{"id":649003,"date":"2026-11-02T18:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T18:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/649003\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T18:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T18:58:09","slug":"lightyears-secures-174m-funding-from-infradebt-and-japans-obayashi-to-deliver-300mw-solar-and-battery-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/649003\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightyears secures $174m funding from InfraDebt and Japan\u2019s Obayashi to deliver 300MW solar and battery projects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">It will invest in stages as each project reaches development milestones, funding Lightyears\u2019 next set of generation sites across the country, Lightyears said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">Infradebt first partnered with Lightyears in 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">Lightyears managing director and co-founder Matt Shanks said Obayashi and Infradebt would support the next phase of growth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe see these partnerships as recognition of the track record we\u2019ve established with our team, our partners and the projects we\u2019ve built,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">Lightyears had built its portfolio over the past few years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">In Reefton, a 14MW solar farm is nearing completion and is expected to support energy resilience on the West Coast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">In the central North Island, the company is building the 15MW Te Aho o te R\u0101 Solar Farm in a joint venture with eight local M\u0101ori land trusts, incorporations and related investment entities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">The farm, near Kuratau, is expected to generate about 23.5 gigawatt hours a year, enough to power about 3300 homes, with completion due in July 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">In the South Island, Lightyears is breaking ground on a new 6MW site connected to the local Electricity Ashburton network.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">Lightyears was founded by Shanks and Sean Tobin, who delivered the country\u2019s first utility-scale solar farm in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/my-account\/profile\/newsletters\/?from=cmp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/my-account\/profile\/newsletters\/?from=cmp\">Business newsletter<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It will invest in stages as each project reaches development milestones, funding Lightyears\u2019 next set of generation sites&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[245920,121034,317943,95,6081,138,5001,5341,29429,1667,1138,71,738,317941,16847,194,298628,1132,111,139,69,317942,1136,13578,9999,312,34742,50435,4166,61,317944],"class_list":["post-649003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-245920","tag-174m","tag-300mw","tag-and","tag-battery","tag-business","tag-corp","tag-credit","tag-deliver","tag-energy","tag-firm","tag-from","tag-funding","tag-infradebt","tag-japans","tag-kiwi","tag-lightyears","tag-million","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-obayashi","tag-private","tag-projects","tag-renewable","tag-says","tag-secured","tag-secures","tag-solar","tag-to","tag-tokyolisted"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}