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 would 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 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.
Image: Sarah Minhinnick (NZGIF), Raewyn Moss (Transpower), Richard Homewood (FNSF) and John Telfer (FNSF) celebrate signing the tripartite agreement at the event held at Parliament.
About Far North Solar Farm
Far North Solar Farm Ltd is an Auckland-based renewable energy asset developer with ambitions to accelerate the uptake of utility-scale solar PV power generation in New Zealand. The company has a 1.4GWp pipeline of solar assets at various stages of development around the country. The Far North Solar Farm management team have vast experience in Energy Retail, Construction, and Electricity Market Compliance and Operations. The company is well positioned to help rapidly decarbonise the New Zealand electricity grid in line with the country’s clean energy targets. For more information: https://fnsf.co.nz/
About New Zealand Green Investment Finance
New Zealand Green Investment Finance is a green investment bank established to facilitate and accelerate investment that can help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand. With $700 million of investment capital, it is now one of the largest direct investors for climate change in Aotearoa New Zealand.
NZGIF is a long-term, mission-driven investor, providing innovative, flexible and tailored capital solutions to support decarbonisation initiatives across a broad range of sectors. It invests in scalable companies, technologies and products that are commercial-ready and offer low carbon benefits for New Zealand. As a limited liability company independent of government, NZGIF makes independent investment decisions. It invests on a commercial basis and does not offer concessionary finance. NZGIF is not a registered bank.