New Zealand's Lodestone finds UK partners for 9 solar parks at home

New Zealand-based solar developer and power producer Lodestone Energy will be partnering with British sector players Hive Energy, Ethical Power and Solar South West to develop nine photovoltaic (PV) schemes in New Zealand.

The development partnership will be set up between Lodestone and HES Aotearoa (HESA), a joint venture of the UK renewable energy companies, the New Zealand firm said on Tuesday. It explained that the collaboration will provide it with capital to expand its platform, along with the NZD-250-million (USD 148m/EUR 140.7m) debt financing deal with ANZ Bank from August.

The proposed solar plants will be built across various locations, with Ethical Power New Zealand taking care of all engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) works. Once in operation, they are expected to produce over 500 GWh of electricity annually.

The nine projects are currently at various stages of development.

Lodestone Energy started working on its first solar farm portfolio in 2021 and currently has five solar projects in progress in its home country. It says on its website that its first PV farms will generate enough electricity to supply 50,000 homes.

(NZD 1.0 = USD 0.592/EUR 0.563)

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