heels, with other larger projects planned.
Telfer said he also had plans in the pipeline - seven more farms are on the cards, including a one million panel solar farm in the South island, which will eclipse this current development.
He would not reveal where that one would be, but said the farm in the Far North would be there for the long term.
"The farm's expected to last 30 years - at that point we may replenish the farm and put fresh panels on them basically, but we're targeting that we'll operate with 80 percent of capacity out to 30 years."
But he said farms in Europe were now operating well beyond their 30 years and that was based on older technology than the panels being used in the Far North.
Local hapū are celebrating the development and have already told investors - 'we've got the whenua, you bring the farm'.
Local hapū are celebrating the development. Photo: RNZ / Nita Blake-Persen
Te Rūnanga Nui O Te Aupōuri chief executive Mariameno Kapa-Kingi attended today's sod turning and said there was a lot of potential for the rohe.
"A perfect day for a solar farm to be revealed... and the biggest, and part of Te Aupōuri whenua."
The rūnanga owns the whenua on either side of the solar farm and she said the future was looking bright, quite literally.
"We've got land and it's bring your solar farm, you know, without sounding too cheeky but to say the rūnanga owns land all around here and of course we want to do something with it."
The developers had planned to called it Ardern Solar Farm, a title Jacinda Ardern today turned down.
"I would not want to be responsible for there being a lack of sunlight in the North to power that solar farm, so I won't take those naming rights."
She praised the move towards greener energies, but acknowledged that while today was a good day for solar, New Zealand was still importing coal to cope with fuel shortfalls.
"One of the issues that New Zealand has, is that... in a dry hydrological year our pretty good rate of renewable energy generation suffers.
"So we are actively working on ways so that if in the future we have a dry year, we don't see ourselves having to use fossil fuels to make up for that."
