SkySolar claims liquidation will not kill Ongaonga solar farm project

SkySolar claims its proposal for a solar farm in Ongaonga that could power 18,000 houses can still go ahead. Graphic / SkySolar

The company planning one of New Zealand’s largest solar power farms in Central Hawke’s Bay says the project will go ahead despite liquidation and more than $12 million owed to a number of creditors.

SkySolar proposed a solar farm built on 152 hectares of farmland in Ongaonga, with an operational capacity of 160-gigawatt hours per year at full capacity, enough to power 18,000 houses last year.

The project was full of promise, with Central Hawke’s Bay District Council chief executive Doug Tate saying earlier that the development supported wider aspirations that the council held as part of its economic development action plan and describing it as “an exciting time for the district”.

But now his council is one of the creditors listed with outstanding payments due.

Lawyers Duncan Cotterill successfully applied to Auckland’s High Court to have liquidators appointed to SkySolar on behalf of creditor Solar Group in March.

A liquidators report from McDonald Vague forecast an estimated deficit of $12.3m of which $10.2m is a claim over a property purchase.

Cameron King, director of commercial projects and sales for SkySolar, earlier told the Herald that financial issues would be sorted and no one would lose any money.

King declined to comment to Hawke’s Bay Today on the liquidation, but he said the Ongaonga project would still go ahead.

He delegated a response about the liquidation to Iain McLennan, a licensed insolvency practitioner from McDonald Vague Insolvency who was handling the case.

McLennan said he did not believe the insolvency would stop the Ongaonga project from going ahead and the liquidation had simply accelerated the exploration of funding that would have needed to have happened anyway.

He said the company was waiting for funding for the project, but it had taken longer than anticipated.

“There is a lot of funding interest around from a decent range of parties, so we are just trying to sift through those as to which will work the best because we have got consideration for primarily the creditors of the company but we also want the thing to work,” McLennan said.

He said there had been about half a dozen parties that have been in touch to express interest in funding the project.

“As news of the liquidation spreads through the industry, we are seeing some serious industry players put their hands up,” McLennan.

“What we’ve got to do is take all this interest and put together a process which will involve some due diligence before people start writing out big cheques.”

He said there was a six-monthly reporting cycle to creditors.

“I would like to think that we could have a deal done and funded and the creditors paid out before the next report is due, which is in about four or five months’ time.”

Doug Tate, chief executive of Central Hawke’s Bay District Council, said CHBDC was awaiting payment from SkySolar for the cost of processing and obtaining resource consent for the project and would do all it could to secure payment.

“It is disappointing that the project will not go ahead at this stage,” Tate said.

“The economic and environmental benefits to our community of establishing a solar farm scheme like the development that was proposed by SkySolar remain and we will continue to explore opportunities that help us to futureproof our district in the future.”

CHBDC declined to release the exact amount SkySolar owes it under section 7 (2) (b) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, where making the information available would be likely unreasonably to prejudice the commercial position of the person who supplied or who is the subject of the information.

A CHBDC spokesperson confirmed the council was not an investor in the project and they expected the council was a minor creditor given the size of the amount owed overall.