{"id":132147,"date":"2025-11-13T01:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T01:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/132147\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T01:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T01:47:10","slug":"tiny-nz-tern-puts-contact-energys-300m-glorit-solar-farm-in-doubt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/132147\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny NZ tern puts Contact Energy\u2019s $300m Glorit solar farm in doubt"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Department of Conservation had raised concerns about tara iti and other birds colliding with solar panels.<\/p>\n
The expert panel, in its decision, said: \u201cThe risk of possible collisions by birds with solar panels is remote-to-unlikely for the species of concern, and not of a nature or scale that requires further response by the panel.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Forest and Bird took issue with the panel\u2019s finding that avifauna and other at-risk shorebirds colliding with the solar farm\u2019s solar panels was not a \u201cpotential effect of low probability\u201d.<\/p>\n
The planned solar farm site covers about 300ha across five land parcels in Glorit.<\/p>\n
The farm will mostly be built on an established dairy farm on the edge of the Kaipara Harbour, with about 290,000 panels.<\/p>\n
Erika Toleman, general counsel for Forest and Bird, said the organisation backed renewable energy \u201cas it\u2019s essential for tackling climate change\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, projects need to be in the right place and designed to avoid serious risks to species such as the tara iti New Zealand fairy tern,\u201d Toleman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tara iti New Zealand fairy tern is an endangered species, with only about 40 adults remaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Glorit site is too close to key habitats and flight paths for tara iti and other threatened birds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forest and Bird said there were better locations that would pose less risk to the threatened species.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve appealed as we think that the panel didn\u2019t assess the risk to tara iti properly,\u201d Toleman said.<\/p>\n
Contact CEO Mike Fuge. Photo \/ NZME <\/p>\n
Fuge said the Department of Conservation (DoC) had been \u201cvery hot\u201d on the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuddenly, at the very last minute, Forest and Bird has picked up the baton that DoC were carrying and has said no, this needs an appeal,\u201d the Contact chief told the Herald.<\/p>\n
Fuge said it was frustrating that a $728, three-page-long court appeal could trip up the process and delay the project for a year.<\/p>\n
The joint venture partners were just weeks away from making their final investment decision on the $300m project and planned to proceed with it before Christmas, with machinery on the ground in January.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just been tipped upside down for a year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur legal system is completely and utterly jammed up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had done our homework and had given this particular issue extensive consideration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other thing about this is that it\u2019s an infinitesimal risk which they\u2019re trying to turn the project over on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis idea of birds flying into photovoltaic solar panels \u2013 there is no recorded incidence of that in Australasia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Southland wind project<\/p>\n
Fuge said that on top of that, its Southland wind project had gone before a panel, and the company expected a decision by mid-April.<\/p>\n
Even so, it would still be another one-year delay, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a shortage of generation capacity, and these are renewable energy projects.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fuge said his team was \u201cnot turning up to build nuclear power plants or do gold mining in national parks\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re turning up to build renewable energy projects in marginal dairy land.\u201d<\/p>\n
The joint venture partners had hoped to have the project on stream by 2027.<\/p>\n
Now, it was looking like late 2028 or 2029.<\/p>\n
Fuge said Contact remained committed to building the renewable energy infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile this is a setback, we are more than ever focused on making it happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the right thing to do for the country, the economy and the NZ households who are looking to the sector to bring down power prices.\u201d<\/p>\n
DoC says the tara iti\/NZ fairy tern is New Zealand\u2019s rarest endemic breeding bird.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith fewer than 45 individuals, the tara iti is nationally critical and, despite intensive managemen,t has teetered on the brink of extinction since the 1980s,\u201d the department says.<\/p>\n
The tara iti, like many of New Zealand\u2019s native species, were unique and special.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have more threatened species than anywhere else in the world \u2013 more than 4000 are threatened or at risk of extinction,\u201d DoC says.<\/p>\n
Contact said the Glorit project was expected to generate 260 gigawatt hours of energy a year \u2013 equivalent to the annual demand of about 33,000 homes.<\/p>\n
National grid operator Transpower is also closely involved in the planning process on the grid connection point for the solar farm.<\/p>\n
It will connect to the existing Transpower 220kV transmission network through a 2km connection from the site to the transmission network.<\/p>\n
Lightsource BP, which develops and manages solar energy infrastructure, is a 50\/50 joint venture with energy company BP.<\/p>\n