A tripartite signing of agreements that further
facilitates the uptake of new renewable energy generation
was signed at parliament today.

The deal between New
Zealand Green Investment Finance (NZGIF) and utility solar
developer Far North Solar Farm (FNSF) sees the Crown-owned
bank provide a $78m facility to finance grid connection
infrastructure and broader development activities required
by FNSF across five sites within its national solar
development portfolio.

At a time of
heightened public awareness of energy scarcity, the outcome
of the agreement will help to accelerate development of
extra renewable capacity into the New Zealand electricity
market.

To prove the point, and before
the ink had even dried on the first deal, FNSF immediately
actioned the financing and agreed to sign a $22m works
agreement contract (TWA) with Transpower.

The five
planned Far North Solar Farm sites the NZGIF financing is
available for would generate around 1132MWp of new clean
electricity, enough to power around 178,000 homes each
year.

NZGIF chief executive Sarah Minhinnick said
“The agreement reflects NZGIF’s mandate to accelerate
investment that decarbonises 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,” Sarah Minhinnick
said.

FNSF director Richard Homewood said the ability
to access financing within New Zealand to advance solar
developments was an endorsement of the need to develop more
renewables.

“Generating more renewable energy is the
future of the electricity market in New Zealand and
developing new capacity to help enable this is something
that we’re proud to be involved in,” Richard Homewood
said.

Transpower says its grid-connection agreement
with FNSF, which includes a new substation, is the first of
many around the country in the shift to electrifying the
economy.

“The signing of this agreement is a
positive milestone for New Zealand’s energy future.
Transpower has a significant pipeline of other generation
projects that want to connect to the national grid which are
critical both for security of supply and the decarbonisation
of our economy,” Executive General Manager Customer and
External Affairs Raewyn Moss said.

“The ability for
a developer to access capital is another critical element of
getting renewable energy developments off the ground and
NZGIF can play a key role in that going forward. We look
forward to working with FNSF on this project”. Ms Moss
said.

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