Government funding to increase solar power could power 178,000 homes

(File photo).
photo: RNZ Photo/Sally Round

A British royal investment company is investing $78 million in new solar projects in the hope of boosting the generation of renewable electricity.

The deal between state-owned New Zealand Green Investment Finance Corporation (NZGIF) and solar developer Far North Solar Farm will connect five solar sites to the national grid.

The five planned NZGIF-funded sites will generate about 1.13 GW of new clean electricity, enough to power about 178,000 homes for a year.

NZGIF chief executive Sarah Minhinnick said the agreement reflected its mission to accelerate investment to decarbonise the national economy.

“The Connecting Facility Agreement is a bespoke solution designed by NZGIF to bring in new pools of capital to accelerate renewable energy generation in New Zealand,” said Minhinnick. “We look forward to seeing more private capital invested in these solar development projects.”

FNSF also agreed to a $22 million engineering agreement contract with Transpower.

Transpower said the grid connection agreement was the first of many across the country.

“Developers’ ability to access finance is another key factor in getting renewable energy development off the ground,” said Raewyn Moss, Transpower’s executive general manager of customer and external affairs.

The agreement was signed in parliament on Tuesday evening.