Photo: © Charlotte Curd
This summer's TSB Festival of Lights at Pukekura Park in New Plymouth will be the first to light up with 100 percent renewable electricity.
Around half of New Plymouth District Council's electricity - 6.2 gigawatt hours, about the same as 885 average four-person households - will come from the New Plymouth Airport solar farm from 1 November under a five-year deal with the council-owned airport company Papa Rererangi i Puketapu.
Council climate change response lead Greg Stephens said the organisation already sourced the rest of its electricity from renewable supplies.
"Like every household, when electricity prices are rising, we shop around for the best deal. The airport solar power is a great deal with a 20 percent saving on the general market rate and it's cleaner, cutting our direct emissions from our facilities and vehicles by about 10 percent, or 630 tonnes of CO2 equivalent each year.
"As well as keeping the lights on at the Festival of Lights and in our office spaces, electricity powers our core services such as street and traffic lights, keeps our water and wastewater pumping, charges our electric vehicle fleet, our pools, libraries and venues, including all those summer gigs at the Bowl of Brooklands."
New Plymouth Airport chief executive David Scott said the solar farm made good use of buffer land around the airport and shielded the airport - and airport users - from power price spikes and cost hikes.
"Supplying NPDC is a win-win as it secures a buyer for our excess electricity as we get the solar farm up to full capacity and it supplies other NPDC facilities with cheaper, greener power."
The airport solar farm, comprising 14,400 solar panels on 15 hectares, was built with $14 million in funding from the Local Government Funding Agency and would be repaid from airport revenues.
NPDC was the first organisation to secure a low-interest loan for a solar farm from the LGFA's Green and Social Loans programme.
In 2023, the council adopted a district-wide emissions reduction plan, which outlined its actions to reduce its emissions and contribute to a cleaner and greener future.
Fast facts:
- NPDC has about 115 vehicles, including nine electric vehicles, 23 hybrids, and three plug-in hybrid electric vehicles
- Its goal IS to make NPDC carbon neutral by 2050 includes covering 10 percent of its urban area in trees through Planting our Place
- Since 2018, NPDC emissions from natural gas use have fallen 24 percent to 2013 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, and emissions from electricity by 22 percent to 1249 tonnes
- The annual TSB Festival of Lights in Pukekura Park runs for five weeks over summer. This year it's on from 20 December to 24 January
