NZ's biggest solar farm to be built

[Lilith7]

Near Taupo. If they get consents, then work could start in the summer & its likely to bring jobs to the region.
This could work really providing they've done the research.


https://www.newsroom.co.nz/nzs-largest-s...7pv43CfFzc


[b][i]"A solar farm larger than the Auckland and Christchurch CBDs combined could start construction near Taupō as soon as this summer, Marc Daalder reports [/i][/b]

A 400 megawatt solar farm planned for the Taupō region could produce 190 times more electricity than New Zealand's current largest grid-connected solar facility, Newsroom can reveal.

Nova Energy, owned by the Todd Corporation, has applied for two resource consents from Taupō District Council to construct the project in three stages over six or seven years. When completed, it will involve more than 750,000 individual solar panels and could power 100,000 homes – more than one in every 20 houses across New Zealand.

"To meet the 2050 net carbon zero target, New Zealand needs more renewable energy, which Nova can provide," the company's CEO Babu Bahirathan said."

[king1]

Now we're talking...

[Lilith7]

Yep, a lot more of these around the world & we might start to see some difference.

[Magoo]

cool.
the real change will be when they figure out how to dampen the sound

[Zurdo]

Todd - been doing good business in NZ for over 100 years. Remember Europa ? That was a Todd company. Rootes Group (Hillman, Commer) Chrysler and Mitsubishi dealerships. It was said you didn't get a Todd dealership unless you married into the family. They are smart and haven't been involved in many fuckups or scandals.

Where is this paddock of mirrors going to be ? I'm sure someone is going to be upset where ever they want to put it - I can guarantee that !

[harm_less]

cool.
the real change will be when they figure out how to dampen the sound

Yeah. Sunlight is real noisy! NOT!

[Zurdo]

Yeah, well give us a bit more time and we'll find something wrong with solar power. I'll just check on the other site - they'll know this stuff.

[harm_less]

Todd are no strangers to utility scale PV installations. They got this solar 'farm'  up and running down our way about a year ago as a pilot project.

[Olive]

cool.
the real change will be when they figure out how to dampen the sound

Forgive my ignorance- what is the sound that solar farms make?    Surely it doesn't compare with wind farms.

[Lilith7]

Yeah, well give us a bit more time and we'll find something wrong with solar power. I'll just check on the other site - they'll know this stuff.

Why yes - they're all experts over there!     Or something...

---

Todd - been doing good business in NZ for over 100 years. Remember Europa ?  That was a Todd company. Rootes Group (Hillman, Commer) Chrysler and Mitsubishi dealerships. It was said you didn't get a Todd dealership unless you married into the family. They are smart and haven't been involved in many fuckups or scandals.

Where is this paddock of mirrors going to be ? I'm sure someone is going to be upset where ever they want to put it - I can guarantee that !

Goes without saying really, doesn't it - someone will view it with disfavour for whatever reason.

[Oldfellah]

It still wont make the price any cheaper though.

[harm_less]

It still wont make the price any cheaper though.

Put a few panels on your roof. Sunlight's always going to be free.

[Magoo]

apparently a bit of noxious by-product in much of the componentry, especially from the batteries
lithium etc is mined, mines bad.
might also be the odd third world underaged underpaid pseudo slaves employed in the process as well.

bit like chocolate and coffee
we just want a nice hot bevvie, a caffeine buzz, or a little smackerel of something sweet by way of mr whittaker
a little harmless self frottage in an otherwise pedestrian existence., without depriving half the third worlds children
their education and childhood.

its ironic. the angst of those proponents of solar energy, that the toxicity of the by-product is as vile as petrochem products they loathe.

[SueDonim]

apparently a bit of noxious by-product in much of the componentry, especially from the batteries
lithium etc is mined, mines bad.
might also be the odd third world underaged underpaid pseudo slaves employed in the process as well.

bit like chocolate and coffee
we just want a nice hot bevvie, a caffeine buzz, or a little smackerel of something sweet by way of mr whittaker
a little harmless self frottage in an otherwise pedestrian existence., without depriving half the third worlds children
their education and childhood.

its ironic. the angst of those proponents of solar energy, that the toxicity of the by-product is as vile as petrochem products they loathe.

Those seeking "solutions" so often cling to something that sounds good when they don't know enough to see that the underlying technology isn't really going to achieve what's required. Solar is great on the roof of our camper, until one panel failed and started drawing instead of charging (which is what has happened recently, and will be fixed by replacing it). People using solar for individual houses/businesses seem to have mixed success. I really can't see that using up a huge space of productive land to only provide the equivalent power as needed for 100,000 homes is really efficient. And what about when climate change means we have more cloud and the solar power we can utilise now is reduced (something else we have experienced with our camper)? Examples of small scale experiences probably extrapolate to large scale problems in the wider world. Is the proposed solar farm just pandering to fashion and setting up a white elephant that will make money for Todd when it is sold, for someone else to have to deal with the long term problems?

We have a lot of sea around us, with rise and fall twice daily. Other countries are well on the way with exploring how to best utilise it, although, as with everything, environmental impacts are a serious concern. Maybe NZ could join the real world by looking in that direction.

[Lilith7]

It may be that in the future we'll be able to better utilise various types of power as they're developed more - solar, wind, tidal might all be of use rather than just one.
And of course, there might be entirely new developments which we haven't even though of yet.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Interesting though we are experimenting with recovering lithium from geothermal groundwater just a few ks from this dairy property...

Saves air miles.

[Wainuiguy]

Solar is something that needs to be looked at but solar on this scale is not great. For one rather amount of usable land this will take is massive and I didn't see any mention of storage in there? While wind power is not pleasing to the eye at least the land below can still be used for farming or industrial. The noise is an issue though not greatly so. I sat having my lunch one day directly under a wind turbine opposite the famous sculpure "Donde se cruza el camino del viento con el de las estrellas"- while there was some noise it wasn't terrible.

We just looked at solar for our house - $20k outlay for a$10k savings over 20 years. Just wasn't worth it.

Wind we have plenty of. We need to build more dams(we wont), more geothermal, ,look at tidal power. Solar in N Z isn't good enough. Too much of the year we have reduced capacity.

[harm_less]

Solar is something that needs to be looked at but solar on this scale is not great.  For one rather amount of usable land this will take is massive and I didn't see any mention of storage in there?  While wind power is not pleasing to the eye at least the land below can still be used for farming or industrial.  The noise is an issue though not greatly so.  I sat having my lunch one day directly under a wind turbine opposite the famous sculpure "Donde se cruza el camino del viento con el de las estrellas"- while there was some noise it wasn't terrible.

We just looked at solar for our house - $20k outlay for a$10k savings over 20 years.  Just wasn't worth it.

Wind we have plenty of.  We need to build more dams(we wont), more geothermal, ,look at tidal power.  Solar in N Z isn't good enough.  Too much of the year we have reduced capacity.

A few points you've made are invalid and need correction.

Large scale solar installations can be done in conjunction with crops so that land is far from unusable. More information on Agrivoltaics here:



Another option is to site PV over non-productive land or other areas such as over water such as canals or wastewater ponds. The shading resulting from doing so provides benefits in reducing evaporation from potable water sources.

In regards to battery storage here in New Zealand we already have enormous storage potential by way of our hydro lakes. Daytime PV generation offsets hydro generation during that time which is in effect a storage method. And of course the pumped hydro scheme being proposed for Lake Onslow is a more ambitious approach for offsetting generation scheduling. Lower winter sunshine levels are thereby also offset by rainfall capture during that period. The real issue in New Zealand however is the split generation/transmission model instigated by the Bradford reforms which works against smaller competing generators penetrating the existing market due to advantages enjoyed by the encumants. That's why we're seeing the likes of Todd and NZ Refining being those with the economic clout to take on the big power co's.

While wind turbines' noise output is relatively low in volume the low frequencies are problematic in terms of psychological effects on nearby properties so isolated locations are required. Smaller horizontal axis (propeller style) such as those for individual properties can generate significant volumes (think Cessna on take off) so council consents are an issue. Also wind turbines, big or small, like wave or tidal generating systems have plenty of moving parts and operate in challenging environments so maintenance of them is a major consideration. Fixed PV panels are very low maintenance in comparison.

Domestic sized PV installations require good design to be economically viable as their economic viability is far more precarious than for utility scale installations. We have recently completed a 5kW PV installation on our property that cost us $14K with a ~10 year payback period. That installation uses our hot water cylinder as storage via a Paladin 'power diverter' for excess generation, rather than exporting to the grid, and provides most charging for our Nissan Leaf EV, and a planned second EV which will further improve the PV's investment value and ROI. Also owning an EV or two made the economies of including battery storage non-viable as our vehicles are essentially batteries on wheels.

We had a similar sized PV installation at our previous property so had plenty of prior experience going into this one and were disappointed with much of the poor advice we received from potential installers so I'm well aware that there will be plenty of poor PV choices being made and it would be advisable to shop wisely if you're considering investing in home solar. Keep an eye out for a coming blog on our website detailing our solar venture for more information in that regard.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

There are already solar projects that operate day and night, as well as projects that use salt batteries instead of lithium. The research and development is ongoing, and anyone who discounts it is simply pissing over the wrong side of the boat...

[harm_less]

There are already solar projects that operate day and night, as well as projects that use salt batteries instead of lithium. The research and development is ongoing, and anyone who discounts it is simply pissing over the wrong side of the boat...

You're right about non-lithium batteries. Flow battery technology is advancing steadily but still barely viable in domestic situations, unless reticulation is expensive due to remote sites.

The prices of PV and battery storage is dropping fast which is seeing its economic viability improving vastly. Our last 5kW PV installation cost us close to $31K 10 years back, which we recouped with the sale price of that property, whereas our current 5kW installation was less than half that price with far better generation utilisation due to the improved technology included in it.