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Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
A Crown-owned investment vehicle is putting $78 million towards new solar, hoping to boost renewable electricity generation.
The deal between government-owned New Zealand Green Investment Finance (NZGIF), and solar developer Far North Solar Farm, would connect five solar sites to the national grid.
The five planned sites the NZGIF financing was available for would generate around 1.13 GW of new clean electricity, enough to power about 178,000 homes a year.
NZGIF’s chief executive Sarah Minhinnick said the deal reflected its mandate to accelerate investment that decarbonised the country’s economy.
“The Connection Facility Agreement is a tailored solution, designed by NZGIF, to introduce a new pool of capital to accelerate renewable energy generation in New Zealand. We look forward to seeing more private capital driven towards these solar developments,” Minhinnick said.
FNSF has also agreed to sign a $22m works agreement contract with Transpower.
Transpower said the grid connection agreement was the first of many around the country.
“The ability for a developer to access capital is another critical element of getting renewable energy developments off the ground,” said Transpower’s executive general manager of customer and external affairs Raewyn Moss.
The deal was signed at Parliament on Tuesday evening.