Abstract
With the growing awareness of climate change and need to decarbonise, electricity production through renewable sources is becoming increasingly more available and accessible to develop. With the reduction in the overall levelized cost of energy for solar generation, significant uptake and interest has emerged within the New Zealand context. This has seen the recent proliferation consent announcements and applications for the wide spread development of grid- scale solar farms.
This research aims to investigate the recent proliferation of proposals for solar farms within New Zealand, specifically looking at what are the effects of grid-scale solar farms, what resource consenting issues have been experienced by solar farm developments in New Zealand and why this might be, and to understand how the current New Zealand planning system can prevent or enable grid-scale solar farms in the future. This was examined through the three case studies located in Auckland, Taupo and Christchurch. These case studies provided important contextual analysis of how solar farms may be dealt with under the Resource Management Act and local authority plans. To investigate this research, a number of qualitative methods were used including desktop research, key informant interviews and document analysis. Using triangulation the results were considered and discussed to achieve a clear conclusion.
The research found there are numerous effects that could be expected from the development of solar farms within the environment. These include physical landscape changes, ecological effects, visual effects and aviation effects. Social acceptance issues were also prominent in the case studies. Resource consenting issues included the lack of local authority specific objectives, policies, rules and performance standards for solar electricity development. Additionally, the interactions between the National Policy Statements for Renewable Electricity Generation and Highly Productive Soils could lead to contestation between land use types. Further research findings highlighted the importance of zoning in the development of solar farms and the critical implications of mitigation strategies to address potential effects.
From this research several recommendations have been made, most significant is the updating of local authority plans to better encapsulate solar electricity development and an update of the National Policy Statement for Renewable Electricity Generation.