Large-scale Solar Farm Consent Could Be Fast-tracked

Thursday, 20 June 2024, 5:16 pm
Article: David Hill - Local Democracy Reporter

A bid to get some national direction on the expansion of solar farms could see a large-scale consent in Canterbury decided by the proposed fast-track legislation.

Environment Canterbury gave its support last month to an Environment Protection Agency (EPA) proposal to ask the Environment Minister to ‘call in’ a consent application for a proposed 670 hectare solar farm near Twizel.

Speaking at a council meeting on Wednesday, operations director Stephen Hall said the EPA had since sent a letter advising the Minister to wait for the Fast-track Approvals Bill to come into effect.

The Environment Minister may ‘call in’ the decision-making process for resource consents when it is considered ‘‘a proposal of national significance’’.

Far North Solar Farm Ltd has applied to the regional council and to the Mackenzie District Council for resource consents to establish and operate a large-scale, 670ha, solar farm on a 968ha property.

The applications were publicly notified and submissions have closed.

A hearing has yet to be scheduled, pending the outcome of the ‘call in’ request.

At its peak, the proposed solar farm would generate 420 megawatts of electricity, which was around four percent of New Zealand’s of total electricity generation capacity in 2022.

Far North Solar Farm Ltd has also applied to Environment Canterbury and the Hurunui District Council to build a 180.8ha solar farm near Waipara.

Mr Hall said the council’s advice was the consent application had ‘‘national significance’’ as there was a need for national direction around large-scale solar farms and the protection of ‘‘very unique landscape’’.

Acting chairperson Craig Pauling said the council had given its feedback on calling-in the consent process on the basis it would follow the usual process.

‘‘It has raised some very important discussion because when we put this through we had the Environment Court and other processes in front of us, which we have had experience with.

‘‘But now we are looking at new legislation which we don’t know what it looks like.’’

Consents planning manager Aurora Grant said it was unclear how much input the council would have, should the consents be considered under the new legislation.

‘‘The short answer is we don’t know. The process will be quite different to a ‘call in’ process, but we really don’t know yet.’’

South Canterbury councillors Peter Scott and Nick Ward expressed concern at the impact on the national environment.

Cr Scott said it made sense to seek the input of the EPA and the Ministry for the Environment, ‘‘because it is not something we normally do and we need to consider an eco-system which is fragile’’.

Cr Ward suggested it would be better to install solar panels on roofs, ‘‘where it is needed rather than in a natural landscape’’.

Councillors Deon Swiggs and Joe Davies expressed concern the Fast-track Approvals Bill could be used to circumvent local and regional decision making.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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