Solar farm basking in Gizzy sunshine

Eastland Generation’s solar farm at Gisborne Airport is “achieving excellent outputs” and “we hope to report more success in the coming months”, says Eastland Generation chief executive Alice Pettigrew. Picture supplied

With Gisborne bathing in sunshine this week, the region’s first solar farm has been generating renewable energy.

Construction of Eastland Generation’s Te Ihi o te Rā solar farm at Gisborne Airport was completed last year.

“Te Ihi o te Rā has been operational for two months and we’ve been fortunate to bask in the Gizzy sunshine, giving us a fantastic start,” Eastland Generation chief executive Alice Pettigrew said.

“The data we have shows the system is performing as designed and achieving excellent outputs.

“It’s exciting to see it working as it was designed to and we hope to report more success in the coming months.”

Spanning 6.1 hectares and equipped with 8000 bi-facial solar panels, the 5.2-megawatt Te Ihi o te Rā solar farm harnesses the power of the sun and generates approximately 7300MW of renewable energy annually — enough to power 1000 “typical” homes.

The energy generated by the solar panels feeds into the Firstlight Network grid, offering a greener alternative to conventional energy sources.

Eastland Generation’s goal is to produce  100 megawatts of renewable generation by 2027.

A report commissioned by Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko shows the generation capacity of new renewable electricity projects committed across New Zealand in the last 18  months has doubled.

The Generation Investment Survey released last week shows 5000 Gigawatt hours (GWh) of new generation committed — up from 2600 GWh from the previous survey in July 2022.

The majority of the new committed investments are geothermal, solar or wind projects.

“It is heartening to see generators responding to market signals and committing to new generation projects over the last couple of years,” Electricity Authority chief executive Sarah Gillies said.

“Demand for electricity is growing as the country moves away from fossil fuels and more renewable sources of energy take their place.

“It is vital that this level of investment continues to support the economy’s electrified future.”